They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

<t /><p class="poetry"><v id="(5:1)" /> As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">seemingly insignificant<n id="2" /> among the clans of Judah &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">one whose origins<n id="4" /> are in the distant past.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">Therefore, as surely as I live,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, the God of Israel,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;be certain that Moab will become like Sodomp> <p class="poetry">and the Ammonites like Gomorrah.p> <p class="poetry">They will be overrun by weeds,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">filled with salt pits,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and permanently desolate.p> <p class="poetry">Those of my people who are left<n id="3" /> will plunder their belongings;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">those who are left in Judah<n id="5" /> will take possession of their land.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">Edom<n id="1" /> says, &#8220;Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.&#8221; So the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="2" /> responds, &#8220;They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as<n id="3" /> the land of evil, the people with whom the <sc>Lordsc> is permanently displeased.

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm that<n id="1" /> I will send for all the peoples of the north<n id="2" /> and my servant,<n id="3" /> King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy<n id="4" /> this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it<n id="5" /> and make them everlasting ruins.<n id="6" /> I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn.<n id="7" />