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48. Message About Moab

1 Concerning Moab:

   This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

   “Woe to Nebo, for it will be ruined.
   Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured;
   the stronghold Or captured; / Misgab will be disgraced and shattered.
2 Moab will be praised no more;
   in Heshbon The Hebrew for Heshbon sounds like the Hebrew for plot. people will plot her downfall:
   ‘Come, let us put an end to that nation.’
You, the people of Madmen, The name of the Moabite town Madmen sounds like the Hebrew for be silenced. will also be silenced;
   the sword will pursue you.
3 Cries of anguish arise from Horonaim,
   cries of great havoc and destruction.
4 Moab will be broken;
   her little ones will cry out. Hebrew; Septuagint / proclaim it to Zoar
5 They go up the hill to Luhith,
   weeping bitterly as they go;
on the road down to Horonaim
   anguished cries over the destruction are heard.
6 Flee! Run for your lives;
   become like a bush Or like Aroer in the desert.
7 Since you trust in your deeds and riches,
   you too will be taken captive,
and Chemosh will go into exile,
   together with his priests and officials.
8 The destroyer will come against every town,
   and not a town will escape.
The valley will be ruined
   and the plateau destroyed,
   because the LORD has spoken.
9 Put salt on Moab,
   for she will be laid waste Or Give wings to Moab, / for she will fly away;
her towns will become desolate,
   with no one to live in them.

    10 “A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the LORD’s work!
   A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed!

    11 “Moab has been at rest from youth,
   like wine left on its dregs,
not poured from one jar to another—
   she has not gone into exile.
So she tastes as she did,
   and her aroma is unchanged.
12 But days are coming,”
   declares the LORD,
“when I will send men who pour from pitchers,
   and they will pour her out;
they will empty her pitchers
   and smash her jars.
13 Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,
   as Israel was ashamed
   when they trusted in Bethel.

    14 “How can you say, ‘We are warriors,
   men valiant in battle’?
15 Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded;
   her finest young men will go down in the slaughter,”
   declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty.
16 “The fall of Moab is at hand;
   her calamity will come quickly.
17 Mourn for her, all who live around her,
   all who know her fame;
say, ‘How broken is the mighty scepter,
   how broken the glorious staff!’

    18 “Come down from your glory
   and sit on the parched ground,
   you inhabitants of Daughter Dibon,
for the one who destroys Moab
   will come up against you
   and ruin your fortified cities.
19 Stand by the road and watch,
   you who live in Aroer.
Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping,
   ask them, ‘What has happened?’
20 Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered.
   Wail and cry out!
Announce by the Arnon
   that Moab is destroyed.
21 Judgment has come to the plateau—
   to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath,
    22 to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,
    23 to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,
    24 to Kerioth and Bozrah—
   to all the towns of Moab, far and near.
25 Moab’s horn Horn here symbolizes strength. is cut off;
   her arm is broken,” declares the LORD.

    26 “Make her drunk,
   for she has defied the LORD.
Let Moab wallow in her vomit;
   let her be an object of ridicule.
27 Was not Israel the object of your ridicule?
   Was she caught among thieves,
that you shake your head in scorn
   whenever you speak of her?
28 Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks,
   you who live in Moab.
Be like a dove that makes its nest
   at the mouth of a cave.

    29 “We have heard of Moab’s pride—
   how great is her arrogance!—
of her insolence, her pride, her conceit
   and the haughtiness of her heart.
30 I know her insolence but it is futile,” declares the LORD,
   “and her boasts accomplish nothing.
31 Therefore I wail over Moab,
   for all Moab I cry out,
   I moan for the people of Kir Hareseth.
32 I weep for you, as Jazer weeps,
   you vines of Sibmah.
Your branches spread as far as the sea Probably the Dead Sea;
   they reached as far as Two Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts as far as the Sea of Jazer.
The destroyer has fallen
   on your ripened fruit and grapes.
33 Joy and gladness are gone
   from the orchards and fields of Moab.
I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses;
   no one treads them with shouts of joy.
Although there are shouts,
   they are not shouts of joy.

    34 “The sound of their cry rises
   from Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz,
from Zoar as far as Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah,
   for even the waters of Nimrim are dried up.
35 In Moab I will put an end
   to those who make offerings on the high places
   and burn incense to their gods,” declares the LORD.
36 “So my heart laments for Moab like the music of a pipe;
   it laments like a pipe for the people of Kir Hareseth.
   The wealth they acquired is gone.
37 Every head is shaved
   and every beard cut off;
every hand is slashed
   and every waist is covered with sackcloth.
38 On all the roofs in Moab
   and in the public squares
there is nothing but mourning,
   for I have broken Moab
   like a jar that no one wants,” declares the LORD.
39 “How shattered she is! How they wail!
   How Moab turns her back in shame!
Moab has become an object of ridicule,
   an object of horror to all those around her.”

    40 This is what the LORD says:

   “Look! An eagle is swooping down,
   spreading its wings over Moab.
41 Kerioth Or The cities will be captured
   and the strongholds taken.
In that day the hearts of Moab’s warriors
   will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42 Moab will be destroyed as a nation
   because she defied the LORD.
43 Terror and pit and snare await you,
   you people of Moab,” declares the LORD.
44 “Whoever flees from the terror
   will fall into a pit,
whoever climbs out of the pit
   will be caught in a snare;
for I will bring on Moab
   the year of her punishment,” declares the LORD.

    45 “In the shadow of Heshbon
   the fugitives stand helpless,
for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,
   a blaze from the midst of Sihon;
it burns the foreheads of Moab,
   the skulls of the noisy boasters.
46 Woe to you, Moab!
   The people of Chemosh are destroyed;
your sons are taken into exile
   and your daughters into captivity.

    47 “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
   in days to come,” declares the LORD.

   Here ends the judgment on Moab.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Here the Prophet intimates by anticipation, that how much soever the Moabites might boast, they could not, by their boastings and their pride, so succeed that God should not appear against them as a Judge. We have said already, that as the Moabites had been long in a quiet state, what the Prophet denounced on them, appeared at the first hearing as incredible. It is then by way of anticipation that he says, that the Moabites were proud, did swell with haughtiness, and breathed much arrogance, that, in short, they manifested high and lofty spirits. When the Prophet says all this, and adds, that nothing would avail them, we see that he meets those doubts which might have possessed weak minds, so as to prevent them to believe his prophecy.

And when he uses the words, We have heard, he not only means by report, but that the Moabites loudly boasted, as it is usual with proud men; for they made, so to speak, a bellowing, and sought, even by their tongues alone, to strike others with terror. As then they proclaimed their wealth and their power, they sought in a manner to shake the very air, so that all might tremble at their voice alone. This seems to have been expressed by the Prophet, when he said, We have heard In short, Jeremiah does not mean that the report of the pride of Moab had spread abroad, as rumors often fly respecting the haughtiness and boastings of men; but he intimates that the Moabites were heralds of their own power, so that they spoke in lofty terms of their own greatness, and thus their own tongues testified of their haughtiness and arrogance. 1414     Our version in Isaiah 16:6, where the same form of words occurs, is, “We have heard of,” though here the “of” is dropped, and thus the meaning of Calvin is conveyed, which is favored by the early versions.
   The verse may be thus literally rendered, —
   We have heard the arrogance of Moab; Very arrogant has been his insolence and arrogance; Yea, his arrogantness and the loftiness of his heart.
   The word for “arrogance” means swelling; it is to grow big, and to claim more than what belongs to us. Then “insolence” signifies to rise high, so as to look down on others with contempt. Arrogance is first, then insolence: and in the last line the two are inverted, and with this difference, the disposition is denoted in the last line, and the acting in the former. — Ed. And hence it was that the Prophet enlarged on their pride; Moab is very proud, he says; we have heard his haughtiness, his pride and his arrogance, (though it be the same word,) and the loftiness of his heart, or, as we may say in Latin, et altos spiritus, and his high sprits. It now follows —
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