4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ 1
If you do, 2 the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” 3
4:12 No, 4 a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding.
Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.’ 5
“‘He will do what is just and right in the land.
48:21 “Judgment will come on the cities on the high plain: 7 on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,
48:47 Yet in days to come
I will reverse Moab’s ill fortune.” 8
says the Lord. 9
The judgment against Moab ends here.
1 tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the
2 tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.
3 tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”
4 tn The word “No” is not in the text but is carried over from the connection with the preceding line “not for…”
5 tn Heb “will speak judgments against them.”
7 tn Heb “sprig” or “shoot.”
10 sn See the study note on Jer 48:8 for reference to this tableland or high plain that lay between the Arnon and Heshbon.
13 tn See 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.
14 tn Heb “Oracle of the