Jeremiah 48

1Concerning Moab. This is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste! Kiriathaim is put to shame and captured; the stronghold is put to shame and shattered.

2Moab’s renown is no more; in Heshbon they have plotted disaster against her: “Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.” You too, Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.

3Listen! A cry from Horonaim: devastation and great destruction!

4Moab is shattered; her little ones cry out.

5For on the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping bitterly; on the road down to Horonaim they have heard the anguished cry of destruction.

6Flee! Run for your lives! Be like a juniper bush in the wilderness.

7Because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile, together with his priests and his officials.

8The destroyer will come against every town, and not one town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plain destroyed, as Yahweh has said.

9Give wings to Moab, for she will surely fly away; her towns will become a wasteland, with no one living in them.

10Cursed is anyone who does the work of Yahweh carelessly, and cursed is anyone who keeps his sword from blood.

11Moab has been at ease from his youth, like wine left to settle on its dregs; he has not been poured from jar to jar, nor has he gone into exile. So his flavor has stayed the same, and his aroma has not changed.

12Therefore the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will send him men who pour out wine, and they will pour him out; they will empty his jars and smash his jugs.

13Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.

14How can you say, “We are warriors, men valiant in battle”?

15Moab is destroyed, and its towns have been invaded; the best of its young men have gone down to the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.

16Moab’s disaster is near at hand; his downfall is coming very quickly.

17Mourn for him, all you who live around him, all who know his name; say, “How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff!”

18Come down from your glory and sit in thirst, daughter of Dibon, you who live there, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; he has ruined your strongholds.

19Stand by the road and watch, you who live in Aroer! Ask the man who is fleeing and the woman who is escaping; say, “What has happened?”

20Moab is put to shame, for it is shattered. Wail and cry out! Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed.

21Judgment has come on the land of the plateau: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

22on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,

23on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,

24on Kerioth and Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.

25Moab’s horn is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares Yahweh.

26Make him drunk, for he has exalted himself against Yahweh. Let Moab wallow in his vomit; he too will become a laughingstock.

27Was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he caught among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you shook your head?

28Leave the towns and live among the rocks, you people of Moab! Be like a dove that nests in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.

29We have heard of Moab’s pride; he is very proud: his loftiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

30I know his insolence, declares Yahweh, but it is empty; his boasts accomplish nothing.

31Therefore I wail over Moab; I cry out for all Moab; there is moaning for the people of Kir-heres.

32More than the weeping for Jazer I weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your branches spread out over the sea; they reached as far as the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruit and your grape harvest.

33Joy and gladness have been taken away from the orchards and from the land of Moab. I have stopped the wine from flowing from the winepresses; no one treads them with shouts of joy. The shouting is not a shout of joy.

34The cry from Heshbon reaches Elealeh; they raise their voices as far as Jahaz, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.

35I will put an end in Moab, declares Yahweh, to those who offer sacrifices on the high place and burn incense to their gods.

36Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute; my heart moans like a flute for the people of Kir-heres. Therefore the wealth they gained has perished.

37For every head is shaved bald and every beard cut off; on every hand there are gashes, and around every waist is sackcloth.

38On all the rooftops of Moab and in its public squares there is nothing but mourning, for I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants, declares Yahweh.

39How shattered it is! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and an object of horror to all around him.

40For this is what Yahweh says: Look, one swoops down like an eagle and spreads his wings over Moab.

41Kerioth is captured and the strongholds are seized. On that day the hearts of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

42Moab will be destroyed and be a people no more, because he exalted himself against Yahweh.

43Terror and pit and trap await you, you people of Moab, declares Yahweh.

44Whoever flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For I will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment, declares Yahweh.

45In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand without strength, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon; it has consumed the forehead of Moab, the skulls of the noisy boasters.

46Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh are destroyed, for your sons have been taken into captivity and your daughters into exile.

47Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares Yahweh. Here ends the judgment on Moab.