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Chapter 49

Against the Ammonites. Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the Lord:

Has Israel no sons?
    none to inherit?
Why has Milcom[a] disinherited Gad,
    why are his people living in its cities?
Therefore the days are coming—oracle of the Lord
    when I will sound the battle alarm
    against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
It shall become a mound of ruins,
    and its villages destroyed by fire.
Israel shall then inherit those who disinherited it—
    oracle of the Lord.(A)
Wail, Heshbon, “The ruin is destroyed!”
    shriek, villages of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth and lament!
    Run back and forth in the sheepfolds.
For Milcom is going into exile,
    taking priest and prince with him.(B)
Why boast in your strength,
    your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter?
Why trust in your treasures, saying,
    “Who would dare attack me?”
See, I am bringing terror upon you—
    oracle of the Lord God of hosts—
    from all around you;
You shall be scattered, each in headlong flight,
    with no one to gather the fugitives.(C)
But afterward I will restore the fortunes
    of the Ammonites—oracle of the Lord.

Against Edom.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 49:1 Milcom: chief god of the Ammonites (cf. 1 Kgs 11:5). The Ammonites shared a border with Gad, an Israelite tribe in Transjordan (Jos 13:8–10); the Ammonites occupied its territory after the collapse of the Northern Kingdom.
  2. 49:7–22 Edom: southeast of the Dead Sea, a traditional enemy who profited from Judah’s downfall; cf. Ps 137:7; Lam 4:21–22; Ob 11–12.

Ammon

13 Thus says the Lord:

For three crimes of the Ammonites, and now four—
    I will not take it back—
Because they ripped open pregnant women in Gilead,(A)
    in order to extend their territory,
14 I will kindle a fire upon the wall of Rabbah,[a]
    and it will devour its strongholds
Amid war cries on the day of battle,
    amid stormwind on the day of tempest.
15 Their king shall go into exile,
    he and his princes with him, says the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. 1:14 Rabbah: now called Amman, the modern capital of Jordan.

I have heard the taunts uttered by Moab,
    and the insults of the Ammonites,[a]
When they taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.(A)
Therefore, as I live—
    oracle of the Lord of hosts—
    the God of Israel,
Moab shall become like Sodom,
    the Ammonites like Gomorrah:
A field of weeds,
    a salt pit,
    a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    the survivors of my nation dispossess them.
10 This will be the recompense for their pride,
    because they taunted and boasted against
    the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord shall inspire them with terror
    when he makes all the gods of earth waste away;
Then the distant shores of the nations,
    each from its own place,
    shall bow down to him.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:8 Moab…Ammonites: Judah’s neighbors to the East across the Jordan.