Jeremiah 48:26-39 - Moab Will Be Humbled

²⁶ “Make him drunk, for he has become arrogant and magnified himself against the Lord [by denying Reuben’s occupation of the land the Lord had assigned him]. Moab also will wallow in his vomit, and he too shall become a laughingstock. ²⁷ For was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he caught among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head in scorn.

²⁸
“You inhabitants of Moab,
Leave the cities and live among the rocks,
And be like the dove that makes her nest
In the walls of the yawning ravine.

²⁹
“We have heard of the [giddy] pride of Moab, the extremely proud one—
His haughtiness, his arrogance, his conceit, and his self-exaltation.
³⁰
“I know his [insolent] wrath,” says the Lord,
“But it is futile;
His idle boasts [in his deeds] have accomplished nothing.
³¹
“Therefore I will wail over Moab,
And I will cry out for all Moab.
I will sigh and mourn over the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth).
³²
“O vines of Sibmah, I will weep for you
More than the weeping of Jazer [over its ruins and wasted vineyards].
Your tendrils [of influence] stretched across the sea,
Reaching [even] to the sea of Jazer.
The destroyer has fallen
On your summer fruits and your [season’s] crop of grapes.
³³
“So joy and gladness are taken away
From the fruitful field and from the land of Moab.
And I have made the wine cease from the wine presses;
No one treads the grapes with shouting.
Their shouting is not joyful shouting [but is instead, a battle cry].

³⁴ From the outcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have raised their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolations. ³⁵ Moreover, I will cause to cease in Moab,” says the Lord, “the one who ascends and offers sacrifice in the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods. ³⁶ “Therefore My heart moans and sighs for Moab like flutes, and My heart moans and sighs like flutes for the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth); therefore [the remnant of] the abundant riches they gained has perished. ³⁷ For every head is [shaven] bald and every beard cut off; there are cuts (slashes) on all the hands and sackcloth on the loins [all expressions of mourning]. ³⁸ On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation (expressions of grief for the dead) everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which there is no pleasure,” says the Lord. ³⁹ “How it is broken down! How they have wailed! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab will become a laughingstock and a [horrifying] terror to all who are around him.”