1
This is a message about Moab. The cities of Ar and Kir are destroyed in a single night, and silence covers the land of Moab.
2
The people of Dibon climb the hill to weep at the shrine. The people of Moab wail in grief over the cities of Nebo and Medeba; they have shaved their heads and their beards in grief.
3
The people in the streets are dressed in sackcloth; in the city squares and on the rooftops people mourn and cry.
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The people of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, and their cry can be heard as far away as Jahaz. Even the soldiers tremble; their courage is gone.
5
My heart cries out for Moab! The people have fled to the town of Zoar, and to Eglath Shelishiyah. Some climb the road to Luhith, weeping as they go; some escape to Horonaim, grieving loudly.
6
Nimrim Brook is dry, the grass beside it has withered, and nothing green is left.
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The people go across the Valley of Willows, trying to escape with all their possessions.
8
Everywhere at Moab's borders the sound of crying is heard. It is heard at the towns of Eglaim and Beerelim.
9
At the town of Dibon the river is red with blood, and God has something even worse in store for the people there. Yes, there will be a bloody slaughter of everyone left in Moab.
1
From the city of Sela in the desert the people of Moab send a lamb as a present to the one who rules in Jerusalem.
2
They wait on the banks of the Arnon River and move aimlessly back and forth, like birds driven from their nest.
3
They 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.
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Let 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.
5
Then 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.)
6
The 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."
7
The 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.
8
The 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.
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Now 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.
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No 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.
11
I groan with sadness for Moab, with grief for Kir Heres.
12
The people of Moab wear themselves out going to their mountain shrines and to their temples to pray, but it will do them no good.
13
That is the message the LORD gave earlier about Moab.
14
And 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."
1
The LORD said, "Damascus will not be a city any longer; it will be only a pile of ruins.
2
The cities of Syria will be deserted forever. They will be a pasture for sheep and cattle, and no one will drive them away.
3
Israel 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."
4
The LORD said, "A day is coming when Israel's greatness will come to an end, and its wealth will be replaced by poverty.
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Israel 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.
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Only 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."
7
When that day comes, people will turn for help to their Creator, the holy God of Israel.
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They 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.
9
When 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.
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Israel, 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.
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But 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.
12
Powerful nations are in commotion with a sound like the roar of the sea, like the crashing of huge waves.
13
The nations advance like rushing waves, but God reprimands them and they retreat, driven away like dust on a mountainside, like straw in a whirlwind.
14
At evening they cause terror, but by morning they are gone. That is the fate of everyone who plunders our land.
1
Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia there is a land where the sound of wings is heard.
2
From that land ambassadors come down the Nile in boats made of reeds. Go back home, swift messengers! Take a message back to your land divided by rivers, to your strong and powerful nation, to your tall and smooth-skinned people, who are feared all over the world.
3
Listen, everyone who lives on earth! Look for a signal flag to be raised on the mountaintops! Listen for the blowing of the bugle!
4
The LORD said to me, "I will look down from heaven as quietly as the dew forms in the warm nights of harvest time, as serenely as the sun shines in the heat of the day.
5
Before the grapes are gathered, when the blossoms have all fallen and the grapes are ripening, the enemy will destroy the Ethiopians as easily as a knife cuts branches from a vine.
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The corpses of their soldiers will be left exposed to the birds and the wild animals. In summer the birds will feed on them, and in winter, the animals."
7
A time is coming when the LORD Almighty will receive offerings from this land divided by rivers, this strong and powerful nation, this tall and smooth-skinned people, who are feared all over the world. They will come to Mount Zion, where the LORD Almighty is worshiped.
1
The Jewish Law is not a full and faithful model of the real things; it is only a faint outline of the good things to come. The same sacrifices are offered forever, year after year. How can the Law, then, by means of these sacrifices make perfect the people who come to God?
2
If the people worshiping God had really been purified from their sins, they would not feel guilty of sin any more, and all sacrifices would stop.
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As it is, however, the sacrifices serve year after year to remind people of their sins.
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For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins.
5
For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, he said to God: "You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for me.
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You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins.
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Then I said, 'Here I am, to do your will, O God, just as it is written of me in the book of the Law.' "
8
First he said, "You neither want nor are you pleased with sacrifices and offerings or with animals burned on the altar and the sacrifices to take away sins." He said this even though all these sacrifices are offered according to the Law.
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Then he said, "Here I am, O God, to do your will." So God does away with all the old sacrifices and puts the sacrifice of Christ in their place.
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Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that he made of his own body once and for all.
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Every Jewish priest performs his services every day and offers the same sacrifices many times; but these sacrifices can never take away sins.
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Christ, however, offered one sacrifice for sins, an offering that is effective forever, and then he sat down at the right side of God.
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There he now waits until God puts his enemies as a footstool under his feet.
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With one sacrifice, then, he has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin.
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And the Holy Spirit also gives us his witness. First he says,
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"This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds."
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And then he says, "I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer."
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So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins is no longer needed.
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We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus.
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He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain---that is, through his own body.
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We have a great priest in charge of the house of God.
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So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.
23
Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise.
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Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.
25
Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.
26
For there is no longer any sacrifice that will take away sins if we purposely go on sinning after the truth has been made known to us.
27
Instead, all that is left is to wait in fear for the coming Judgment and the fierce fire which will destroy those who oppose God!
28
Anyone who disobeys the Law of Moses is put to death without any mercy when judged guilty from the evidence of two or more witnesses.
29
What, then, of those who despise the Son of God? who treat as a cheap thing the blood of God's covenant which purified them from sin? who insult the Spirit of grace? Just think how much worse is the punishment they will deserve!
30
For we know who said, "I will take revenge, I will repay"; and who also said, "The Lord will judge his people."
31
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
32
Remember how it was with you in the past. In those days, after God's light had shone on you, you suffered many things, yet were not defeated by the struggle.
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You were at times publicly insulted and mistreated, and at other times you were ready to join those who were being treated in this way.
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You shared the sufferings of prisoners, and when all your belongings were seized, you endured your loss gladly, because you knew that you still possessed something much better, which would last forever.
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Do not lose your courage, then, because it brings with it a great reward.
36
You need to be patient, in order to do the will of God and receive what he promises.
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For, as the scripture says, "Just a little while longer, and he who is coming will come; he will not delay.
38
My righteous people, however, will believe and live; but if any of them turns back, I will not be pleased with them."
39
We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.
