Jeremias 31
1 Thus has the Lord said concerning MOAB, Woe to Nabau! for it has perished: Cariathaim is taken: Amath and Agath are put to shame.
“In that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 There is no longer any healing for Moab, [nor] glorying in Esebon: he has devised evils against her: we have cut her off from [being] a nation, and she shall be completely still: after you shall go a sword;
Thus says the Lord: “The people who had remained after the sword, found grace in the desert. Israel will go to his rest.”
3 for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.
The Lord appeared to me from a distance: “And I have loved you in perpetual charity. Therefore, showing pity, I have drawn you.
4 Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zogora:
And I will build you up again. And you shall be built up, O virgin of Israel. Still shall you be adorned with your timbrels, and still shall you go forth to the singing of those who play.
5 for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; you have heard a cry of destruction.
Still shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and they will not gather the vintage until the time arrives.
6 Flee you, and save your lives, and you shall be as a wild ass in the desert.
For there will be a day on which the guardians on mount Ephraim will cry out: ‘Arise! And let us ascend on Zion to the Lord our God!’”
7 Since you have trusted in your strong-hold, therefore you shall be taken: and Chamos shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together.
For thus says the Lord: “Exult in the joy of Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles. Shout, and sing, and say: ‘O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’
8 And destruction shall come upon every city, it shall by no means escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain country shall be completely destroyed, as the Lord has said.
Behold, I will lead them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, she who is with child, together with she who is giving birth: a great assembly returning to this place.
9 Set marks upon Moab, for she shall be touched with a plague-spot, and all her cities shall become desolate; whence [shall there be] an inhabitant for her?
They will approach with weeping. And I will lead them back with mercy. And I will lead them through the torrents of water, by an upright way, and they will not stumble in it. For I have become Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”
10 Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.
Listen to the word of the Lord, O Gentiles, and announce it amid the islands that are far away, and say: “Whoever has scattered Israel will gather him, and he will guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.”
11 Moab has been at ease from a child, and trusted in his glory; he has not poured out [his liquor] from vessel to vessel, and has not gone into banishment, therefore his taste remained in him, and his smell departed not.
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and he has freed him from the hand of one more powerful.
12 Therefore, behold, his days come, says the Lord, when I shall send upon him bad leaders, and they shall lead him astray, and they shall utterly break in pieces his possessions, and shall cut his horns asunder.
And they will arrive and give praise on Mount Zion. And they will flow together, to the good things of the Lord, over grain, and wine, and oil, and the offspring of cattle and herds. And their soul will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer be hungry.
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Baethel their hope, having trusted in them.
Then the virgin will rejoice with singing, the young and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into gladness, and I will console them and gladden them after their sorrow.
14 How will you say, We are strong, and men strong for war?
And I will inebriate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled with my good things, says the Lord.”
15 Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.
Thus says the Lord: “A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not.”
16 The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance].
Thus says the Lord: “Let your voice cease from crying and your eyes from tears. For there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And they will return from the land of the enemy.
17 Shake [the head] at him, all you that are round about him; all [of you] utter his name; say you, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!
And there is hope for your very end, says the Lord. And the sons will return to their own borders.
18 Come down from [your] glory, and sit down in a damp place: Daebon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against you one to ravage your strong-hold.
Listening, I heard Ephraim going into captivity: ‘You have chastised me, and I was instructed, like a young untamed bull. Convert me, and I shall be converted. For you are the Lord my God.
19 Stand by the way, and look, you that dwell in Arer; and ask him that is fleeing, and him that escapes, and say, What has happened?
For after you converted me, I did penance. And after you revealed to me, I struck my thigh. I am confounded and ashamed. For I have endured the disgrace of my youth.’
20 Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished.
Certainly, Ephraim is an honorable son to me; surely, he is a tender child. For I will still remember him, as in the time when I first spoke about him. Because my heart is stirred up over him, surely I will take pity on him, says the Lord.
21 And judgement is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,
Establish a watchtower for yourself. Place yourself in bitterness. Direct your heart into the upright way, in which you used to walk. Return, return, O virgin of Israel, to these your cities!
22 and upon Daebon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Daethlathaim,
How long will you be absorbed in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created something new upon the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
23 and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gaemol, and upon the house of Maon,
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Still they will speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I will convert their captivity: ‘May the Lord bless you, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.’
24 and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.
And they will live in it: Judah together with all its cities, the farmer and those who drive the flocks.
25 The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.
For I have inebriated the weary soul, and I have satisfied every hungry soul.
26 Make you him drunk; for he has magnified himself against the Lord: and Moab shall clap with his hand, and shall be also himself a laughing stock.
Over this, I was awakened, as if from a deep sleep. And I saw, and my sleep became sweet to me.
27 For surely Israel was to you a laughing stock, and was found amongst your thefts, because you did fight against him.
Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and with the offspring of cattle.
28 The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and lived in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.
And just as I have watched over them, so that I may root up, and tear down, and scatter, and destroy, and afflict, so will I watch over them, so that I may build and plant them, says the Lord.
29 And I have heard of the pride of Moab, he has greatly heightened his pride and his haughtiness, and his heart has been lifted up.
In those days, they will no longer say: ‘The fathers ate a bitter grape, and the teeth of the sons have been affected.’
30 But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?
Instead, each one will die for his own iniquity. Each man who will have eaten a bitter grape, his own teeth will be affected.
31 Therefore howl you for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for you,
Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will form a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 O vine of Aserema, as with the weeping of Jazer: your branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon your fruits, [and] upon your grape gatherers.
not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, so as to lead them away from the land of Egypt, the covenant which they nullified, though I was the ruler over them, says the Lord.
33 Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and [though] there was wine in your presses, in the morning they trod it not, neither in the evening did they raise the cry of joy.
But this will be the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law to their inner most being, and I will write it upon their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 From the cry of Esebon even to Aetam their cities uttered their voice, from Zogor to Oronaim, and their tidings [as] a heifer of three years old, for the water also of Nebrin shall be dried up.
And they will no longer teach, a man his neighbor, and a man his brother, saying: ‘Know the Lord.’ For all will know me, from the littlest of them even to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin.
35 And I will destroy Moab, says the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.
Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun as the light of the day, who puts the moon and the stars in order as the light of the night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is his name.
36 Therefore the heart of Moab shall sound as pipes, my heart shall sound as a pipe for the shorn men; forasmuch as what [every] man has gained has perished from him.
If these laws fail in my sight, says the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also fail, so that they will not be a people in my sight for all time.”
37 They shall all have their heads shaved in every place, and every beard shall be shaved; and all hands shall beat [the breasts], and on all loins shall be sackcloth.
Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above are able to be measured, and if the foundations of the earth beneath can be examined, I also will cast aside all the offspring of Israel, because of all that they have done, says the Lord.
38 And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets [shall be mourning]: for I have broken [him], says the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless.
Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when a city will be built for the Lord from the tower of Hananel, even to the Gate of the Corner;
39 How has he changed! how has Moab turned [his] back! Moab is put to shame, and become a laughing stock, and an object of anger to all that are round about him.
and the measuring line will go on even further in his sight, over the hill of Gareb, and it will encircle Goah
40 For thus said the Lord;
and the entire Valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the entire region of death, even to the torrent of Kedron, and to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east. All this will be the holy place of the Lord. It will not be rooted up, and it will not be torn down, anymore, forever.”
41 Carioth is taken, and the strongholds have been taken together.
42 And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.
43 A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon you, O inhabitant of Moab.
44 He that flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he that comes up out of the pit shall even be taken in the snare: for I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their visitation.
