Jeremiah 48

1Concerning Moab. The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says this: Woe to Nebo, for it lies in ruins! Kiriathaim is disgraced and captured; the stronghold is disgraced and shattered. 2Moab’s renown is gone. In Heshbon they have plotted disaster against her: “Come, let us wipe her out as a nation.” You too, Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you. 3Listen! A cry from Horonaim: ruin and great destruction! 4Moab is shattered; its little ones cry out for all to hear. 5Up the climb to Luhith they go weeping, weeping all the way; on the way down to Horonaim they have heard the anguished cry of disaster. 6Run! Save your lives! Be like a bare shrub in the wilderness! 7Because you trusted in your achievements and your treasures, you too will be taken. Chemosh will go off into exile, together with his priests and his officials. 8The destroyer will come upon every town; not one town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plateau laid waste, just as the LORD has said. 9Give Moab wings, for she must fly away; her towns will become a wasteland, with no one left living there. 10Cursed is anyone who does the work of the LORD carelessly, and cursed is anyone who keeps his sword from shedding blood. 11Moab has lived at ease since his youth, resting undisturbed on his dregs, never poured out from jar to jar, never carried off into exile. So his flavor has stayed in him, and his aroma is unchanged.

12So the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will send him men who tip out jars, and they will tip him out; they will empty his vessels and smash their jars to pieces. 13Moab will be shamed by Chemosh, as the house of Israel was shamed by Bethel, the god they relied on. 14How can you claim, “We are warriors, strong men fit for battle”? 15Moab is ruined, and the enemy has gone up into her towns; the finest of her young men have gone down to be slaughtered, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Armies. 16Moab’s downfall is close at hand; its disaster is rushing on. 17Grieve for him, all you his neighbors, all who know his fame; say, “How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff!” 18Come down from your glory and sit on the parched ground, you who live in Daughter Dibon, for Moab’s destroyer has come up against you; he has torn down your fortresses. 19Stand by the road and keep watch, you who live in Aroer! Ask the man who is running and the woman who is escaping; ask them, “What has happened?” 20Moab is disgraced, for it is shattered. Wail and cry out! Announce it by the Arnon: Moab is ruined! 21Judgment has come on the land of the plateau: on Holon, Jahaz and Mephaath, 22on Dibon, Nebo and Beth-diblathaim, 23on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul and Beth-meon, 24on Kerioth and Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near. 25Moab’s horn is hacked off, and its arm is broken, declares the LORD. 26Make him drunk, for he has exalted himself against the LORD. Moab will wallow in his own vomit, and he too will become something to laugh at. 27Was not Israel a joke to you? Was he caught among thieves, that every time you spoke of him you shook your head in scorn? 28Abandon the towns and live among the rocks, you people of Moab! Be like a dove that makes its nest in the cliffs beside the mouth of a gorge. 29We have heard of Moab’s pride, proud beyond measure: its lofty looks, its pride, its haughty airs, its heart held high. 30I know its overbearing fury, declares the LORD; it is hollow. Its big talk comes to nothing, and nothing they do turns out right. 31So I wail over Moab; for all Moab I cry out; for the men of Kir-heres there is moaning. 32More than Jazer weeps, I weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your runners crossed the sea and reached as far as the sea of Jazer. On your summer fruit and your grape harvest the destroyer has fallen. 33Gladness and delight are gathered up and gone from the garden land, from the land of Moab. I have stopped the wine from flowing from the presses; no one treads the grapes with the harvest shout. The shouting is no shout of joy. 34The cry of Heshbon is heard in Elealeh; they raise their voices as far as Jahaz, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim will turn to waste ground. 35I will put an end in Moab, declares the LORD, to anyone who goes up to offer sacrifice at the high place and burns incense to their gods. 36So my heart moans for Moab like a flute; my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-heres. So the riches they had amassed are lost. 37Every head is bald, every beard clipped short; there are gashes on every hand, and sackcloth around the waist. 38On all the roofs of Moab and in its open squares there is nothing but mourning, for I have smashed Moab like a jar that no one wants, declares the LORD. 39How shattered it is! How they wail! How Moab has turned its back in shame! Moab will become something to laugh at and a thing of horror to all its neighbors.

40For the LORD says this: Look! Like an eagle he swoops down and spreads his wings over Moab. 41Kerioth is taken, the strongholds are seized. On that day the warriors of Moab will have hearts like the heart of a woman in labor. 42Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a people, because he exalted himself against the LORD. 43Fear and the pit and the trap are upon you who live in Moab, declares the LORD. 44Anyone who runs from the fear will drop into the pit, and anyone who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For I will bring on her, on Moab, the year of their punishment, declares the LORD. 45In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand, their strength spent, for fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon. It burned up the forehead of Moab, the skulls of the people of tumult. 46Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh are destroyed. Your sons have been taken away as captives, and your daughters carried off into captivity. 47Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come, declares the LORD. Here ends the judgment on Moab.