Beginning

Does Israel have no sons?
    Or has he no heirs?
Why then does their king inherit Gad
    and his people dwell in his cities?
² Therefore, surely the days are coming,
    says the Lord,
when I will cause an alarm of war
    to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites;
and it will be a desolate heap,
    and her towns will be burned with fire.
Then Israel will be heir
    to those who were his heirs,
    says the Lord.
³ Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai has been devastated!
    Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,
gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,
    and run to and fro inside the walls;
for their king shall go into captivity,
    and his priests and his officials together.
⁴ Why do you glory in the valleys,
    your flowing valley,
O backsliding daughter
    who trusts in her treasures, saying,
    “Who shall come against me?”
⁵ I will bring a fear upon you,
    says the Lord God of Hosts,
    from all those who are around you;
and each of you will be driven out headlong,
    and no one will gather together the fugitives.

⁶ Yet afterward I will restore the fortunes of the sons of Ammon,
    says the Lord.

Is there no more wisdom in Teman?
    Has counsel perished from the prudent?
    Has their wisdom vanished?
⁸ Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths,
    O inhabitants of Dedan.
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
    the time that I punish him.
⁹ If grape gatherers came to you,
    would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves came by night,
    they would destroy until they had enough.
¹⁰ But I have made Esau bare,
    I have uncovered his secret places
    so that he will not be able to hide himself.
His seed is devastated, and his brothers, and his neighbors,
    and he is no more.
¹¹ Leave your fatherless children behind. I will preserve them alive;
    and let your widows trust in Me.

¹⁴ I have heard a message from the Lord,
    and an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
“Gather together, and come against her,
    and rise up to the battle!”

¹⁵ For I will make you small among the nations,
    and despised among men.
¹⁶ As for the terror of you,
    the pride of your heart has deceived you,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
    who hold the height of the hill.
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,
    I will bring you down from there,
    says the Lord.
¹⁷ Also Edom will become a desolation;
    everyone who goes by it will be astonished,
    and will hiss at all its wounds.
¹⁸ As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
    and the neighboring cities,
    says the Lord,
no man will abide there,
    nor will a son of man dwell in it.

¹⁹ He will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan
    against the perpetually watered meadow;
but I will suddenly make him run away from her.
    And I will appoint over her whomever I choose.
For who is like Me? And who will summon Me into court?
    Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me?

²⁰ Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has planned against Edom,
    and His purposes that He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock will drag them out;
    surely He will make their habitations desolate because of them.
²¹ The earth has shaken at the noise of their fall;
    there is an outcry. Its noise has been heard at the Red Sea.
²² He will mount up and fly as the eagle
    and spread his wings against Bozrah;
and in that day the hearts of the mighty men of Edom
    will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Hamath and Arpad have been humiliated,
    for they have heard bad news.
They are faint-hearted;
    there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quieted.
²⁴ Damascus has become helpless;
    she has turned away to flee,
    and panic has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have seized her
    as a woman in labor.
²⁵ How the city of praise has not been deserted,
    the city of My joy!
²⁶ Therefore her young men will fall in her streets,
    and all the men of war will be cut off in that day,
    says the Lord of Hosts.
²⁷ I will kindle a fire to the wall of Damascus,
    and it will consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

Arise, go up to Kedar,
    and destroy the men of the East.
²⁹ Their tents and their flocks they will take away.
    They will carry away their curtains for themselves,
    and all their vessels, and their camels;
and they will call out to one another,
    “Terror is on every side!”

³⁰ Flee, go far away,
    dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor,
    says the Lord.
For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
    and has conceived a purpose against you.

³¹ Arise, go up to the nation at ease,
    that dwells securely,
    says the Lord.
It has neither gates nor bars;
    they dwell alone.
³² Their camels will become plunder,
    and the multitude of their cattle booty.
And I will scatter into all winds those who cut the corners of their hair,
    and I will bring their calamity from all sides,
    says the Lord.
³³ Hazor will become a dwelling for jackals
    and a desolation forever.
No man will abide there,
    nor any son of man dwell in it.

I will break the bow of Elam,
    the chief of their might.
³⁶ Upon Elam I will bring the four winds
    from the four quarters of heaven,
and will scatter them toward all those winds.
    And there will be no nation
    where the outcasts of Elam will not go.
³⁷ For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies,
    and before those who seek their life.
And I will bring disaster upon them,
    even My fierce anger,
    says the Lord;
and I will send the sword after them
    until I have consumed them.
³⁸ And I will set My throne in Elam
    and will destroy from there the king and the officials,
    says the Lord.
³⁹ But it will come to pass in the latter days
    that I will restore the fortunes of Elam,
    says the Lord.

² Declare among the nations and publish,
    and set up a standard;
    do not conceal it, but say,
Babylon has been captured.
    Bel has been humiliated.
    Marduk has been broken in pieces;
her idols have been humiliated;
    her images have been broken in pieces.
³ For out of the north there comes up a nation against her,
    which will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
    They will wander away;
they will depart,
    both man and beast.

⁴ In those days and at that time,
    says the Lord,
the sons of Israel will come,
    they and the children of Judah together.
They will go along weeping as they go,
    and seek the Lord their God.
⁵ They will ask for the way to Zion
    with their faces in its direction.
They will come that they may join themselves to the Lord
    in a perpetual covenant
    that will not be forgotten.

⁶ My people have been lost sheep.
    Their shepherds have caused them to go astray;
they have turned them away on the mountains.
    They have gone from mountain to hill
    and have forgotten their resting place.
⁷ All who found them have devoured them,
    and their adversaries said, “We are not guilty,
because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
    even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”

⁸ Wander away out of the midst of Babylon,
    and go out of the land of the Chaldeans,
    and be as the male goats before the flocks.
⁹ For I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
    an assembly of great nations from the north country.
And they shall set themselves in array against her;
    from there she shall be taken captive.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior;
    no one shall return empty-handed.
¹⁰ Chaldea will become plunder;
    all who destroy her will be satisfied,
    says the Lord.

¹¹ Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
    O you destroyers of My heritage,
because you have grown fat as the heifer at the grass,
    and bellow as bulls,
¹² your mother will be sorely humiliated;
    she who bore you will be ashamed.
She will be the least of the nations,
    a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited,
    but shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished
    and hiss at all her wounds.

¹⁴ Put yourselves in battle array against Babylon all around,
    all you who bend the bow;
shoot at her, spare no arrows,
    for she has sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ Shout against her all around;
    she has given herself up, her foundations have fallen,
    her walls have been thrown down.
For this is the vengeance of the Lord.
    Take vengeance on her;
    as she has done, do to her.
¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon,
    and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest.
For fear of the oppressing sword
    everyone will turn to his people,
    and everyone will flee to his own land.

¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock.
    The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria
    devoured him;
and this last one who has broken his bones
    is Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
    as I have punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹ I will bring Israel again to his habitation,
    and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan,
and his soul will be satisfied
    upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
²⁰ In those days and at that time,
    says the Lord,
the iniquity of Israel will be sought for,
    and there shall be none.
And the sins of Judah,
    but they shall not be found;
    for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.

²¹ Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it,
    and against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Slay and utterly destroy them,
    says the Lord,
    and do according to all that I have commanded you.
²² A noise of battle is in the land,
    and great destruction.
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth
    has been cut asunder and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation
    among the nations!
²⁴ I have laid a snare for you,
    and you were also caught, O Babylon,
    and you were not aware.
You have been found, and also caught,
    because you have striven against the Lord.
²⁵ The Lord has opened His armory
    and has brought out the weapons of His indignation,
for this is the work of the Lord God of Hosts
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from the utmost border,
    open her storehouses;
cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly;
    let nothing of her be left.
²⁷ Slay all her bulls,
    let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them! For their day has come,
    the time of their punishment.
²⁸ There is the sound of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon,
    to declare in Zion
the vengeance of the Lord our God,
    the vengeance of His temple.

²⁹ Call together the archers against Babylon.
    All you who bend the bow,
encamp against it all around;
    let no one escape.
Recompense her according to her work;
    according to all that she has done, do to her,
for she has been proud against the Lord,
    against the Holy One of Israel.
³⁰ Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
    and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,
    says the Lord.
³¹ I am against you, O most proud,
    says the Lord God of Hosts,
for your day has come,
    the time when I will punish you.
³² The most proud will stumble and fall,
    and no one will raise him up;
and I will kindle a fire in his cities,
    and it will devour all all around him.

The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah
    were oppressed together;
and all who took them captives held them fast;
    they refused to let them go.
³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong;
    the Lord of Hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
    that He may give rest to the land,
    but disquiet to the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵ A sword is against the Chaldeans,
    says the Lord,
and against the inhabitants of Babylon,
    and against her officials, and against her wise men.
³⁶ A sword is against the oracle priests,
    and they will become fools.
A sword is against her mighty men,
    and they shall be dismayed.
³⁷ A sword is against their horses, and against their chariots,
    and against all the foreigners who are in her midst;
    and they will become as women.
A sword is against her treasures,
    and they will be robbed.
³⁸ A drought is against her waters,
    and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of graven images,
    and they are mad over their idols.

³⁹ Therefore the wild beasts of the desert
    with the wild beasts of the islands will dwell there,
    and the ostriches will dwell in it.
It will be inhabited no more forever,
    nor will it be lived in from generation to generation.
⁴⁰ As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
    and the neighboring cities,
    says the Lord,
so no man will abide there,
    nor will any son of man dwell in it.

⁴¹ Look! A people shall come from the north
    and a great nation, and many kings
    will be raised up from the remote parts of the earth.
⁴² They will hold the bow and the lance;
    they are cruel and will not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
    and they shall ride on horses,
everyone put in array, like a man to the battle,
    against you, O daughter of Babylon.
⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report of them,
    and his hands waxed feeble.
Anguish took hold of him,
    and pangs as of a woman in labor.
⁴⁴ He will come up like a lion from the thicket of the Jordan
    to the perpetually watered meadow.
But I will make them suddenly run away from it,
    and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it.
For who is like Me? And who will summon Me into court?
    And who is the shepherd that can stand before Me?

⁴⁵ Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has planned against Babylon,
    and His purposes that He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock will drag them out.
    Surely He will make their habitation desolate because of them.
⁴⁶ At the shout, “Babylon has been seized!” the earth is shaken,
    and the outcry is heard among the nations.