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ââJeremiah 48:1-47 MSGâŹâŹ
[1-10] The Message on Moab from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: âDoom to Nebo! Leveled to the ground! Kiriathaim demeaned and defeated, The mighty fortress reduced to a molehill, Moabâs gloryâdust and ashes. Conspirators plot Heshbonâs doom: âCome, letâs wipe Moab off the map.â The city of Madmen will be struck mute, as killing follows killing. Listen! A cry out of Horonaim: âDisasterâdoom and more doom!â Moab will be shattered. Her cries will be heard clear down in Zoar. Up the ascent of Luhith climbers weep, And down the descent from Horonaim, cries of loss and devastation. Oh, run for your lives! Get out while you can! Survive by your wits in the wild! You trusted in thick walls and big money, yes? But it wonât help you now. Your big god Chemosh will be hauled off, his priests and managers with him. A wrecker will wreck every city. Not a city will survive. The valley fields will be ruined, the plateau pastures destroyed, just as I told you. Cover the land of Moab with salt. Make sure nothing ever grows here again. Her towns will all be ghost towns. Nobody will ever live here again. Sloppy work in Godâs name is cursed, and cursed all halfhearted use of the sword. [11-17] âMoab has always taken it easyâ lazy as a dog in the sun, Never had to work for a living, never faced any trouble, Never had to grow up, never once worked up a sweat. But those days are a thing of the past. Iâll put him to work at hard labor. That will wake him up to the world of hard knocks. That will smash his illusions. Moab will be as ashamed of god Chemosh as Israel was ashamed of her Bethel calf-gods, the calf-gods she thought were so great. For how long do you think youâll be saying, âWeâre tough. We can beat anyone anywhereâ? The destruction of Moab has already begun. Her choice young soldiers are lying dead right now.â The Kingâs Decreeâ his full name, God-of-the-Angel-Armies. âYes. Moabâs doom is on countdown, disaster targeted and launched. Weep for Moab, friends and neighbors, all who know how famous heâs been. Lament, âHis mighty scepter snapped in two like a toothpick, that magnificent royal staff!â [18-20] âCome down from your high horse, pampered beauty of Dibon. Sit in dog dung. The destroyer of Moab will come against you. Heâll wreck your safe, secure houses. Stand on the roadside, pampered women of Aroer. Interview the refugees who are running away. Ask them, âWhatâs happened? And why?â Moab will be an embarrassing memory, nothing left of the place. Wail and weep your eyes out! Tell the bad news along the Arnon river. Tell the world that Moab is no more. [21-24] âMy judgment will come to the plateau cities: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath; on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim; on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon; on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of Moab, far and near. [25] âMoabâs link to power is severed. Moabâs arm is broken.â Godâs Decree. [26-27] âTurn Moab into a drunken lush, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomitâMoab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste. Wasnât it you, Moab, who made crude jokes over Israel? And when they were caught in bad company, didnât you cluck and gossip and snicker? [28] âLeave town! Leave! Look for a home in the cliffs, you who grew up in Moab. Try living like a dove who nests high in the river gorge. [29-33] âWeâve all heard of Moabâs pride, that legendary pride, The strutting, bullying, puffed-up pride, the insufferable arrogance. I knowââGodâs Decreeââhis rooster-crowing pride, the inflated claims, the sheer nothingness of Moab. But I will weep for Moab, yes, I will mourn for the people of Moab. I will even mourn for the people of Kir-heres. Iâll weep for the grapevines of Sibmah and join Jazer in her weepingâ Grapevines that once reached the Dead Sea with tendrils as far as Jazer. Your summer fruit and your bursting grapes will be looted by brutal plunderers, Lush Moab stripped of song and laughter. And yes, Iâll shut down the winepresses, stop all the shouts and hurrahs of harvest. [34] âHeshbon and Elealeh will cry out, and the people in Jahaz will hear the cries. They will hear them all the way from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. Even the waters of Nimrim will be dried up. [35] âI will put a stop in MoabââGodâs Decreeââto all hiking to the high places to offer burnt sacrifices to the gods. [36] âMy heart moans for Moab, for the men of Kir-heres, like soft flute sounds carried by the wind. Theyâve lost it all. Theyâve got nothing. [37] âEverywhere you look are signs of mourning: heads shaved, beards cut, Hands scratched and bleeding, clothes ripped and torn. [38] âIn every house in Moab thereâll be loud lamentation, on every street in Moab, loud lamentation. As with a pottery jug that no one wants, Iâll smash Moab to bits.â Godâs Decree. [39] âMoab ruined! Moab shamed and ashamed to be seen! Moab a cruel joke! The stark horror of Moab!â * * * [40-42] Godâs verdict on Moab. Indeed! âLook! An eagle is about to swoop down and spread its wings over Moab. The towns will be captured, the fortresses taken. Brave warriors will double up in pain, helpless to fight, like a woman giving birth to a baby. Thereâll be nothing left of Moab, nothing at all, because of his defiant arrogance against me. [43-44] âTerror and pit and trap are what you have facing you, Moab.â Godâs Decree. âA man running in terror will fall into a trap. A man climbing out of a pit will be caught in a trap. This is my agenda for Moab on doomsday.â Godâs Decree. [45-47] âOn the outskirts of Heshbon, refugees will pull up short, worn out. Fire will flame high from Heshbon, a firestorm raging from the capital of Sihonâs kingdom. It will burn off Moabâs eyebrows, will scorch the skull of the braggarts. Thatâs all for you, Moab! You worshipers of Chemosh will be finished off! Your sons will be trucked off to prison camps; your daughters will be herded into exile. But yet thereâs a day thatâs coming when Iâll put things right in Moab. âFor now, thatâs the judgment on Moab.â

