Study Desk

^(C1)Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land, From ^(F1)(C2)Sela by way of the wilderness to the ^(C3)mountain of the daughter of Zion.

Then, like ^(C1)fluttering birds or scattered nestlings, The daughters of ^(C2)Moab will be at the crossing places of the ^(C3)Arnon.

"^(F1)Give us advice, make a decision; ^(F2)Cast your ^(C1)shadow like night ^(F3)at high noon; ^(C2)Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

-"Let the ^(F1)outcasts of Moab stay with you; Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer." For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased, ^(C1)Oppressors have been removed from the land.

A ^(C1)throne will be established in faithfulness, And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of ^(C2)David; Moreover, he will seek justice, And be prompt in righteousness.

^(C1)We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride; Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury; ^(C2)His idle boasts are ^(F1)false.

Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail. You will moan for the ^(C1)raisin cakes of ^(C2)Kir-hareseth As those who are utterly stricken.

For the fields of ^(C1)Heshbon have ^(F1)withered, the vines of ^(C2)Sibmah as well; The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts; ^(C3)Its ^(F2)tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

Therefore I will ^(C1)weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah; I will drench you with my tears, ^(C2)Heshbon and Elealeh; For the shouting over your ^(C3)summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

^(C1)Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field; In the ^(C2)vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting, No ^(C3)treader treads out wine in the presses, For I have made the shouting to cease.

Therefore my ^(F1)(C1)inner being sounds like a harp for Moab. And my ^(F2)heart for Kir-hareseth.

So it will come about when Moab ^(C1)presents himself, When he ^(C2)tires himself upon his ^(C3)high place And comes to his sanctuary to pray, That he will not prevail.

This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.

But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as ^(F1)(C1)a hired worker would count them, the glory of ^(C2)Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and ^(F2)impotent."

The ^(C1)pronouncement concerning ^(C2)Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is about to be ^(C3)removed from being a city And will become a ^(C4)fallen ruin.

-"The cities ^(F1)of ^(C1)Aroer are abandoned; They will be for ^(C2)herds ^(F2)to lie down in, And there will be ^(C3)no one to frighten them.

-"The ^(F1)(C1)fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And ^(F2)sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the ^(C2)glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of armies.

Now on that day the ^(C1)glory of Jacob will ^(F1)fade, And ^(C2)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

It will be ^(C1)like the ^(F1)reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the ^(C2)Valley of Rephaim.

Yet ^(C1)gleanings will be left in it like the ^(F1)shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives on the topmost branch, Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree, Declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

On that day man will ^(C1)look to his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

And he will not look to the ^(C1)altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his ^(C2)fingers have made, Even the ^(F1)(C3)Asherim and incense altars.

On that day ^(F1)their strong cities will be like ^(F2)abandoned places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And ^(F3)the land will be a desolation.

For ^(C1)you have forgotten the ^(C2)God of your salvation And have not remembered the ^(C3)rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the ^(C1)morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will ^(C2)flee On a day of illness and incurable pain.

Oh, the uproar of many peoples ^(C1)Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the ^(C2)rumbling of mighty waters!

The ^(C1)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will ^(C2)rebuke them, and they will flee far away, And be chased ^(C3)like chaff on the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning ^(C1)they are gone. This will be the ^(F1)fate of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.

Woe, land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of ^(F1)(C1)Cush,

Which sends messengers by the sea, Even in ^(C1)papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation ^(F1)(C2)tall and smooth, To a people ^(C3)feared ^(F2)far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation Whose land the rivers divide.

^(C1)All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth, As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, ^(C2)you will see it, And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

For this is what the LORD has told me: "I will quietly look ^(F1)from My ^(C1)dwelling place Like dazzling heat in the ^(F2)(C2)sunshine, Like a cloud of ^(C3)dew in the heat of harvest."

For ^(C1)before the harvest, as soon as the bud ^(F1)blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, And remove and tear away the spreading branches.

They will be left together for mountain birds ^(C1)of prey, And for the animals of the earth; And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them, And all the animals of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies ^(F1)From a ^(C1)people ^(F2)tall and smooth, From a people feared ^(F3)far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the ^(C2)place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.