Jeremiah 49

Has Israel no sons?

Has he no heir?

Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad,

and his people settled in its towns?

²Therefore, the time is surely coming,

says the Lord,

when I will sound the battle alarm

against Rabbah of the Ammonites;

it shall become a desolate mound,

and its villages shall be burned with fire;

then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,

says the Lord.

³Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!

Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah!

Put on sackcloth,

lament, and slash yourselves with whips!

For Milcom shall go into exile,

with his priests and his attendants.

⁴Why do you boast in your strength?

Your strength is ebbing,

O faithless daughter.

You trusted in your treasures, saying,

“Who will attack me?”

⁵I am going to bring terror upon you,

says the Lord God of hosts,

from all your neighbors,

and you will be scattered, each headlong,

with no one to gather the fugitives.

Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee, turn back, get down low,

inhabitants of Dedan!

For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,

the time when I punish him.

⁹If grape-gatherers came to you,

would they not leave gleanings?

If thieves came by night,

even they would pillage only what they wanted.

¹⁰But as for me, I have stripped Esau bare,

I have uncovered his hiding places,

and he is not able to conceal himself.

His offspring are destroyed, his kinsfolk

and his neighbors; and he is no more.

¹¹Leave your orphans, I will keep them alive;

and let your widows trust in me.

¹⁴I have heard tidings from the Lord,

and a messenger has been sent among the nations:

“Gather yourselves together and come against her,

and rise up for battle!”

¹⁵For I will make you least among the nations,

despised by humankind.

¹⁶The terror you inspire

and the pride of your heart have deceived you,

you who live in the clefts of the rock,

who hold the height of the hill.

Although you make your nest as high as the eagle’s,

from there I will bring you down,

says the Lord.

Hamath and Arpad are confounded,

for they have heard bad news;

they melt in fear, they are troubled like the sea

that cannot be quiet.

²⁴Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee,

and panic seized her;

anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,

as of a woman in labor.

²⁵How the famous city is forsaken,

the joyful town!

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares,

and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day,

says the Lord of hosts.

²⁷And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus,

and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.

Thus says the Lord:

Rise up, advance against Kedar!

Destroy the people of the east!

²⁹Take their tents and their flocks,

their curtains and all their goods;

carry off their camels for yourselves,

and a cry shall go up: “Terror is all around!”

³⁰Flee, wander far away, hide in deep places,

O inhabitants of Hazor!

says the Lord.

For King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon

has made a plan against you

and formed a purpose against you.

³¹Rise up, advance against a nation at ease,

that lives secure,

says the Lord,

that has no gates or bars,

that lives alone.

³²Their camels shall become booty,

their herds of cattle a spoil.

I will scatter to every wind

those who have shaven temples,

and I will bring calamity

against them from every side,

says the Lord.

³³Hazor shall become a lair of jackals,

an everlasting waste;

no one shall live there,

nor shall anyone settle in it.