Jeremiah 49

¹ On the sons of Ammon. Yahweh says this: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why should Milcom have inherited Gad and his people have settled in its towns?

² And so the days are coming – it is Yahweh who speaks – when I will make the war cry ring out for Rabbath-of-the-Ammonites: she will become a deserted ruin, her daughter towns burnt down. Israel will then despoil his despoilers, Yahweh proclaims.

³ Heshbon lament! The destroyer is on the march. Cry aloud, daughters of Rabbah! Wrap yourself in sackcloth, raise the dirge, walk about with your bodies gashed. For Milcom is going into exile, with all his priests and his nobles.

⁴ So you boast of your valley, thoughtless girl! Confident of your resources, you say, ‘Who will dare to attack me?’

⁵ But I will bring down on you terror from every side; you shall be driven away, each man making his own way, with no one to rally the fugitives.

⁶ (But later I will restore the fortunes of the sons of Ammon. It is Yahweh who speaks.)

⁷ On Edom. Yahweh says this: Is there no wisdom left in Teman? Have the shrewd run out of commonsense, has their wisdom gone stale?

⁸ Away! Take to your heels! Go into hiding, inhabitants of Dedan! For I will bring down ruin on Esau, at the time when I must punish him.

⁹ If grape-gatherers come to you, they will leave no gleanings behind them; if robbers come at night, they will loot to their heart’s content.

¹⁰ For I myself am despoiling Esau, I lay his hiding places bare until he has no cover left. His race is destroyed: it is no more! Of his neighbours, not one will say,

¹¹ ‘Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive, your widows can rely on me’.

¹² For Yahweh says this: Those who were not bound to drink the cup have to drink it now; so why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished: you too must drink!

¹³ For by my own self I have sworn it – it is Yahweh who speaks: Bozrah[*a] is to become an object of horror, a laughing-stock, a desert, a curse, and all its towns ruins for ever.

¹⁴ I have received a message from Yahweh, a herald has been sent throughout the nations, ‘Muster! March against this people! Prepare for battle!’

¹⁵ For now I will reduce you among the nations, make you despised among mankind:

¹⁶ your reputation for ferocity, your pride of heart, have led you astray, you whose home is in the holes in the rocks, who cling to the topmost peaks! Though you made your nest high as the eagle, I would still fling you down again – it is Yahweh who speaks.

¹⁷ Edom will become a desolation; every passer-by will be appalled at it, and whistle in amazement at such calamity.

¹⁸ As at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns, no one will live there any more, Yahweh proclaims, no man will make his home there ever again.

¹⁹ See how the lion climbs from the thickets of the Jordan to a perennial pasture! So shall I chase them suddenly away, and place there whom I please. For who is there like me? Who can hale me into court? Name me the shepherd who can stand up to me.

²⁰ So now hear the plan that Yahweh has made for Edom, the schemes he has in mind for the inhabitants of Teman: yes, even the weakest of the flock will be dragged away. At such a sight their pastures will shudder with dread.

²¹ Earth trembles at the crash of their downfall, the sound of it echoes as far as the Sea of Reeds.

²² Here is someone who soars and hovers like an eagle, who will spread his wings over Bozrah. And the heart of Edom’s warriors that day will be like the heart of a woman in labour pains.

²³ On Damascus: Hamath is in confusion, so is Arpad;[*b] they have heard bad news. Their heart is faint with fear and cannot be calmed.

²⁴ Damascus is unmanned, she prepares for flight, she is seized with trembling (anguish and sorrow have laid hold on her as on a woman in labour).

²⁵ What now! That famous town deserted, that city of gaiety?

²⁶ And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day. It is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks.

²⁷ I will light a fire inside the walls of Damascus, it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

²⁸ On Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Yahweh says this: Up! March on Kedar, destroy the sons of the East!

²⁹ Let their tents and their flocks be captured, their fabrics, all their gear, and their camels too. Let the shout be raised for them: ‘Terror on every side!’

³⁰ Away! Get into hiding as fast as you can, citizens of Hazor! It is Yahweh who speaks. For Nebuchadnezzar has made a plan for you, he has a scheme in mind for you:

³¹ ‘Up! March on a nation at its ease, that dwells in confidence, that has no gates, no bars, that lives in a remote place!

³² Their camels will be the plunder, their countless sheep the spoil.’ I will scatter them to the winds, those Crop-Heads, and bring disaster down on them from every side, it is Yahweh who speaks.

³³ Hazor will become a lair for jackals, a desert for ever. No one will live there any more, no man make his home there ever again.

³⁴ The word of Yahweh that was addressed to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

³⁵ Yahweh Sabaoth says this: I am going to break the bow of Elam, the source of all his might.

³⁶ I will bring four winds down on Elam from the four corners of the sky, and I will scatter the Elamites to the winds: there will not be a single nation into which the Elamites have not been driven for refuge.

³⁷ I will make the Elamites tremble before their enemies, before those determined to kill them. I will bring down disaster on them, my own fierce anger. I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them all.

³⁸ I will set up my throne in Elam, and purge it of king and nobles. It is Yahweh who speaks.

³⁹ But in the days to come I will restore the fortunes of Elam. It is Yahweh who speaks.