Thus says the Lord:
a“For three transgressions of Moab, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because he bburned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab,
And it shall devour the palaces of aKerioth;
Moab shall die with tumult,
With shouting and trumpet sound.
3 And I will cut off athe judge from its midst,
And slay all its princes with him,”
Says the Lord.
Judgment on Judah
4 Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of aJudah, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
bBecause they have despised the law of the Lord,
And have not kept His commandments.
cTheir lies lead them astray,
Lies dwhich their fathers followed.
5 aBut I will send a fire upon Judah,
And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
Judgment on Israel
6 Thus says the Lord:
“For three transgressions of aIsrael, and for four,
I will not turn away its punishment,
Because bthey sell the righteous for silver,
And the cpoor for a pair of sandals.
7 They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor,
And apervert the way of the humble.
bA man and his father go in to the same girl,
cTo defile My holy name.
8 They lie down aby every altar on clothes btaken in pledge,
And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9 “Yet it was I who destroyed the aAmorite before them,
Whose height was like the bheight of the cedars,
And he was as strong as the oaks;
Yet I cdestroyed his fruit above
And his roots beneath.
10 Also it was aI who brought you up from the land of Egypt,
And bled you forty years through the wilderness,
To possess the land of the Amorite.
11 I raised up some of your sons as aprophets,
And some of your young men as bNazirites.
Is it not so, O you children of Israel?”
Says the Lord.
12 “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,
And commanded the prophets asaying,
‘Do not prophesy!’
13 “Behold,a I am weighed down by you,
As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.
14 aTherefore flight shall perish from the swift,
The strong shall not strengthen his power,
bNor shall the mighty deliver himself;
15 He shall not stand who handles the bow,
The swift of foot shall not escape,
Nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself.
16 The most courageous men of might
Shall flee naked in that day,”
Says the Lord.
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved.