So I will weep with sorrow for Moab. I will cry out in sadness for all of Moab. I will moan for the people of Kir Heres.

So my heart moans for Moab like a flute playing a funeral song. Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song, my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres. For the wealth they have gained will perish.

For all of them will shave their heads in mourning. They will all cut off their beards to show their sorrow. They will all make gashes in their hands. They will all put on sackcloth.

After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.

The Lord says, “Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! Do just as I have commanded you!

For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God who punishes; he pays back in full.

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger when he drove them out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

My heart is crushed because my dear people are being crushed. I go about crying and grieving. I am overwhelmed with dismay.

So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do and put them on.

So I will pull your skirt up over your face and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress!

Then they will say, ‘Under these conditions I can enjoy sweet sleep when I wake up and look around.’”

They set up their disgusting idols in the temple which I have claimed for my own and defiled it.

“The Lord God of Israel has a message for you, Baruch.

Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a nation, because she has vaunted herself against the Lord.

Terror, pits, and traps are in store for the people who live in Moab. I, the Lord, affirm it!

Leave your orphans behind and I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.”

The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’

“‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon an everlasting ruin. I, the Lord, affirm it!

I will bring on that land everything that I said I would. I will bring on it everything that is written in this book. I will bring on it everything that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.