Study Desk

"Why have I seen it? They are terrified, They are retreating, And their warriors are defeated And have taken refuge in flight, Without facing back. Terror is on every side!" Declares the LORD.

Let not the swift man flee, Nor the warrior escape. In the north beside the river Euphrates They have stumbled and fallen.

"They have repeatedly stumbled; Indeed, they have fallen, one against another. Then they said, 'Get up, and let's go back To our own people and our native land, Away from the sword of the oppressor!'

"Also her mercenaries in her midst Are like fattened calves, For they too have turned away and have fled together; They did not stand their ground. For the day of their disaster has come upon them, The time of their punishment.

"Its sound moves along like a serpent; For they move on like an army And come to her as woodcutters with axes.

"They have cut down her forest," declares the LORD; "Certainly it will no longer be found, Even though they are more numerous than locusts And are without number.

"There is no longer praise for Moab; In Heshbon they have devised disaster against her: 'Come and let's cut her off from being a nation!' You too, Madmen, will be silenced; The sword will follow you.

"Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will send to him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him over, and they will pour out his vessels and smash his jars.

"More than the weeping for Jazer I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your tendrils stretched across the sea, They reached to the sea of Jazer; Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvest The destroyer has fallen.

"From the outcry at Heshbon to Elealeh, to Jahaz they have raised their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim, and to Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate.

"How shattered it is! How they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back—he is ashamed! So Moab will become a laughingstock and an object of terror to all around him."

Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes which He has in mind against the inhabitants of Teman: they will certainly drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; He will certainly make their pasture desolate because of them.

Concerning Damascus: "Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad news; They despair. There is anxiety at the sea, It cannot be calmed.

"They will take away their tents and their flocks; They will carry off for themselves Their tent curtains, all their goods and their camels, And they will call out to one another, 'Horror on every side!'

"For a nation has come up against her from the north; it will make her land an object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in it. Whether people or animals, they have wandered off, they have gone!

"In those days and at that time," declares the LORD, "the sons of Israel will come, they and the sons of Judah as well; they will go along weeping as they go, and it will be the LORD their God whom they will seek.

"All who found them have devoured them; And their adversaries have said, 'We are not guilty, Since they have sinned against the LORD who is the habitation of righteousness, The LORD, the hope of their fathers.'

"For behold, I am going to rouse and bring up against Babylon A contingent of great nations from the land of the north, And they will draw up their battle lines against her; From there she will be taken captive. Their arrows will be like an expert warrior Who does not return empty-handed.

'In those days and at that time,' declares the LORD, 'search will be made for the wrongdoing of Israel, but there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I will forgive those whom I leave as a remnant.'

This is what the LORD of armies says: "The sons of Israel are oppressed, And the sons of Judah as well; And all who took them captive have held them firmly, They have refused to let them go.