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Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation
1 aSend the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From 1bSela by way of the wilderness to the cmountain of the daughter of Zion.
2 Then, like 1afleeing birds or scattered 2nestlings,
The daughters of bMoab will be at the fords of the cArnon.
3 “1Give us advice, make a decision;
2Cast your ashadow like night 3at high noon;
bHide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.
4 “Let the 1outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
aOppressors have completely disappeared from the land.
5 A athrone will even be established in lovingkindness,
And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of bDavid;
Moreover, he will seek justice
And be prompt in righteousness.
6 aWe have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
bHis idle boasts are 1false.
7 Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the araisin cakes of bKir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
8 For the fields of aHeshbon have 1withered, the vines of bSibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
cIts tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
9 Therefore I will aweep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, O bHeshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your csummer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.
10 aGladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the bvineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No ctreader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
11 Therefore my 1aheart intones like a harp for Moab
And my 2inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.
12 So it will come about when Moab apresents himself,
When he bwearies himself upon his chigh place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.
13 This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab.
14 But now the Lord speaks, saying, “Within three years, as 1aa hired man would count them, the glory of bMoab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and 2impotent.”
1 The 1aoracle concerning bDamascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be cremoved from being a city
And will become a dfallen ruin.
2 “The cities 1of aAroer are forsaken;
They will be for bflocks 2to lie down in,
And there will be cno one to frighten them.
3 “The 1afortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And 2sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the bglory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Lord of hosts.
4 Now in that day the aglory of Jacob will 1fade,
And bthe fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 It will be aeven like the 1reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the bvalley of Rephaim.
6 Yet agleanings will be left in it like the 1shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will ahave regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 He will not have regard for the aaltars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his bfingers have made,
Even the 1cAsherim and 2incense stands.
9 In that day 1their strong cities will be like 2forsaken places in the forest,
Or like 3branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And 4the land will be a desolation.
10 For ayou have forgotten the bGod of your salvation
And have not remembered the crock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine slips of a strange god.
11 In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the amorning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will bbe a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
12 Alas, the uproar of many peoples
aWho roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the brumbling of mighty waters!
13 The anations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will brebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased clike chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14 At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning athey are no more.
1Such will be the portion of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.
1 Alas, oh land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of 1aCush,
2 Which sends envoys by the sea,
Even in apapyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation 1btall and smooth,
To a people cfeared 2far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
3 aAll you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, byou will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.
4 For thus the Lord has told me,
“I will look 1from My adwelling place quietly
Like dazzling heat in the 2bsunshine,
Like a cloud of cdew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For abefore the harvest, as soon as the bud 1blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives
And remove and cut away the spreading branches.
6 They will be left together for mountain birds aof prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
7 At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hosts
1From a apeople 2tall and smooth,
Even from a people feared 3far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the bplace of the name of the Lord of hosts, even Mount Zion.
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