13:1
13:2
shout to them,
wave your hand,
so they might enter the gates of the princes!
13:3 I have given orders to my chosen soldiers;
I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger,
my boasting, arrogant ones.
13:4
it sounds like a large army!
There is great commotion among the kingdoms
nations are being assembled!
The Lord who commands armies is mustering
forces for battle.
13:5 They come from a distant land,
from the horizon.
It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment,
coming to destroy the whole earth.
13:6 Wail, for the Lord’s day of judgment
it comes with all the destructive power of the sovereign judge.
13:7 For this reason all hands hang limp,
every human heart loses its courage.
13:8 They panic –
cramps and pain seize hold of them
like those of a woman who is straining to give birth.
They look at one another in astonishment;
their faces are flushed red.
13:9 Look, the Lord’s day of judgment
it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger,
destroying
and annihilating its sinners.
13:10 Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations
no longer give out their light;
the sun is darkened as soon as it rises,
and the moon does not shine.
13:11
and wicked people for their sin.
I will put an end to the pride of the insolent,
I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants.
13:12 I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold,
and people more scarce
13:13 So I will shake the heavens,
and the earth will shake loose from its foundation,
because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies,
in the day he vents his raging anger.
13:14 Like a frightened gazelle
or a sheep with no shepherd,
each will turn toward home,
each will run to his homeland.
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized
13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold.
13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,
they will not
13:19 Babylon, the most admired
the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride,
will be destroyed by God
just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
13:20 No one will live there again;
no one will ever reside there again.
No bedouin
no shepherds will rest their flocks
13:21 Wild animals will rest there,
the ruined
Ostriches will live there,
wild goats will skip among the ruins.
13:22 Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses,
jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces.
Her time is almost up,
her days will not be prolonged.
14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob;
“Look how the oppressor has met his end!
Hostility
14:5 The Lord has broken the club of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
14:6 It
with unceasing blows.
It angrily ruled over nations,
oppressing them without restraint.
14:7 The whole earth rests and is quiet;
they break into song.
14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise,
as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing,
‘Since you fell asleep,
no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’
14:9 Sheol
ready to meet you when you arrive.
It rouses
all the former leaders of the earth;
it makes all the former kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:
‘You too have become weak like us!
You have become just like us!
14:11 Your splendor
as well as the sound of your stringed instruments.
You lie on a bed of maggots,
with a blanket of worms over you.
14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror
14:13 You said to yourself,
“I will climb up to the sky.
Above the stars of El
I will set up my throne.
I will rule on the mountain of assembly
on the remote slopes of Zaphon.
14:14 I will climb up to the tops
I will make myself like the Most High!”
14:15 But you were brought down
to the remote slopes of the pit.
14:16 Those who see you stare at you,
they look at you carefully, thinking:
“Is this the man who shook the earth,
the one who made kingdoms tremble?
14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,
who ruined its
and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’
14:18
all of them
each in his own tomb.
14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave
like a shoot that is thrown away.
You lie among
among those who have been slashed by the sword,
among those headed for
as if you were a mangled corpse.
14:20 You will not be buried with them,
because you destroyed your land
and killed your people.
The offspring of the wicked
will never be mentioned again.
14:21 Prepare to execute
for the sins their ancestors have committed.
They must not rise up and take possession of the earth,
or fill the surface of the world with cities.”
14:22 “I will rise up against them,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people,
including the offspring she produces,”
says the Lord.
14:23 “I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals
and covered with pools of stagnant water.
I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
14:24
“Be sure of this:
Just as I have intended, so it will be;
just as I have planned, it will happen.
14:25 I will break Assyria
I will trample them
Their yoke will be removed from my people,
the burden will be lifted from their shoulders.
14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;
my hand is ready to strike all the nations.”
14:27 Indeed,
and who can possibly frustrate it?
His hand is ready to strike,
and who can possibly stop it?
14:28 In the year King Ahaz died,
14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,
just because the club that beat you has been broken!
For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,
and its fruit will be a darting adder.
14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures;
the needy will rest securely.
But I will kill your root by famine;
it will put to death all your survivors.
14:31 Wail, O city gate!
Cry out, O city!
Melt with fear,
For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,
and there are no stragglers in its ranks.
14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation?
Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;
the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.
15:1 Here is a message about Moab:
Indeed, in a night it is devastated,
Ar of Moab is destroyed!
Indeed, in a night it is devastated,
Kir of Moab is destroyed!
15:2 They went up to the temple,
the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament.
Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba,
Every head is shaved bare,
every beard is trimmed off.
15:3 In their streets they wear sackcloth;
on their roofs and in their town squares
all of them wail,
they fall down weeping.
15:4 The people of
their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz.
For this reason Moab’s soldiers shout in distress;
their courage wavers.
15:5 My heart cries out because of Moab’s plight,
and for the fugitives
For they weep as they make their way up the ascent of Luhith;
they loudly lament their demise on the road to Horonaim.
15:6 For the waters of Nimrim are gone;
the grass is dried up,
the vegetation has disappeared,
and there are no plants.
15:7 For this reason what they have made and stored up,
they carry over the Stream of the Poplars.
15:8 Indeed, the cries of distress echo throughout Moabite territory;
their wailing can be heard in Eglaim and Beer Elim.
15:9 Indeed, the waters of Dimon
Indeed, I will heap even more trouble on Dimon.
A lion will attack
and the people left in the land.
16:1 Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land,
from Sela in the desert
to the hill of Daughter Zion.
16:2 At the fords of the Arnon
the Moabite women are like a bird
that flies about when forced from its nest.
16:3 “Bring a plan, make a decision!
Provide some shade in the middle of the day!
Hide the fugitives! Do not betray
16:4 Please let the Moabite fugitives live
Hide them
Certainly
the destroyer will come to an end,
those who trample will disappear
16:5 Then a trustworthy king will be established;
he will rule in a reliable manner,
this one from David’s family.
He will be sure to make just decisions
and will be experienced in executing justice.
16:6 We have heard about Moab’s pride,
their great arrogance,
their boasting, pride, and excess.
But their boastful claims are empty!
16:7 So Moab wails over its demise
they all wail!
Completely devastated, they moan
about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
16:8 For the fields of Heshbon are dried up,
as well as the vines of Sibmah.
The rulers of the nations trample all over its vines,
which reach Jazer and spread to the desert;
their shoots spread out and cross the sea.
16:9 So I weep along with Jazer
over the vines of Sibmah.
I will saturate you
for the conquering invaders shout triumphantly
over your fruit and crops.
16:10 Joy and happiness disappear from the orchards,
and in the vineyards no one rejoices or shouts;
no one treads out juice in the wine vats
I have brought the joyful shouts to an end.
16:11 So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp,
my inner being sighs
16:12 When the Moabites plead with all their might at their high places,
and enter their temples to pray, their prayers will be ineffective!
16:13 This is the message the Lord previously announced about Moab.
16:14 Now the Lord makes this announcement: “Within exactly three years
17:1 Here is a message about Damascus:
“Look, Damascus is no longer a city,
it is a heap of ruins!
17:2 The cities of Aroer are abandoned.
They will be used for herds,
which will lie down there in peace.
17:3 Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim,
and Damascus will lose its kingdom.
The survivors in Syria
will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
17:4 “At that time
Jacob’s splendor will be greatly diminished,
and he will become skin and bones.
17:5 It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest,
and his hand gleans the ear of grain.
It will be like one gathering the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
17:6 There will be some left behind,
like when an olive tree is beaten –
two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
says the Lord God of Israel.
17:7 At that time
they will depend on
17:8 They will no longer trust in
or depend on the Asherah poles and incense altars their fingers made.
17:9 At that time
like the abandoned summits of the Amorites,
which they abandoned because of the Israelites;
there will be desolation.
17:10 For you ignore
you pay no attention to your strong protector.
So this is what happens:
You cultivate beautiful plants
and plant exotic vines.
17:11 The day you begin cultivating, you do what you can to make it grow;
the morning you begin planting, you do what you can to make it sprout.
Yet the harvest will disappear
and incurable pain.
17:12 The many nations massing together are as good as dead,
those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves.
The people making such an uproar are as good as dead,
those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves.
17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves,
when he shouts at
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles
17:14 In the evening there is sudden terror;
by morning they vanish.
This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,
the destiny of those who try to loot us!