Chapter 31

¹ Thus has the Lord said concerning Moab, Woe to Nebo! for it has perished: Kiriathaim is taken: Amath and Agath are put to shame. ² There is no longer any healing for Moab, [nor] glorying in Heshbon: he has devised evils against her: we have cut her off from [being] a nation, and she shall be completely still: after thee shall go a sword; ³ for [there is] a voice of [men] crying out of Horonaim, destruction and great ruin. ⁴ Moab is ruined, proclaim [it] to Zoar: ⁵ for Luhith is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Horonaim; ye have heard a cry of destruction.

Jer 31:1-5

⁶ Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert. ⁷ Since thou hast trusted in thy stronghold, therefore thou shalt be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together. ⁸ And destruction shall come upon every city, it shall by no means escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain country shall be completely destroyed, as the Lord has said. ⁹ Set marks upon Moab, for she shall be touched with a plague spot, and all her cities shall become desolate; whence [shall there be] an inhabitant for her? ¹⁰ Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.

Jer 31:6-10

¹¹ Moab has been at ease from a child, and trusted in his glory; he has not poured out [his liquor] from vessel to vessel, and has not gone into banishment, therefore his taste remained in him, and his smell departed not. ¹² Therefore, behold, his days come, saith the Lord, when I shall send upon him bad leaders, and they shall lead him astray, and they shall utterly break in pieces his possessions, and shall cut his horns asunder. ¹³ And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their hope, having trusted in them.

Jer 31:11-13

¹⁴ How will ye say, We are strong, and men strong for war? ¹⁵ Moab is ruined, [even] his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter. ¹⁶ The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly [to vengeance]. ¹⁷ Shake [the head] at him, all ye that are round about him; all [of you] utter his name; say ye, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!

Jer 31:14-17

¹⁸ Come down from [thy] glory, and sit down in a damp place: Dibon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against thee one to ravage thy stronghold. ¹⁹ Stand by the way, and look, thou that dwellest in Aroer; and ask him that is fleeing, and him that escapes, and say, What has happened?

Jer 31:18-19

²⁰ Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished. ²¹ And judgment is coming against the land of Misor, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, ²² and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon the house of Beth-diblathaim, ²³ and upon Kiriathaim, and upon the house of Gamul, and upon the house of Meon, ²⁴ and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near. ²⁵ The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.

Jer 31:20-25

²⁶ Make ye him drunk; for he has magnified himself against the Lord: and Moab shall clap with his hand, and shall be also himself a laughingstock. ²⁷ For surely Israel was to thee a laughingstock, and was found among thy thefts, because thou didst fight against him. ²⁸ The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and dwelt in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.

Jer 31:26-28

²⁹ And I have heard of the pride of Moab, he has greatly heightened his pride and his haughtiness, and his heart has been lifted up. ³⁰ But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?

Jer 31:29-30

³¹ Therefore howl ye for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men [in] a gloomy place. I will weep for thee, ³² O vine of Aserema, as with the weeping of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon thy fruits, [and] upon thy grape-gatherers. ³³ Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and [though] there was wine in thy presses, in the morning they trod it not, neither in the evening did they raise the cry of joy. ³⁴ From the cry of Heshbon even to Aetam their cities uttered their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim, and their tidings [as] a heifer of three years old, for the water also of Nimrim shall be dried up.

Jer 31:31-34

³⁵ And I will destroy Moab, saith the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods. ³⁶ Therefore the heart of Moab shall sound as pipes, my heart shall sound as a pipe for the shorn men; forasmuch as what [every] man has gained has perished from him. ³⁷ They shall all have their heads shaved in every place, and every beard shall be shaved; and all hands shall beat [the breasts], and on all loins shall be sackcloth. ³⁸ And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets [shall be mourning]: for I have broken [him], saith the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless. ³⁹ How has he changed! how has Moab turned [his] back! Moab is put to shame, and become a laughingstock, and an object of anger to all that are round about him.

Jer 31:35-39

⁴⁰ For thus said the Lord; ⁴¹ Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds have been taken together. ⁴² And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord. ⁴³ A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab. ⁴⁴ He that flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he that comes up out of the pit shall even be taken in the snare: for I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their visitation.

Jer 31:40-44