Jeremiah 45-48

Complete Jewish Bible

³ ‘Woe to me now!
Adonai has compounded my pain with sorrow,
I am weary from groaning,
and I can find no relief!’

‘I will tear down what I built up,
I will uproot what I planted,
and this throughout the land.

³ “Prepare breastplate and shield! Advance to battle!
⁴ Harness the horses! Riders, mount!
[Troops,] fall in! Helmets in place!
Polish the spears! Coats of mail on!

⁵ “Why do I see them retreating in panic,
their heroes routed, fleeing headlong,
not looking back, terror all around?”

asks Adonai.

⁶ “The swift cannot flee, nor the heroes escape.
In the north, by the Euphrates River,
they have stumbled and fallen.”

⁷ Who is this, rising up like the Nile,
like rivers whose waters surge out in flood?
⁸ It is Egypt, rising up like the Nile,
like rivers whose waters surge out in flood,
saying, “I will surge out and cover the earth,
destroying the city along with its people.”

⁹ Charge, horses! Full speed ahead, chariots!
Let the warriors attack! —
Kush and Put, bearing their shields,
and the Ludim, strung bows in hand.

¹⁰ For on that day Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
will have a day of vengeance
for avenging himself on his enemies.
The sword will destroy, have its fill,
be made drunk on their blood.
Yes, Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot
decrees slaughter in the land to the north
by the Euphrates River.

¹¹ Go up to Gil‘ad for its healing resin,
virgin daughter of Egypt.
You try many medicines, all in vain;
for you there is no cure.
¹² The nations have heard about your disgrace;
your shrieks fill the earth
as warrior trips over warrior,
both falling down together.

¹⁴ “Proclaim in Egypt, announce in Migdol,
announce in Nof and Tachpanches;
say: ‘Take your stand! Get ready!
For all around you the sword is destroying.
¹⁵ Why has your strong one been overthrown?
He failed to stand because Adonai pushed him down.
¹⁶ He caused many to trip;
yes, they fell all over each other.’”

Then they said, “Let’s get up,
let’s return to our own people,
back to the land where we were born,
away from the sword that destroys.”
¹⁷ They cried there, “Pharaoh king of Egypt makes noise,
but he lets the right time [for action] slip by.”

¹⁸ “As I live,” says the king,
whose name is Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“when he comes, he will be [as mighty]
as Tavor among the mountains,
as Karmel next to the sea.

¹⁹ “Daughter living in Egypt,
prepare what you need for exile;
for Nof will become a ruin,
laid waste, without inhabitant.
²⁰ Egypt is a beautiful female calf;
but a horsefly from the north has come to attack her.
²¹ Her mercenaries too, that she had with her,
were like well-fed calves in a stable;
but they too have withdrawn in retreat,
they all ran away without standing their ground.
For their day of disaster has come over them,
the time for them to be punished.
²² Egypt hisses like a snake,
as the enemy’s army marches ahead,
attacking her with their axes
like lumbermen chopping trees.
²³ They cut down her forest,” says Adonai,
“for they cannot be numbered;
yes, there are more of them than locusts,
far too many to count.
²⁴ The daughter of Egypt is put to shame,
handed over to the people from the north.”

²⁷ “Yet don’t be afraid, Ya‘akov my servant;
don’t be distressed, Isra’el.
For I will save you from faraway places,
and your offspring from the lands where they are held captive.
Ya‘akov will return and be at peace,
quiet, with no one to make him afraid.
²⁸ Don’t be afraid, Ya‘akov my servant,”
says Adonai, “for I am with you.
I will finish off all the nations
where I have scattered you.
However, you I will not finish off,
I will discipline you as you deserve,
but not completely destroy you.”

47 This word of Adonai came to Yirmeyahu the prophet concerning the P’lishtim before Pharaoh attacked ‘Azah: ² “Here is what Adonai says:

‘Water is rising out of the north;
it will become a flooding stream,
flooding the land and all that is in it,
the city and its inhabitants.
The people are crying out in alarm,
everyone in the land is weeping
³ at the thunderous pound of his stallions’ hoofs,
at his rattling chariots’ rumbling wheels.
Fathers fail to turn back for their children;
instead, their hands hang limp,
⁴ because the day has come
for destroying all the P’lishtim,
for cutting off from Tzor and Tzidon
the last of their allies;
for Adonai is destroying the P’lishtim,
the remnant from the island of Kaftor.
⁵ ‘Azah is shaved bald,
Ashkelon reduced to silence.
Those of you who remain in their valley,
how long will you go on gashing yourselves?’”

⁶ Oh, sword of Adonai,
how long till you can be quiet?
Put yourself back in your scabbard!
Stop! Be still!
⁷ But how can you be still?
For Adonai has given it orders
against Ashkelon, against the seacoast;
he has assigned it its task there.

“Woe to N’vo, for it is ravaged;
Kiryatayim disgraced and captured.
Misgav is put to shame, distressed.

² “In Mo’av, nothing is left to praise.
At Heshbon they plotted her downfall:
‘Come, we’ll cut her off as a nation.’
You too, Madmein, will be silenced;
the sword pursues behind you.
³ An agonized cry from Horonayim,
ruin, terrible devastation!
⁴ Mo’av has been shattered;
the cries of her young ones are heard,
⁵ as they ascend the slopes of Luchit,
weeping bitterly as they climb.
On the road down to Horonayim
shrieks of destruction ring out.”

⁶ Flee! Save your lives!
Be strong, like a tamarisk in the desert.
⁷ Because you trust in your deeds and your wealth,
you too will be captured.
Together with his priests and princes,
K’mosh will go into exile.
⁸ A destroyer will descend on every city,
no city will escape.
The valley too will perish,
the plain will be laid waste,
as Adonai as said.

⁹ Give Mo’av wings,
so it can fly and get away.
Its cities will become ruins,
with no one to live in them.
¹⁰ A curse on him who does the work
of Adonai carelessly!
A curse on him who withholds his sword
from blood!

¹¹ Mo’av has lived at ease from his youth;
he is [wine] settled on its dregs,
not decanted from jar to jar —
he has not gone into exile.
Therefore it retains its own [bad] taste,
its aroma remains unchanged.

¹² “So the days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will send people to tilt him; they will tilt his jars, emptying them and shattering the wine-flasks to pieces. ¹³ Mo’av will be disappointed by K’mosh then, just as the house of Isra’el was disappointed by Beit-El, a god in whom they had put their trust.

¹⁴ “How can you say, ‘We are heroes,
warriors valiant in battle’?
¹⁵ They are ravaging Mo’av, attacking its cities;
its best young men go down to be slaughtered,”
says the king, whose name is Adonai-Tzva’ot.

¹⁶ Mo’av’s ruin is coming soon,
its disaster speeds on swiftly.
¹⁷ Pity him, all of you who are near him,
all of you who know his name;
say, “How the mighty scepter is shattered,
that splendid staff!”
¹⁸ Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst,
daughter living in Divon;
for Mo’av’s destroyer advances on you;
he has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹ Stand by the road and watch,
inhabitant of ‘Aro‘er;
ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping,
“What is going on?”

²⁰ Mo’av is disgraced, indeed, destroyed.
Wail aloud! Shriek!
Proclaim it by the Arnon
that Mo’av has been laid waste.

²¹ Judgment has come on the Plain — on Holon, Yachtzah, Mefa‘at, ²² Divon, N’vo, Beit-Diblatayim, ²³ Kiryatayim, Beit-Gamul, Beit-M‘on, ²⁴ K’riot, Botzrah and all the cities in the land of Mo’av, far and near.
²⁵ “Mo’av’s strength is cut down,
his arm is broken,” says Adonai.

²⁸ You who live in Mo’av,
leave the cities, and live on the rocks;
be like the dove who makes her nest
in a hole in the rock at the mouth of a cave.

²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Mo’av:
so very proud he is! —
presumptuous, proud, conceited;
so haughty his heart!

³⁰ “I know what meager ground he has
for his arrogance,” says Adonai.
“His boasting has nothing behind it,
and it hasn’t accomplished a thing.”

³¹ Therefore I wail for Mo’av;
for all Mo’av I cry;
for the people of Kir-Heres I lament.
³² I will weep for you, vineyard of Sivmah,
more than I wept for Ya‘zer.
Your branches spread to the sea,
reaching as far as the sea of Ya‘zer.
On your summer fruits and on your vintage
the destroyer has fallen.
³³ Gladness and joy have been removed
from productive fields and the land of Mo’av.
“I have stopped the flow of wine from the vats
and the shouts of those who tread the grapes —
those shouts of joy are stilled.”

³⁴ The cries from Heshbon to El‘aleh
are heard as far away as Yachatz;
those from Tzo‘ar to Horonayim
are heard in ‘Eglat-Shlishiyah;
for even the waters of Nimrim
have become a desolate waste.

³⁵ “Moreover,” says Adonai,
“in Mo’av I will put an end
to anyone sacrificing on a high place
or offering incense to his gods.”

³⁶ This is why my heart is moaning
for Mo’av like funeral flutes,
why my heart moans for the men
of Kir-Heres like funeral flutes;
for the wealth they produced has vanished.
³⁷ Every head has been shaved bald,
every beard has been clipped short,
gashes are on every hand,
sackcloth around every waist.
³⁸ On all the housetops of Mo’av
and in its open places —
lamentation everywhere!

“For I have broken Mo’av like a pot
that nobody wants,” says Adonai.

³⁹ Wail, “How shattered is Mo’av!
How shamefully in retreat!”
Thus will Mo’av become an object
of ridicule and distress to all its neighbors.

⁴⁰ For here is what Adonai says:
“Look! Down he swoops like a vulture,
spreading his wings against Mo’av —
⁴¹ the cities are captured, the strongholds are seized.
On that day the hearts of Mo’av’s warriors
will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
⁴² Mo’av will be destroyed as a people,
because he boasted against Adonai.
⁴³ Terror, pit and trap are upon you,
people of Mo’av,” says Adonai.
⁴⁴ “Whoever flees from the terror
will fall into the pit;
and he who climbs up out of the pit
will be caught in the trap.
For I will bring on her, on Mo’av,
the year for her punishment,” says Adonai.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon
the fugitives stop, exhausted.
For fire breaks out from Heshbon,
a flame from inside Sichon,
consuming the sides and tops of the heads
of Mo’av’s noisy boasters.
⁴⁶ Woe to you, Mo’av!
K’mosh’s people are doomed!
For your sons have been taken captive,
and your daughters led into captivity.
⁴⁷ Yet I will end Mo’av’s exile
in the acharit-hayamim,” says Adonai.

This is the judgment on Mo’av.