Moab Is without Hope

16 Send lambs as taxes to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the way of the desert to the mountain of the people of Zion. ² Then, like birds driven from their nest, the people of Moab will be where the Arnon River can be crossed. ³ “Give us words of wisdom. Do what is right for us. Make your shadow like night at noonday. Hide those who have been sent away. Do not go against those who are running for their lives. ⁴ Let those of Moab who have been sent away stay with you. Hide them from the one who destroys.” For the one who uses sinful power has come to an end, and trouble has stopped. Those who make it hard for the people have gone from the land. ⁵ A throne will be set up in loving-kindness. A faithful judge will sit on it from the family of David. He will be fair as he judges, and will be quick to do what is right and good.

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab, how very proud he is. We have heard of how proud he is of himself and of his anger. His proud words are false. ⁷ So Moab will cry out. Everyone of Moab will cry out. You will cry for the dried-grape cakes of Kir-hareseth, as if you were in the worst trouble. ⁸ The fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah have dried up. The lords of the nations have crushed under foot its best vines, which went as far as Jazer and the desert. They spread themselves out and passed over the sea. ⁹ So I will cry with much sorrow for Jazer and for the vines of Sibmah. I will make you wet with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, because there is nothing to gather from your summer fruits. ¹⁰ Happiness and joy are taken away from the field that gives much fruit. No songs are sung in the grape-fields. No one crushes grapes to make wine, for I have stopped the cry of joy. ¹¹ So my heart cries with sorrow for Moab like a harp. Inside myself I cry for Kir-hareseth. ¹² When Moab goes to his high place, he will only become tired. When he goes to his holy place to pray, it will do him no good.

¹³ This is the word which the Lord spoke before about Moab. ¹⁴ But now the Lord says, “In three years, as a servant would count them, the shining-greatness of Moab and all his many people will be hated. And those left alive will be very few and weak.”

God Will Destroy Damascus

17 The special word about Damascus: “See, Damascus will no longer be a city. It will be destroyed and laid waste. ² The cities of Aroer are left empty. They will be for the flocks to lie down in, and no one will make them afraid. ³ The strong city will be gone from Ephraim. Damascus will no longer rule. And those of Syria who are left alive will be like the shining-greatness of the sons of Israel,” says the Lord of All.

⁴ In that day Jacob will lose his shining-greatness. And he will lose the fat of his flesh. ⁵ It will be like one who gathers the standing grain, taking the ears of grain with his arm or like one who gathers the ears of grain in the valley of Rephaim. ⁶ Yet some good will be left in it, as when an olive tree is shaken. There will still be two or three olives on the highest branch, and four or five on the branches of a tree that gives much fruit, says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day man will turn to his Maker. His eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands. He will not look to what his fingers have made, or to the false goddess Asherah and the altars of special perfume.

⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like places left empty among the trees, or like high branches which they left behind because of the sons of Israel. The land will be laid waste. ¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God Who saves you. You have not remembered the rock where you are safe. So you plant beautiful plants, and put them with the vine-cuttings of a strange god. ¹¹ In the day that you plant it you fence it in, and in the morning your seed is growing. But its fruit will waste away in a day of sickness and pain which cannot be healed.

Other Nations Are Like Grain Worth Nothing

¹² Listen to the cry of sorrow of many people. They sound like the noise of the seas and the noise of nations! They sound like the rushing of powerful waters. ¹³ The nations move on like the noise of many waters. But God will speak sharp words to them and they will run far away. They will be blown away like the part of grain that is of no worth by the wind in the mountains. They will be like dust blown around in a storm. ¹⁴ At evening time there is much fear! Before morning, they are gone. This will be what will come to those who take what belongs to us. It will be what happens to those who rob us.

Word about Cush

18 Trouble will come to the land on the other side of the rivers of Cush where the sound of wings is heard. ² From that land men are sent by the sea in boats made from tall river-grass. Go, you fast men, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people who fill others with fear both near and far. Go to the powerful nation that rules over those who hate it, whose land is divided by rivers. ³ All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, as soon as a flag is raised on the mountain, you will see it. As soon as the horn is sounded, you will hear it. ⁴ For the Lord has said to me, “I will be quiet and watch from the place where I live, like shining heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of fog in the heat of gathering time.” ⁵ For before the gathering time, as soon as the bud blossoms and the grape is ready to eat, He will cut off the new branches with knives and will cut away the spreading branches. ⁶ They will be left for the birds of the mountains and for the wild animals of the earth. The birds will spend the summer eating them. And all the wild animals of the earth will eat them during the winter. ⁷ At that time tall people with smooth skin will bring gifts to the Lord of All. These people make others afraid both near and far. They are a strong and powerful nation who rule over others, whose land is divided by rivers. And they will go to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord of All.