Jeremiah 46-48

English Standard Version

^3 (D)“Prepare buckler and shield,
    and advance for battle!
^4 (E)Harness the horses;
    mount, O horsemen!
Take your stations with your helmets,
    ^(F)polish your spears,
    put on your armor!
⁵ Why have I seen it?
They are dismayed
    and have turned backward.
Their ^(G)warriors are beaten down
    and have fled in haste;
^(H)they look not back—
    ^(I)terror on every side!
declares the Lord.

⁶ “The swift cannot flee away,
    nor the warrior escape;
^(J)in the north by the river Euphrates
    ^(K)they have stumbled and fallen.

⁷ “Who is this, ^(L)rising like the Nile,
    like rivers ^(M)whose waters surge?
⁸ Egypt rises like the Nile,
    like rivers ^(N)whose waters surge.
He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth,
    I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’
^9 (O)Advance, O horses,
    and rage, O chariots!
Let the warriors go out:
    men of Cush and ^(P)Put who handle the shield,
    ^(Q)men of Lud, skilled in handling the bow.
^10 (R)That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts,
    ^(S)a day of vengeance,
    ^(T)to avenge himself on his foes.
^(U)The sword shall devour and be sated
    and drink its fill of their blood.
For the Lord God of hosts holds ^(V)a sacrifice
    ^(W)in the north country ^(X)by the river Euphrates.
^11 (Y)Go up to Gilead, and take ^(Z)balm,
    O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines;
    ^(AA)there is no healing for you.
¹² The nations have heard of your shame,
    and the earth is full of your cry;
^(AB)for warrior has stumbled against warrior;
    they have both fallen together.”

¹⁴ “Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in ^(AD)Migdol;
    proclaim in ^(AE)Memphis and ^(AF)Tahpanhes;
say, ^(AG)‘Stand ready and be prepared,
    for ^(AH)the sword shall devour around you.’
¹⁵ Why are your mighty ones face down?
    They do not stand^[a]
    because the Lord thrust them down.
¹⁶ He made many stumble, ^(AI)and they fell,
    and they said one to another,
‘Arise, and let us go back to our own people
    and to the land of our birth,
    ^(AJ)because of the sword of the oppressor.’
¹⁷ Call the name of ^(AK)Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
    ‘Noisy one who lets the hour go by.’

^18 (AL)“As I live, declares the King,
    ^(AM)whose name is the Lord of hosts,
like ^(AN)Tabor among the mountains
    and like ^(AO)Carmel by the sea, shall one come.
^19 (AP)Prepare yourselves baggage for exile,
    O ^(AQ)inhabitants of Egypt!
For ^(AR)Memphis shall become a waste,
    a ruin, ^(AS)without inhabitant.

²⁰ “A beautiful ^(AT)heifer is Egypt,
    but a biting fly ^(AU)from the north has come upon her.
²¹ Even her hired soldiers in her midst
    are like ^(AV)fattened calves;
yes, they have turned and fled together;
    they did not stand,
for the day of their calamity has come upon them,
    ^(AW)the time of their punishment.

²² “She makes ^(AX)a sound like a serpent gliding away;
    for her enemies march in force
and come against her with axes
    ^(AY)like those who fell trees.
^23 (AZ)They shall cut down her forest,
declares the Lord,
    though it is impenetrable,
because ^(BA)they are more numerous than locusts;
    they are without number.
²⁴ The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame;
    she shall be delivered into the hand of ^(BB)a people from the north.”

^27 (BI)“But fear not, O Jacob my servant,
    nor be dismayed, O Israel,
for behold, I will save you from far away,
    and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
    and none shall make him afraid.
^28 (BJ)Fear not, O Jacob my servant,
declares the Lord,
    for I am with you.
I will make a full end of all the nations
    to which I have driven you,
    but of you I will not make a full end.
^(BK)I will discipline you in just measure,
    and I will by no means leave you unpunished.”

² “Thus says the Lord:
^(BN)Behold, waters are rising ^(BO)out of the north,
    ^(BP)and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow ^(BQ)the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
Men shall cry out,
    and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
³ At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
    ^(BR)at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
the fathers ^(BS)look not back to their children,
    so feeble are their hands,
⁴ because of the day that is coming to destroy
    all ^(BT)the Philistines,
to cut off from ^(BU)Tyre and Sidon
    every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
    ^(BV)the remnant of the coastland of ^(BW)Caphtor.
^5 (BX)Baldness has come upon Gaza;
    ^(BY)Ashkelon has perished.
O remnant of their valley,
    ^(BZ)how long will you gash yourselves?
^6 (CA)Ah, sword of the Lord!
    How long till you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
    rest and be still!
⁷ How can it^[b] be quiet
    ^(CB)when the Lord has given it a charge?
Against ^(CC)Ashkelon and against the seashore
    ^(CD)he has appointed it.”

“Woe to ^(CF)Nebo, for it is laid waste!
    ^(CG)Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame ^(CH)and broken down;
²     the renown of Moab is no more.
In ^(CI)Heshbon they planned disaster against her:
    ‘Come, let us cut her off ^(CJ)from being a nation!’
You also, O ^(CK)Madmen, shall be brought to silence;
    the sword shall pursue you.

³ “A voice! A cry from ^(CL)Horonaim,
    ‘Desolation and great destruction!’
⁴ Moab is destroyed;
    her little ones have made a cry.
^5 (CM)For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;^[c]
for ^(CN)at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressed cry^[d] of destruction.
⁶ Flee! Save yourselves!
    You will be like ^(CO)a juniper in the desert!
⁷ For, ^(CP)because you trusted in your works and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
and ^(CQ)Chemosh ^(CR)shall go into exile
    with ^(CS)his priests and his officials.
^8 (CT)The destroyer shall come upon every city,
    and no city shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
    and ^(CU)the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the Lord has spoken.

⁹ “Give wings to Moab,
    for she would fly away;
her cities shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.

¹¹ “Moab has been at ease from his youth
    and has ^(CX)settled on his dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
so his taste remains in him,
    and his scent is not changed.

¹⁴ “How do you say, ‘We are heroes
    and mighty men of war’?
¹⁵ The destroyer of ^(DB)Moab and his cities has come up,
    and the choicest of his young men have ^(DC)gone down to slaughter,
    declares ^(DD)the King, ^(DE)whose name is the Lord of hosts.
¹⁶ The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his affliction hastens swiftly.
^17 (DF)Grieve for him, all you who are around him,
    and all who know his name;
say, ^(DG)‘How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff.’

^18 (DH)“Come down from your glory,
    and sit on the parched ground,
    O inhabitant of ^(DI)Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.
^19 (DJ)Stand by the way ^(DK)and watch,
    O inhabitant of ^(DL)Aroer!
Ask him who flees and her who escapes;
    say, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰ Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
    ^(DM)wail and cry!
Tell it beside ^(DN)the Arnon,
    that ^(DO)Moab is laid waste.

^28 (EG)“Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
Be ^(EH)like the dove that nests
    in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
^29 (EI)We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.
³⁰ I know his insolence, declares the Lord;
    ^(EJ)his boasts are false,
    his deeds are false.
^31 (EK)Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the men of ^(EL)Kir-hareseth I mourn.
³² More than for ^(EM)Jazer I weep for you,
    ^(EN)O vine of ^(EO)Sibmah!
^(EP)Your branches passed over the sea,
    reached to the Sea of ^(EQ)Jazer;
on your summer fruits and your grapes
    the destroyer has fallen.
^33 (ER)Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have made the wine cease from the winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.

⁴⁰ For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, ^(FD)one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
    ^(FE)and spread his wings against Moab;
^41 (FF)the cities shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
^(FG)The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day
    like the heart of ^(FH)a woman in her birth pains;
⁴² Moab shall be ^(FI)destroyed and be no longer a people,
    because ^(FJ)he magnified himself against the Lord.
^43 (FK)Terror, pit, and snare
    are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
declares the Lord.
⁴⁴ He who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
^(FL)For I will bring these things upon Moab,
    the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop without strength,
for fire came out from Heshbon,
    flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed ^(FM)the forehead of Moab,
    the crown of ^(FN)the sons of tumult.
^46 (FO)Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of ^(FP)Chemosh are undone,
for your sons have been taken captive,
    and your daughters into captivity.
^47 (FQ)Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, declares the Lord.”
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.