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¹The pronouncement concerning Moab: Certainly in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined; Certainly in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

²The people have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, to the high places to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba; Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.

³In their streets they have put on sackcloth; On their housetops and in their public squares Everyone is wailing, overcome with weeping.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out, Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz; Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; His soul trembles within him.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab; His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah, For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping; Indeed, on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their collapse.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim are desolate. Indeed, the grass is withered, the new growth has died, There is no greenery.

⁷Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored up, They carry it off over the brook of Arabim.

⁸For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab, Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its howling to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; I will certainly bring added woes upon Dimon, A lion upon the fugitives of Moab and the remnant of the land.

¹Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land, From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

²Then, like fluttering birds or scattered nestlings, The daughters of Moab will be at the crossing places of the Arnon.

³“Give us advice, make a decision; Cast your shadow like night at high noon; Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

⁴Let the 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, Oppressors have been removed from the land.

⁵A throne will be established in faithfulness, And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of David; Moreover, he will seek justice, And be prompt in righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride; Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury; His idle boasts are false.

⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail. You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth As those who are utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of 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; Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah; I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh; For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

¹⁰Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field; In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting, No treader treads out wine in the presses, For I have made the shouting to cease.

¹¹Therefore my inner being sounds like a harp for Moab. And my heart for Kir-hareseth.

¹²So it will come about when Moab presents himself, When he tires himself upon his high place And comes to his sanctuary to pray, That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.

¹⁴But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a hired worker would count them, the glory of Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent.”

¹The pronouncement concerning Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin.

²The cities of Aroer are abandoned; They will be for herds to lie down in, And there will be no one to frighten them.

³The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the glory of the sons of Israel,” Declares the LORD of armies.

⁴Now on that day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become lean.

⁵It will be like the reaper gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain In the Valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet gleanings will be left in it like the 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.

⁷On that day man will look to his Maker And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made, Even the Asherim and incense altars.

⁹On that day their strong cities will be like abandoned places in the forest, Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel; And the land will be a desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation And have not remembered the rock of your refuge. Therefore you plant delightful plants And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.

¹¹On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in, And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom; But the harvest will flee On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹²Oh, the uproar of many peoples Who roar like the roaring of the seas, And the rumbling of nations Who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!

¹³The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, But He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, And be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, Or like whirling dust before a gale.

¹⁴At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning they are gone. This will be the fate of those who plunder us And the lot of those who pillage us.

¹Woe, land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,

²Which sends messengers by the sea, Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, To a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation Whose land the rivers divide.

³All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth, As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it, And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look from My dwelling place Like dazzling heat in the sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, as soon as the bud 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.

⁶They will be left together for mountain birds 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.

⁷At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies From a people tall and smooth, From a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.

¹The pronouncement concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, And to mediums and spiritists.

⁴Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of armies.

⁵The waters from the sea will dry up, And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸And the fishermen will grieve, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.

¹⁰And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed; All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The officials of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

¹²Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of armies Has planned against Egypt.

¹³The officials of Zoan have turned out to be fools, The officials of Memphis are deluded; Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes Have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of armies, which He is going to wave over them.

¹⁷The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the LORD of armies which He is making against them.

¹⁸On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of armies; one will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the LORD beside its border.

²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will save them.

²¹So the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.

²²And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³On that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,

²⁵whom the LORD of armies has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”