Old/New Testament

“How the taskmaster has ceased!
The raging oppressor, exacter of gold, has ceased!
⁵ Adonai has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
⁶ which struck the people in wrath
    with continual strokes,
which ruled the nations in fury,
    with relentless persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest, and quiet.
They break forth with a ringing cry!
⁸ Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
along with the cedars of Lebanon:
“Since you were laid low,
    no woodcutter comes up against us.”
⁹ Sheol from below is excited about you,
to meet you at your coming!
He stirs up the dead spirits for you,
    even the chief ones^[a] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
    rise up from their thrones.
¹⁰ They all answer and say to you:
“Even you have become as weak as us?
Have you become like us?
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
    with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
    and worms cover you.”

¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
reflecting on what has become of you:
“Is this the one who shook the earth,
    who made kingdoms tremble,
¹⁷ who made the world a wilderness
        and destroyed its cities,
    who never opened the house of his prisoners?”
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations, all of them,
lie in glory, each in his own house.
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your tomb
as a discarded branch,
    garment of the slain,
    pierced with a sword,
    dumped into a stony pit,
    a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰ You will not join with them in burial,
because you ruined your land,
    you slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers will never be named.
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers,
so they would not rise up and possess the land,
or fill the face of the earth with cities.

²⁴ Adonai Tzva’ot has sworn, saying:
“Surely, as I thought it, so it will be.
As I have purposed, so it will stand.
²⁵ I will break Assyria in My land.
On My mountains I will trample him.
Then his yoke will be taken off them,
his burden removed from their shoulder.
²⁶ This is the purpose planned for the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.”
²⁷ For Adonai-Tzva’ot has purposed,
    so who will annul it?
Since His hand is stretched out,
    who will turn it back?

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
that the rod that struck you is broken.
For from the serpent’s root comes a viper
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will feed,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
I will kill your root with famine,
and your survivors will be slain.
³¹ Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
Melt away, all you of Philistia!
For smoke is coming from the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.

³² What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
For Adonai has founded Zion,
    and the afflicted of His people will find refuge in her.
15 The burden of Moab.
For in the night that Ar is devastated,
    Moab is ruined;
for in the night that Kir is devastated,
    Moab is ruined.
² He has gone up to the shrine, to Dibon,
    to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is bald, every beard shaven.
³ In their streets they wear sackcloth.
On their housetops and in their plazas,
    everyone wails, weeping profusely.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out.
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry aloud,
    his soul faints within him.
⁵ My heart cries out for Moab.
Her fugitives are as far as Zoar
    as a three year old heifer,
for by the ascent of Luhith
    they go up with weeping,
for on the way of Horonaim
    they raise a cry of distress.
⁶ The waters of Nimrim are desolate.
The grass is withered away,
the new grass withers,
there is nothing green.
⁷ Therefore the riches they had gotten
and whatever they have stored,
they carry over the Wadi of Willows.
⁸ For the cry has gone around
the borders of Moab,
the wailing to Eglaim,
and the wailing to Beer-elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
but I will bring on Dimon even more—
a lion for those escaping from Moab,
and for those remaining in the land.
16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land
from Sela in the desert
to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion.
² For like fluttering birds,
    scattered from a nest,
so will the daughters of Moab be
    at the fords of Arnon.
³ ‘Give counsel, execute justice.
Cast your shadow like night at noonday.
Hide the refugees,
    do not betray the fugitive.
⁴ Let My refugees stay with you.
Be for Moab a hiding place
    from the face of the destroyer.
For the extortion is at an end,
    devastation ceases,
    oppressors are gone from the land.

⁵ A throne will be established in mercy,
and One will sit on it in truth
—in the tent of David—
One who seeks justice
    and is ready for righteousness.^[e]

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    very proud is he—
    of his haughtiness, his arrogance, his insolence,
    and his dishonest boasting.
⁷ Therefore Moab will wail for Moab—
    everyone will wail!
For the sweet cakes of Kir-hareseth
    you will moan, utterly stricken.
⁸ For the fields of Heshbon have withered,
    as well as the vine of Sibmah.
Rulers of nations have trampled the choice clusters,
    that reached as far as Jazer and into the desert,
    its branches spread out
    and crossed to the sea.
⁹ Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer,
    for the vine of Sibmah.
I will drench you with my tears,
    O Heshbon and Elealeh.
For on your summer and your harvest
    the battle cry has fallen.
¹⁰ Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field.
In the vineyards, no singing for joy no happy shouting,
    no treading wine in the presses.
I have made the shouting stop.
¹¹ Therefore my heart moans for Moab
    like a lyre,
and my inward part for Kir-heres.
¹² So it will be, when Moab is
weary upon the high place
and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.

“Wake up, O sleeper!
    Rise from the dead,
    and Messiah will shine on you.”^[b]