Moab's Hopeless Situation

¹From the city of Sela in the desert the people of Moab send a lamb as a present to the one who rules in Jerusalem.

²They wait on the banks of the Arnon River and move aimlessly back and forth, like birds driven from their nest.

³They say to the people of Judah, “Tell us what to do. Protect us like a tree that casts a cool shadow in the heat of noon, and let us rest in your shade. We are refugees; hide us where no one can find us.

⁴Let us stay in your land. Protect us from those who want to destroy us.” (Oppression and destruction will end, and those who are devastating the country will be gone.

⁵Then one of David's descendants will be king, and he will rule the people with faithfulness and love. He will be quick to do what is right, and he will see that justice is done.)

⁶The people of Judah say, “We have heard how proud the people of Moab are. We know that they are arrogant and conceited, but their boasts are empty.”

⁷The people of Moab will weep because of the troubles they suffer. They will all weep when they remember the fine food they used to eat in the city of Kir Heres. They will be driven to despair.

⁸The farms near Heshbon and the vineyards of Sibmah are destroyed—those vineyards whose wine used to make the rulers of the nations drunk. At one time the vines spread as far as the city of Jazer, and eastward into the desert, and westward to the other side of the Dead Sea.

⁹Now I weep for Sibmah's vines as I weep for Jazer. My tears fall for Heshbon and Elealeh, because there is no harvest to make the people glad.

¹⁰No one is happy now in the fertile fields. No one shouts or sings in the vineyards. No one tramples grapes to make wine; the shouts of joy are ended.

¹¹I groan with sadness for Moab, with grief for Kir Heres.

¹²The people of Moab wear themselves out going to their mountain shrines and to their temples to pray, but it will do them no good.

¹³That is the message the Lord gave earlier about Moab.

¹⁴And now the Lord says, “In exactly three years Moab's great wealth will disappear. Of its many people, only a few will survive, and they will be weak.”

God Will Punish Syria and Israel

¹The Lord said, “Damascus will not be a city any longer; it will be only a pile of ruins.

²The cities of Syria will be deserted forever. They will be a pasture for sheep and cattle, and no one will drive them away.

³Israel will be defenseless, and Damascus will lose its independence. Those Syrians who survive will be in disgrace like the people of Israel. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.”

⁴The Lord said, “A day is coming when Israel's greatness will come to an end, and its wealth will be replaced by poverty.

⁵Israel will be like a field where the grain has been cut and harvested, as desolate as a field in Rephaim Valley when it has been picked bare.

⁶Only a few people will survive, and Israel will be like an olive tree from which all the olives have been picked except two or three at the very top, or a few that are left on the lower branches. I, the Lord God of Israel, have spoken.”

⁷When that day comes, people will turn for help to their Creator, the holy God of Israel.

⁸They will no longer rely on the altars they made with their own hands, or trust in their own handiwork—symbols of the goddess Asherah and altars for burning incense.

⁹When that day comes, well-defended cities will be deserted and left in ruins like the cities that the Hivites and the Amorites abandoned as they fled from the people of Israel.

¹⁰Israel, you have forgotten the God who rescues you and protects you like a mighty rock. Instead, you plant sacred gardens in order to worship a foreign god.

¹¹But even if they sprouted and blossomed the very morning you planted them, there would still be no harvest. There would be only trouble and incurable pain.

Enemy Nations Are Defeated

¹²Powerful nations are in commotion with a sound like the roar of the sea, like the crashing of huge waves.

¹³The nations advance like rushing waves, but God reprimands them and they retreat, driven away like dust on a mountainside, like straw in a whirlwind.

¹⁴At evening they cause terror, but by morning they are gone. That is the fate of everyone who plunders our land.

God Will Judge the Nations

¹The Lord says, “At that time I will restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem.

²I will gather all the nations and bring them to the Valley of Judgment. There I will judge them for all they have done to my people. They have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided Israel, my land.

³They threw dice to decide who would get the captives. They sold boys and girls into slavery to pay for prostitutes and wine.

⁴“What are you trying to do to me, Tyre, Sidon, and all of Philistia? Are you trying to pay me back for something? If you are, I will quickly pay you back!

⁵You have taken my silver and gold and carried my rich treasures into your temples.

⁶You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks.

⁷Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them.

⁸I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁹“Make this announcement among the nations: ‘Prepare for war; call your warriors; gather all your soldiers and march!

¹⁰Hammer the points of your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Even the weak must fight.

¹¹Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather in the valley.’” Send down, O Lord, your army to attack them!

¹²“The nations must get ready and come to the Valley of Judgment. There I, the Lord, will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

¹³They are very wicked; cut them down like grain at harvest time; crush them as grapes are crushed in a full wine press until the wine runs over.”

¹⁴Thousands and thousands are in the Valley of Judgment. It is there that the day of the Lord will soon come.

¹⁵The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars no longer shine.

God Will Bless His People

¹⁶The Lord roars from Mount Zion; his voice thunders from Jerusalem; earth and sky tremble. But he will defend his people.

¹⁷“Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God. I live on Zion, my sacred hill. Jerusalem will be a sacred city; foreigners will never conquer it again.

¹⁸At that time the mountains will be covered with vineyards, and cattle will be found on every hill; there will be plenty of water for all of Judah. A stream will flow from the Temple of the Lord, and it will water Acacia Valley.

¹⁹“Egypt will become a desert, and Edom a ruined waste, because they attacked the land of Judah and killed its innocent people.

^20-21I will avenge those who were killed; I will not spare the guilty. But Judah and Jerusalem will be inhabited forever, and I, the Lord, will live on Mount Zion.”

²¹A good person's words will benefit many people, but you can kill yourself with stupidity.

²²It is the Lord's blessing that makes you wealthy. Hard work can make you no richer.

²³It is foolish to enjoy doing wrong. Intelligent people take pleasure in wisdom.

²⁴The righteous get what they want, but the wicked will get what they fear most.