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Holman Christian Standard Bible (239 page)

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Prophecies against Edom
7
 About Edom, this is what the
Lord
of Hosts says:
Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? 
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom rotted away? 
8
 Run! Turn back! Lie low,
residents of Dedan, 
for I will bring Esau's calamity on him
at the time I punish him. 
9
 If grape harvesters came to you,
wouldn't they leave some gleanings? 
Were thieves to come in the night,
they would destroy only what they wanted. 
10
 But I will strip Esau bare;
I will uncover his secret places. 
He will try to hide himself, but he will be unable.
His descendants will be destroyed
along with his relatives and neighbors.
He will exist no longer.
11
 Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them;
let your widows trust in Me. 
12
 “For this is what the
Lord
says: If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too.
13
 For by Myself I have sworn” — this is the
Lord
's declaration — “Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will become ruins forever.” 
14
 I have heard a message from the 
Lord
;
a messenger has been sent among the nations:
Assemble yourselves to come against her.
Rise up for war!
15
 Look, I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations,
despised among humanity.
16
 As to the terror you cause, 
your presumptuous heart has deceived you.
You who live in the clefts of the rock, 
you who occupy the mountain summit,
though you elevate your nest like the eagle,
even from there I will bring you down.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration. 
17
 “Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be horrified and scoff because of all her wounds. 
18
 As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the
Lord
, “no one will live there; no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident. 
19
 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. Indeed, I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like Me? Who will summon Me? Who is the shepherd who can stand against Me? ”
20
 Therefore, hear the plans that the
Lord
has drawn up against Edom and the strategies He has devised against the people of Teman: The flock's little lambs will certainly be dragged away, and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them.
21
 At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; the sound of her cry will be heard at the
•Red
Sea. 
22
 Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom's warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions. 
Prophecies against Damascus
23
 About Damascus: 
Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, 
for they have heard a bad report and are agitated;
in the sea there is anxiety that cannot be calmed.
24
 Damascus has become weak;
she has turned to run;
panic has gripped her.
Distress and labor pains have seized her
like a woman in labor.
25
 How can the city of praise not be abandoned, 
the town that brings Me joy?
26
 Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the declaration of
the 
Lord
of Hosts. 
27
 I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;
it will consume Ben-hadad's citadels. 
Prophecies against Kedar and Hazor
28
 About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon's king, defeated, this is what the
Lord
says:
Rise up, go against Kedar,
and destroy the people of the east!
29
 They will take their tents and their flocks
along with their tent curtains and all their equipment.
They will take their camels for themselves.
They will call out to them:
Terror is on every side! 
30
 Run! Escape quickly! Lie low,
residents of Hazor —
this is the 
Lord
's declaration —
for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
has drawn up a plan against you;
he has devised a strategy against you.
31
 Rise up, go up against a nation at ease,
one living in security.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
They have no doors, not even a gate bar;
they live alone. 
32
 Their camels will become plunder,
and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil. 
I will scatter them to the wind in every direction,
those who shave their temples;
I will bring calamity on them across all their borders.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
33
 Hazor will become a jackals' den, 
a desolation forever.
No one will live there;
no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident. 
Prophecies against Elam
34
 This is the word of the
Lord
that came to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. 
35
 This is what the
Lord
of Hosts says:
I am about to shatter Elam's bow, 
the source of their might.
36
 I will bring the four winds against Elam
from the four corners of the heavens,
and I will scatter them to all these winds.
There will not be a nation
to which Elam's banished ones will not go.
37
 I will devastate Elam before their enemies,
before those who want to take their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
My burning anger.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
I will send the sword after them 
until I finish them off.
38
 I will set My throne in Elam,
and I will destroy the king and officials from there.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
39
 In the last days,
I will restore the fortunes of Elam. 
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
Jeremiah
Prophecies against Babylon
50
The word the
Lord
spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
2
 Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag; 
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say: Babylon is captured;
Bel is put to shame;
Marduk is devastated;
her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
3
 For a nation from the north will come against her; 
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it —
both man and beast will escape. 
4
 In those days and at that time —
this is the 
Lord
's declaration —
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,
weeping as they come,
and will seek the 
Lord
their God. 
5
 They will ask about 
•Zion
,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves to the 
Lord
in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
6
 My people are lost sheep; 
their shepherds have led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. 
They have wandered from mountain to hill;
they have forgotten their resting place.
7
 All who found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We're not 
•guilty
;
instead, they have sinned against the 
Lord
,
their righteous grazing land, 
the hope of their ancestors, the 
Lord
.”
8
 Escape from Babylon; 
depart from the Chaldeans' land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9
 For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled  warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10
 The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon's plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the 
Lord
's declaration.
11
 Because you rejoice,
because you sing in triumph —
you who plundered My inheritance —
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
and neigh like stallions, 
12
 your mother will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all  the nations —
a dry land, a wilderness, an 
•Arabah
.
13
 Because of the 
Lord
's wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be horrified
and scoff because of all her wounds. 
14
 Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare an arrow,
for she has sinned against the 
Lord
.
15
 Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished. 
Since this is the 
Lord
's vengeance, 
take out your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
16
 Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor's sword, 
each will turn to his own people, 
each will flee to his own land.
The Return of God's People
17
 Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions. 
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last one who crushed his bones
was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 
18
 Therefore, this is what the
Lord
of
•Hosts
, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19
 I will return Israel to his grazing land,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead. 
20
 In those days and at that time —
this is the 
Lord
's declaration —
one will search for Israel's guilt,
but there will be none,
and for Judah's sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant. 
The Invasion of Babylon
21
 “Go against the land of Merathaim,
and against those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
•completely
destroy them —
this is the 
Lord
's declaration —
do everything I have commanded you. 
22
 The sound of war is in the land  —
a great destruction.
23
 How the hammer of the whole earth
is cut down and smashed!
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations! 
24
 Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught, 
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you fought against the 
Lord
.
25
 The
Lord
opened His armory
and brought out His weapons of wrath, 
because it is a task of the Lord 
God
of Hosts
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26
 Come against her from the most distant places. 
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
27
 Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come,
the time of their punishment. 
BOOK: Holman Christian Standard Bible
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