Thematic Bible




Thematic Bible



But they will swoop down
on the Philistine flank to the west.
Together they will plunder the people of the east.
They will extend their power over Edom and Moab,
and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

"The days are coming"-the Lord's declaration-"when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, all those who clip the hair on their temples and reside in the wilderness. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and make all the nations I am sending you to drink from it. They will drink, stagger, and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them." So I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations drink [from it], everyone the Lord sent me to. read more.
[These included:] Jerusalem and the [other] cities of Judah, its kings and its officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an object of scorn and cursing-as it is today; Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officers, his leaders, all his people, and all the mixed peoples; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines-Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;

At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "This is what the Lord said to me: Make fetters and yoke bars for yourself and put them on your neck. Send [word] to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. read more.
Command them [to go] to their masters, saying: This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: This is what you must say to your masters: By My great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please. So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him. All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him. "As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague"-[this is] the Lord's declaration-"until through him I have destroyed it. But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers who say to you: Don't serve the king of Babylon! for they prophesy a lie to you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish. But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will till it and reside in it." [This is] the Lord's declaration.

About the Ammonites, this is what the Lord says: Does Israel have no sons? Is he without an heir? Why then has Milcomdispossessed Gad and his people settled in their cities? Therefore look, the days are coming- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration- when I will make the shout of battle heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a desolate mound, and its villages will be burned down. Israel will dispossess their dispossessors, says the Lord. Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated; cry out, daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and lament; run back and forth within your walls, because Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials. read more.
Why do you brag about your valleys, your flowing valley, you faithless daughter? You who trust in your treasures [and boast]: Who can attack me? Look, I am about to bring terror on you- [this is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the declaration of the Lord, the God of Hosts- from all those around you. You will be banished, each man headlong, with no one to gather up the fugitives. But after that, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites. [This is] the Lord's declaration.

Mark out a road that the sword can take to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem.

"Now prophesy, son of man, and say: This is what the Lord God says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt. You are to proclaim: Sword, sword! [You are] drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning. While they offer false visions and lying divinations about you, [the time] has come to put you to the necks of the profane wicked ones; the day has come for your punishment. Return [it] to its sheath! I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land of your origin. read more.
I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow the fire of My fury on you. I will hand you over to brutal men, skilled at destruction. You will be fuel for the fire. Your blood will be [spilled] in the land. You will not be remembered, for I, the Lord, have spoken."

Then the word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, turn your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. Say to the Ammonites: Hear the word of the Lord God : This is what the Lord God says: Because you said: Good! about My sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile, read more.
therefore I am about to give you to the people of the east as a possession. They will set up their encampments and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a sheepfold. Then you will know that I am the Lord." For this is what the Lord God says: "Because you clapped [your] hands, stamped [your] feet, and rejoiced over the land of Israel with wholehearted contempt, therefore I am about to stretch out My hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and eliminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the Lord." This is what the Lord God says: "Because Moab and Seir said: Look, the house of Judah is like all the [other] nations, therefore I am about to expose Moab's flank beginning with its frontier cities, the pride of the land: Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. I will give it along with Ammon to the people of the east as a possession, so that Ammon will not be remembered among the nations. So I will execute judgments against Moab, and they will know that I am the Lord."

He will also invade the beautiful land, and many will fall. But these will escape from his power: Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of the Ammonites.

The Lord says: I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites for three crimes, even four, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory. Therefore, I will set fire to the walls of Rabbah, and it will consume its citadels. There will be shouting on the day of battle and a violent wind on the day of the storm. Their king and his princes will go into exile together. The Lord has spoken.

I have heard the taunting of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their territory. Therefore, as I live- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel- Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah- a place overgrown with weeds, a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them. This is what they get for their pride, because they have taunted and acted arrogantly against the people of the Lord of Hosts. read more.
The Lord will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then all the distant coastlands of the nations will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.


Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh and did not worship Him.

The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to gather the plunder. They found among them an abundance of goods on the bodies and valuable items. So they stripped them until nobody could carry any more. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.

Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, fortune-tellers, or sorcerers who say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon!’

Say to the Ammonites: Hear the word of the Lord God: This is what the Lord God says: Because you said, ‘Good!’ about My sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile,

For this is what the Lord God says: “Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced over the land of Israel with wholehearted contempt,

The Lord says:

I will not relent from punishing the Ammonites
for three crimes, even four,
because they ripped open
the pregnant women of Gilead
in order to enlarge their territory.

This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly
against the people of the Lord of Hosts.


This is what they get for their pride,
because they have taunted and acted arrogantly
against the people of the Lord of Hosts.


Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of land. They have turned My desirable plot into a desolate wasteland. They have made it a desolation. It mourns, desolate, before Me. All the land is desolate, but no one takes it to heart. Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the Lord has a sword that devours from one end of the earth to the other. No one has peace. read more.
They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves but have no profit. Be put to shame by your harvests because of the Lord's burning anger.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you would no longer be their slaves. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to live in freedom. "But if you do not obey Me and observe all these commands- if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands-and break My covenant, read more.
then I will do this to you: I will bring terror on you-wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you. "But if after these things you will not obey Me, I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins. I will break down your strong pride. I will make your sky like iron and your land like bronze, and your strength will be used up for nothing. Your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit. "If you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times for your sins. I will send wild animals against you that will deprive you of your children, ravage your livestock, and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted. "If in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but act with hostility toward Me, then I will act with hostility toward you; I also will strike you seven times for your sins. I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a pestilence among you, and you will be delivered into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread, 10 women will bake your bread in a single oven and ration out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied. "And if in spite of this you do not obey Me but act with hostility toward Me, I will act with furious hostility toward you; I will also discipline you seven times for your sins. You will eat the flesh of your sons; you will eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the lifeless bodies of your idols; I will reject you. I will reduce your cities to ruins and devastate your sanctuaries. I will not smell the pleasing aroma of your [sacrifices]. I also will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it.

Don’t be like your fathers and your brothers who were unfaithful to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors so that He made them an object of horror as you yourselves see.

You were secure in your wickedness; you said: No one sees me. Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself: I, and no one else. But disaster will happen to you; you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, but you will be unable to ward it off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

The Lord sent all His servants the prophets to you time and time again, but you have not obeyed or even paid attention. He announced, 'Turn, each of you, from your evil way of life and from your evil deeds. Live in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm. read more.
" 'But you would not obey Me'-[this is] the Lord's declaration-'in order that you might provoke Me to anger by the work of your hands and bring disaster on yourselves.' "Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts says: 'Because you have not obeyed My words, I am going to send for all the families of the north'-[this is] the Lord's declaration-'and [send for] My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them a desolation, a derision, and ruins forever. I will eliminate the sound of joy and gladness from them-the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land will become a desolate ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years. When the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation'-[this is] the Lord's declaration-'the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, and I will make it a ruin forever.

For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon will become a ruin. Ashdod will be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted. Woe, inhabitants of the seacoast, nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines: I will destroy you until there is no one left. The seacoast will become pasturelands with caves for shepherds and folds for sheep. read more.
The coastland will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; they will find pasture there. They will lie down in the evening among the houses of Ashkelon, for the Lord their God will return to them and restore their fortunes. I have heard the taunting of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their territory. Therefore, as I live- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel- Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah- a place overgrown with weeds, a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them. This is what they get for their pride, because they have taunted and acted arrogantly against the people of the Lord of Hosts. The Lord will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then all the distant coastlands of the nations will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place. You Cushites will also be slain by My sword. He will also stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolate ruin, dry as the desert. Herds will lie down in the middle of it, every kind of wild animal. Both the desert owl and the screech owl will roost in the capitals of its pillars. [Their] calls will sound from the window, but devastation will be on the threshold, for He will expose the cedar work. This is the self-assured city that lives in security, that thinks to herself: I am, and there is no one besides me. What a desolation she has become, a place for wild animals to lie down! Everyone who passes by her jeers and shakes his fist.

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear. They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts. Just as He had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen," says the Lord of Hosts. read more.
"I scattered them with a windstorm over all the nations that had not known them, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one coming or going. They turned a pleasant land into a desolation."


This is what they get for their pride, because they have taunted and acted arrogantly against the people of the Lord of Hosts. The Lord will be terrifying to them when He starves all the gods of the earth. Then all the distant coastlands of the nations will bow in worship to Him, each in its own place.


This is what the Lord God has said about Edom: We have heard a message from the Lord; an envoy has been sent among the nations: Rise up, and let us go to war against her. Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations; you will be deeply despised. Your presumptuous heart has deceived you, you who live in clefts of the rock in your home on the heights, who say to yourself: Who can bring me down to the ground? read more.
Though you seem to soar like an eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down. [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the Lord's declaration.

Moab will be destroyed as a people
because he has exalted himself against the Lord.

Your Majesty, the Most High God gave sovereignty, greatness, glory, and majesty to your predecessor Nebuchadnezzar. Because of the greatness He gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages were terrified and fearful of him. He killed anyone he wanted and kept alive anyone he wanted; he exalted anyone he wanted and humbled anyone he wanted. But when his heart was exalted and his spirit became arrogant, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken from him. read more.
He was driven away from people, his mind was like an animal's, he lived with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with dew from the sky until he acknowledged that the Most High God is ruler over the kingdom of men and sets anyone He wants over it. "But you his successor, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this. Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in His hand and who controls the whole course of your life. Therefore, He sent the hand, and this writing was inscribed. "This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN This is the interpretation of the message: MENE [means that] God has numbered [the days of] your kingdom and brought it to an end. TEKEL [means that] you have been weighed in the balance and found deficient. PERES [means that] your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians." Then Belshazzar gave an order, and they clothed Daniel in purple, [placed] a gold chain around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62.

"Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre: This is what the Lord God says: Your heart is proud, and you have said: I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea. Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god. Yes, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you! By your wisdom and understanding you have acquired wealth for yourself. You have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. read more.
By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth, but your heart has become proud because of your wealth." Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Because you regard your heart as that of a god, I am about to bring strangers against you, ruthless men from the nations. They will draw their swords against your magnificent wisdom and will defile your splendor. They will bring you down to the Pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the sea.

Therefore, as I live- the declaration of the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel- Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah- a place overgrown with weeds, a salt pit, and a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them. This is what they get for their pride, because they have taunted and acted arrogantly against the people of the Lord of Hosts.