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Proclamation against Moab

Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab[a] said, “The house of Judah is like all the other nations,”

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Footnotes

  1. 25.8 Gk OL: Heb Moab and Seir

Judgment on Moab

48 Concerning Moab.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste!
    Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame and broken down;(A)
    the renown of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they planned evil against her:
    “Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!”
You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;[a]
    the sword shall pursue you.(B)

Listen! A cry goes up from Horonaim:
    “Desolation and great destruction!”(C)
“Moab is destroyed!”
    her little ones cry out.
For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go[b] up weeping bitterly;
for at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.(D)
Flee! Save yourselves!
    Be like a wild ass[c] in the desert!(E)

Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds[d] and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
Chemosh shall go out into exile,
    with his priests and his attendants.(F)
The destroyer shall come upon every town,
    and no town shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
    and the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the Lord has spoken.(G)

Set aside salt for Moab,
    for she will surely fall;
her towns shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.(H)

10 Accursed is the one who is slack in doing the work of the Lord, and accursed is the one who keeps back the sword from bloodshed.(I)

11 Moab has been at ease from his youth,
    settled like wine[e] on its dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
therefore his flavor has remained,
    and his aroma is unspoiled.(J)

12 Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to him decanters to decant him and empty his vessels and break his jars in pieces. 13 Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.(K)

14 How can you say, “We are heroes
    and mighty warriors”?(L)
15 Moab is destroyed, and his towns have gone up,
    and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
    says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.(M)
16 The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his doom approaches swiftly.(N)
17 Mourn over him, all you his neighbors,
    and all who know his name;
say, “How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff!”(O)

18 Come down from glory
    and sit on the parched ground,
    enthroned daughter Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.(P)
19 Stand by the road and watch,
    you inhabitant of Aroer!
Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping;
    say, “What has happened?”(Q)
20 Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down;
    wail and cry!
Tell it by the Arnon
    that Moab is laid waste.(R)

21 Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, 22 and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, 23 and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, 24 and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.(S) 25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.(T)

26 Make him drunk because he magnified himself against the Lord; let Moab wallow in his vomit; he, too, shall become a laughingstock.(U) 27 Israel was a laughingstock for you, though he was not caught among thieves, but whenever you spoke of him you shook your head!(V)

28 Leave the towns, and live on the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
    on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.(W)
29 We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.(X)
30 I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;
    his boasts are false;
    his deeds are false.(Y)
31 Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.(Z)
32 More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches crossed over the sea,
    reached as far as Jazer;[f]
upon your summer fruits and your vintage
    the destroyer has fallen.(AA)
33 Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have stopped the wine from the winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.(AB)

34 From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.(AC) 35 And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, those who offer sacrifice at a high place and make offerings to their gods.(AD) 36 Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the people of Kir-heres, for the riches they gained have perished.(AE)

37 For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; on all the hands there are gashes and on the loins sackcloth.(AF) 38 On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel that no one wants, says the Lord.(AG) 39 How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all his neighbors.(AH)

40 For thus says the Lord:
Look, he shall swoop down like an eagle
    and spread his wings against Moab;(AI)
41 the towns[g] shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
The hearts of the warriors of Moab, on that day,
    shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.(AJ)
42 Moab shall be destroyed as a people,
    because he magnified himself against the Lord.(AK)
43 Terror, pit, and trap
    are before you, O inhabitants of Moab!
            says the Lord.(AL)
44 Everyone who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and everyone who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the trap.
For I will bring these things[h] upon Moab
    in the year of their punishment,
            says the Lord.(AM)

45 In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop exhausted,
for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,
    a flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed the forehead[i] of Moab,
    the scalp of the people of tumult.[j](AN)
46 Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of Chemosh have perished,
for your sons have been taken captive
    and your daughters into captivity.(AO)
47 Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, says the Lord.
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.(AP)

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Footnotes

  1. 48.2 The place name Madmen sounds like the Hebrew verb to be silent
  2. 48.5 Syr Tg: Heb he goes
  3. 48.6 Gk: Heb like Aroer
  4. 48.7 Gk: Heb works
  5. 48.11 Heb lacks like wine
  6. 48.32 Heb mss: MT the sea of Jazer
  7. 48.41 Or Kerioth
  8. 48.44 Gk Syr: Heb bring upon it
  9. 48.45 Or borderland
  10. 48.45 Or of Shaon

21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;(A)

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An Oracle concerning Moab

15 An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone.(A)
Daughter Dibon[a] has gone up
    to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
    Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
    every beard is shorn;(B)
in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
    on the housetops and in the squares
    everyone wails and melts in tears.(C)
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
    their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;[b]
    his soul trembles.
My heart cries out for Moab;
    his fugitives flee to Zoar,
    to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
    they raise a cry of destruction;(D)
the waters of Nimrim
    are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
    vegetation is no more.(E)
Therefore the abundance they have gained
    and what they have laid up
they carry away
    over the Wadi of the Willows.(F)
For a cry has gone
    around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
    the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
For the waters of Dibon[c] are full of blood,
    yet I will bring upon Dibon[d] even more—
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
    for the remnant of the land.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 15.2 Cn: Heb the house and Dibon
  2. 15.4 Or the armed men of Moab cry aloud
  3. 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
  4. 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon

I have heard the taunts of Moab
    and the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.(A)
Therefore, as I live, says the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
Moab shall become like Sodom
    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits
    and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.(B)
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they scoffed and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.(C)
11 The Lord will be terrible against them;
    he will shrivel all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down
    each in its place,
    all the coasts and islands of the nations.(D)

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Proud Edom Will Be Brought Low

The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom:
We have heard a report from the Lord,
    and a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up! Let us rise against it for battle!”(A)
I will surely make you least among the nations;
    you shall be utterly despised.
Your proud heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rock,[a]
    whose dwelling is in the heights.
You say in your heart,
    “Who will bring me down to the ground?”(B)
Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
    though your nest is set among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,
            says the Lord.(C)

Pillage and Slaughter Will Repay Edom’s Cruelty

If thieves came to you,
    if plunderers by night
    —how you have been destroyed!—
    would they not steal only what they wanted?
If grape gatherers came to you,
    would they not leave gleanings?(D)
How Esau has been pillaged,
    his treasures searched out!
All your allies have deceived you;
    they have driven you to the border;
your confederates have prevailed against you;
    those who ate your food have set a trap for you—
    there is no understanding.(E)
On that day, says the Lord,
    I will destroy the wise out of Edom
    and understanding out of Mount Esau.(F)
Your warriors shall be shattered, O Teman,
    so that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 3 Or clefts of Sela

11 And I raised up some of your children to be prophets
    and some of your youths to be nazirites.
    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?
            says the Lord.(A)

12 But you made the nazirites drink wine
    and commanded the prophets,
    saying, “You shall not prophesy.”(B)

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Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of Moab,
    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,[a]
because he burned to lime
    the bones of the king of Edom.(A)
So I will send a fire on Moab,
    and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
    amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;(B)
I will cut off the ruler from its midst
    and will kill all its officials with him,
            says the Lord.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.1 Heb cause it to return

Judgment on Mount Seir

35 The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it,(A) and say to it: Thus says the Lord God:

I am against you, Mount Seir;
    I stretch out my hand against you
    to make you a desolation and a waste.
I lay your towns in ruins;
    you shall become a desolation,
    and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Because you cherished an ancient enmity and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment,(B) therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, I will make you bloody, and blood shall pursue you; since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it all who come and go.(C) I will fill its mountains with the slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses those killed with the sword shall fall.(D) I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall never be inhabited. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.(E)

10 Because you said, “These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will take possession of them”—although the Lord was there(F) 11 therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, I will deal with you according to the anger and envy that you showed because of your hatred against them, and I will make myself known among you[a] when I judge you.(G) 12 You shall know that I, the Lord, have heard all the abusive speech that you uttered against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They are laid desolate; they are given us to devour.” 13 And you magnified yourselves against me with your mouth and multiplied your words against me; I heard it.(H) 14 Thus says the Lord God: As the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.(I) 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will deal with you; you shall be desolate, Mount Seir and all Edom, all of it. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.(J)

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Footnotes

  1. 35.11 Gk: Heb them

Proclamation against Edom

12 Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and has grievously offended in taking vengeance upon them,(A) 13 therefore thus says the Lord God: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it humans and animals, and I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword.(B) 14 I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall act in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord God.(C)

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Judgment on Edom

Concerning Edom.

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?
    Has counsel perished from the prudent?
    Has their wisdom vanished?(A)
Flee; turn back; get down low,
    inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
    the time when I punish him.(B)
If grape gatherers came to you,
    would they not leave gleanings?
If thieves came by night,
    even they would pillage only what they wanted.(C)
10 But as for me, I have stripped Esau bare;
    I have uncovered his hiding places,
    and he is not able to conceal himself.
His offspring are destroyed, his kinsfolk
    and his neighbors, and he is no more.(D)
11 Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive,
    and let your widows trust in me.(E)

12 For thus says the Lord: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup still have to drink it, shall you be the one to go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you must drink it.(F) 13 For by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, that Bozrah shall become an object of horror and ridicule, a waste, and an object of cursing, and all her towns shall be perpetual wastes.(G)

14 I have heard tidings from the Lord,
    and a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Gather yourselves together and come against her,
    and rise up for battle!”(H)
15 For I will make you least among the nations,
    despised by humankind.
16 The terror you inspire
    and the pride of your heart have deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,[a]
    who hold the height of the hill.
Although you make your nest as high as the eagle’s,
    from there I will bring you down,
            says the Lord.(I)

17 Edom shall become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.(J) 18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors were overthrown, says the Lord, no one shall live there, nor shall anyone settle in it.(K) 19 Like a lion coming up from the thickets of the Jordan to a perennial pasture, I will suddenly chase Edom[b] away from it, and I will appoint over it whomever I choose.[c] For who is like me? Who can summon me? Who is the shepherd who can stand before me?(L) 20 Therefore hear the plan that the Lord has made against Edom and the purposes that he has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate.(M) 21 At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea.[d](N) 22 Look, he shall mount up and swoop down like an eagle and spread his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom on that day shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.(O)

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Footnotes

  1. 49.16 Or of Sela
  2. 49.19 Heb him
  3. 49.19 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 49.21 Or Sea of Reeds

Send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah.(A)

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Vengeance on Edom

63 “Who is this coming from Edom,
    from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
    marching in his great might?”

“It is I, announcing vindication,
    mighty to save.”(A)

“Why are your robes red
    and your garments like theirs who tread the winepress?”(B)

“I have trodden the winepress alone,
    and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
    and trampled them in my wrath;
their juice spattered on my garments,
    and I stained all my robes.(C)
For the day of vengeance was in my mind,
    and the year for my redeeming work had come.(D)
I looked, but there was no helper;
    I was abandoned, and there was no one to sustain me,
so my own arm brought me victory,
    and my wrath sustained me.(E)
I trampled down peoples in my anger;
    I crushed them[a] in my wrath,
    and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 63.6 Heb mss: MT I made them drunk

18 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?(A) 19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?(B) 20 Who among all the gods of these countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”(C)

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Judgment on the Nations

34 Draw near, O nations, to hear;
    O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear and all that fills it,
    the world and all that comes from it.(A)
For the Lord is enraged against all the nations
    and furious against all their hordes;
    he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.(B)
Their slain shall be cast out,
    and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
    the mountains shall flow with their blood.(C)
All the host of heaven shall rot away,
    and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
    like a leaf withering on a vine
    or fruit withering on a fig tree.(D)

When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
    upon Edom it will fall,
    upon the people I have doomed to judgment.(E)
The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;
    it is gorged with fat,
    with the blood of lambs and goats,
    with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.(F)
Wild oxen shall fall with them
    and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
    and their soil made rich with fat.(G)

For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
    a year of vindication for Zion’s cause.[a](H)
And the streams of Edom[b] shall be turned into pitch
    and her soil into sulfur;
    her land shall become burning pitch.(I)
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
    its smoke shall go up forever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
    no one shall pass through it forever and ever.(J)
11 But the desert owl[c] and the screech owl[d] shall possess it;
    the great owl and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion
    and the plummet of chaos over it.(K)
12 They shall call its nobles No Kingdom There,
    and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
    nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
    an abode for ostriches.(L)
14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas;
    goat-demons shall call to each other;
there also Lilith shall repose
    and find a place to rest.(M)
15 There shall the owl nest
    and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there also the buzzards shall gather,
    each one with its mate.(N)
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
    Not one of these shall be missing;
    none shall be without its mate.
For his mouth, it has commanded,
    and his spirit, it has gathered them.(O)
17 He has cast the lot for them;
    his hand has portioned it out to them with the line.
[[They shall possess it;
    from generation to generation they shall live in it.(P)

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Footnotes

  1. 34.8 Or of recompense by Zion’s defender
  2. 34.9 Heb her streams
  3. 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  4. 34.11 Meaning of Heb uncertain

10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.

The Moabites shall be trodden down in their place
    as straw is trodden down in the manure.(A)

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Is not Calno like Carchemish?
    Is not Hamath like Arpad?
    Is not Samaria like Damascus?(A)
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
    whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,(B)
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
    what I have done to Samaria and her images?”

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They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
    let the name of Israel be remembered no more.”(A)
They conspire with one accord;
    against you they make a covenant—(B)
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,(C)
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
    Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Assyria also has joined them;
    they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

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not to engage in battle with them, for I will not give you even so much as a foot’s length of their land, since I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession.(A)

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17 I see him but not now;
    I behold him but not near—
a star shall come out of Jacob,
    and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the foreheads[a] of Moab
    and the heads[b] of all the Shethites.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 24.17 Or borderlands
  2. 24.17 Or territory