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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.

Here he expresses more clearly what we have before seen, that Moab in vain promised to himself perpetual impunity, because he had for a long time been prosperous. Then the Prophet says that he would be suddenly destroyed, when God ascended his tribunal to execute his judgment.

He first says, that he had been quiet from his childhood, because when the Israelites had been often harassed, that nation remained untouched, and never felt any disadvantage, as though fortified on all sides by their own defences; for they dwelt in part amidst mountains, but had a level country, as it is well known, beyond Jordan. It was a land in a moderate degree fertile, so that as they enjoyed continual peace, they collected great wealth. But it was very hard for the Israelites, when God afflicted them with various calamities, to see the Moabites secure and safe from all trouble and all losses. As, then, this thought might have grievously wounded the minds of the faithful, the Prophet here exhorts them not to envy the happiness of the Moabites, because God would at length stretch forth his hand against them, according to what was done by David, who also exhorted the faithful patiently to wait for the day of the Lord, when they saw the ungodly enjoying all kinds of pleasure, and meeting with success according to their wishes. (Psalm 37:1, 7, 8.) We now then understand the object of the Prophet.

He compares Moab to an old man, who had passed his whole life in security, without any losses, without any grief or sorrow. Quiet, then, has Moab been, or quiet from his childhood, even from the time he became a nation. For what was the childhood of Moab? even from the time they expelled the giants and other inhabitants and dwelt in their land. Then success ever attended them; and hence he says, that they settled on their dregs, so that they underwent no change. Here is another metaphor: as wine which remains in its own vessel, and is never changed into another, retains its taste, its strength, and its savor; so also the Prophet says that Moab had always been in the enjoyment of perpetual felicity, like wine which remains on its own dregs. For the dregs preserve the wine, as it is well known; for the wine, being taken off from its dregs, loses in part its own strength, and at length becomes vapid; but wine, being not changed, continues in its own strength.

We hence see how apt is the comparison, when the Prophet says, that Moab had not been changed from vessel to vessel, but had settled on his dregs And he explains himself without a figure when he adds, that he had not gone, or removed, into captivity He yet intimates that this perpetual peace would avail the Moabites nothing, because as the Lord had resolved to destroy them, he would cause the strength of Moab to fail and all his wealth to be reduced to nothing.