Jeremiah 49

²“Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

³Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord God, for this is what the Lord God says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile,

¹³This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.

¹⁴So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah to consume its citadels amid war cries on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of tempest.

⁸“I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.

⁹Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

²¹Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;

¹After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

²⁰Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.

¹¹(For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

⁴therefore I will indeed give you as a possession to the people of the East. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.

⁵I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

¹⁴So I will kindle a fire in the walls of Rabbah to consume its citadels amid war cries on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of tempest.

¹In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

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

²Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.

³⁷For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.

⁵Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

³³For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.

¹³The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

¹⁷Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

²³This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.

¹³Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the Lord—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”

⁷“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

¹⁰Place no trust in extortion or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

¹⁴“Return, O faithless children,” declares the Lord, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

⁵Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!” declares the Lord.

²⁹They will take their tents and flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. They will take their camels for themselves. They will shout to them: ‘Terror is on every side!’

⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

³“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.

⁴For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword.

⁸I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.

³⁹“Yet in the last days, I will restore Elam from captivity,” declares the Lord.

⁴⁷Yet in the latter days I will restore Moab from captivity,” declares the Lord. Here ends the judgment on Moab.

²⁶I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the Lord.

¹⁸Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the Lord; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the Lord, for abundant food and fine clothing.

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of Hosts. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

¹⁹In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near her border.

⁵³But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them.

¹¹This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.

¹²So I will send fire upon Teman to consume the citadels of Bozrah.”

¹²This is what the Lord God says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt,

¹³therefore this is what the Lord God says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.

¹⁵These are the chiefs among the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

²¹Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;

³⁰He said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am famished.” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

²⁰Therefore hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Edom and the strategies He has devised against the people of Teman: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

²¹Even the mercenaries among her are like fattened calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee, they will not stand their ground, for the day of calamity is coming upon them—the time of their punishment.

³⁰Run! Escape quickly! Lie low, O residents of Hazor,” declares the Lord, “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has drawn up a plan against you; he has devised a strategy against you.

¹³This is the burden against Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must lodge, O caravans of Dedanites.

²⁸Abandon the towns and settle among the rocks, O dwellers of Moab! Be like a dove that nests at the mouth of a cave.

⁶Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.

⁵“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, how you will be ruined—would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings?

⁶But how Esau will be pillaged, his hidden treasures sought out!

⁶Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

⁴Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever.

²⁸For the Lord loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.

³I will give you the treasures of darkness and the riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by name.

³Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.

⁹Then your mighty men, O Teman, will be terrified, so that everyone in the mountains of Esau will be cut down in the slaughter.

⁵A father of the fatherless and a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation.

²⁷Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

³Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

⁵The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.

¹¹So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

¹⁰Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

¹¹for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.

²⁸If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, you are to tell them that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘You most certainly must drink it!

²⁹For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of Hosts.’

¹⁶For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed.

²¹So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.

²²O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

¹⁵This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.

¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?

¹⁸And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

¹¹For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

³³When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his place.

⁶The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood. It drips 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.

¹⁶saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,

²³By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.

⁸The Lord God has sworn by Himself—the Lord, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

²⁶Nevertheless, hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah living in Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says the Lord, that never again will any man of Judah living in the land of Egypt invoke My name or say, ‘As surely as the Lord God lives.’

⁴For though their princes are at Zoan and their envoys have arrived in Hanes,

⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

²Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.

⁴⁶Do not let your heart grow faint, and do not be afraid when the rumor is heard in the land; for a rumor will come one year—and then another the next year—of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.

⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come.

⁹For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.

¹⁰Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the Lord.

⁵There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.

²“Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised.

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

²⁷Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?

²Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.

²⁵Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

³The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

⁴Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

¹³You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.

¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

⁷I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and will cut off from it those who come and go.

¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds.

¹³For by Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.”

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

⁸And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

³³“Hazor will become a haunt for jackals, a desolation forever. No one will dwell there; no man will abide there.”

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

⁹Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the Lord, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

¹⁵Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.

¹⁶The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away.

¹¹“Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the Lord.

⁵“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

²¹Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will arise from their midst. And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me, for who would dare on his own to approach Me?” declares the Lord.

⁴⁴Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, He is indeed mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?

¹⁵Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,

¹¹Who among the gods is like You, O Lord? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

⁴⁵Therefore hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

⁴Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the Lord is indignant forever.

⁷Concerning Edom, this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed?

¹⁷“Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.

¹⁸As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the Lord, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.

¹¹In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

¹⁰Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

⁴⁶At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.

¹⁵This is what the Lord God says to Tyre: ‘Will not the coastlands quake at the sound of your downfall, when the wounded groan at the slaughter in your midst?

¹⁶All the princes of the sea will descend from their thrones, remove their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments. Clothed with terror, they will sit on the ground, trembling every moment, appalled over you.

¹⁶Slash to the right; set your blade to the left—wherever your blade is directed.

⁴you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

¹⁰I will cause many peoples to be appalled over you, and their kings will shudder in horror because of you when I brandish My sword before them. On the day of your downfall each of them will tremble every moment for his life.’

⁴⁰For this is what the Lord says: “Behold, an eagle swoops down and spreads his wings against Moab.

⁴¹Kirioth has been taken, and the strongholds seized. In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

¹Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the Lord, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

⁶Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?

²⁴Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee. Panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her like a woman in labor.

⁴⁹The Lord will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

⁹“Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

²But Abram replied, “O Lord God, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

¹⁵During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

²⁰But the wicked are like the storm-tossed sea, for it cannot be still, and its waves churn up mire and muck.

¹⁰She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!

⁹So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

⁴¹How Sheshach has been captured! The praise of all the earth has been seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

²⁶I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

⁴you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

¹⁰In fear of her torment, they will stand at a distance and cry out: “Woe, woe to the great city, the mighty city of Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

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

³⁰Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the Lord.

¹⁰“I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the Lord.

²²So this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.

³Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!

⁴And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and pierced through in her streets.

²¹For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.

²⁷Your wealth, wares, and merchandise, your sailors, captains, and shipwrights, your merchants and all the warriors within you, with all the other people on board, will sink into the heart of the sea on the day of your downfall.

¹⁸So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the royal palace. He entrusted it to his servants and sent them with this message to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus:

¹⁹“Let there be a treaty between me and you as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Now go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

³This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron.

⁴So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.

¹Now Ben-hadad king of Aram assembled his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he marched up, besieged Samaria, and waged war against it.

²Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel,

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

³So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He delivered them continually into the hands of Hazael king of Aram and his son Ben-hadad.

⁵So the Lord gave Israel a deliverer, and they escaped the power of the Arameans. Then the people of Israel lived in their own homes as they had before.

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,

¹⁴They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.

¹⁷The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” For the Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.

²¹Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your customers, trading in lambs, rams, and goats.

¹⁴I have heard a message from the Lord; an envoy has been sent to the nations: “Assemble yourselves to march against her! Rise up for battle!”

⁵Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!” declares the Lord.

²⁵Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

⁷I saw the tents of Cushan in distress; the curtains of Midian were trembling.

⁵Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!

²⁴Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee. Panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her like a woman in labor.

²⁰She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

⁷But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

²⁴all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert;

²⁵all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

¹¹You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will come against a quiet people who dwell securely, all of them living without walls or bars or gates—

⁸So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’

¹⁴Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

²⁸So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

⁷So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.

⁸When the men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What did you find?”

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;

³⁶I will bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I will scatter them to all these winds. There will not be a nation to which Elam’s exiles will not go.

¹⁰As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

¹⁴And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

¹⁵And they will know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

³⁷Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

²²Listen! The sound of a report is coming—a great commotion from the land to the north. It will make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt for jackals.

¹¹“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

³but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

¹³And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.

¹⁴Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie on the threshold, for He will expose the beams of cedar.

²⁰She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.

²¹But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

²²The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.

²⁵all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

²And in the vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa, in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision that I was beside the Ulai Canal.

¹In those days Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim

²A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”

¹¹On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

⁶Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield.

⁹He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire.

⁵⁶For a destroyer is coming against her—against Babylon. Her warriors will be captured, and their bows will be broken, for the Lord is a God of retribution; He will repay in full.

¹⁴Line up in formation around Babylon, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against the Lord.

²⁹Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

³²Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoil. I will scatter to the wind in every direction those who shave their temples; I will bring calamity on them from all sides,” declares the Lord.

⁸Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.

¹⁷But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”

⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.

¹⁰As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

¹After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.

¹⁶I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

²There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.

³⁶A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.

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

¹⁴And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

⁴For behold, the kings assembled; they all advanced together.

⁵They saw and were astounded; they fled in terror.

⁹As I continued to watch, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.

¹⁰A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.

¹⁰Then tell them that this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

⁴⁷Yet in the latter days I will restore Moab from captivity,” declares the Lord. Here ends the judgment on Moab.

²In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

¹⁴I will restore Egypt from captivity and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. There they will be a lowly kingdom.

⁵³But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them.

⁵⁴So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them.

¹In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.

¹⁴Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision concerns those days.”