Judgment on the Philistines
1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet econcerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck down Gaza.
2 “Thus says the Lord:
Behold, fwaters are rising out of the north,
and shall become an overflowing torrent;
they shall overflow the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
Men shall cry out,
and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions,
at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels,
the fathers look not back to their children,
so feeble are their hands,
4 because of the day that is coming to destroy
all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines,
the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
5 gBaldness has come upon Gaza;
Ashkelon has perished.
O remnant of their valley,
how long will you hgash yourselves?
6 Ah, isword of the Lord!
How long till you are quiet?
Put yourself into your scabbard;
rest and be still!
7 How can it1 be quiet
when the Lord has given it a charge?
Against Ashkelon and against the seashore
he has appointed it.”
Judgment on Moab
1 jConcerning Moab.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste!
Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame and broken down;
2 the renown of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they planned disaster against her:
‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!’
You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;
the sword shall pursue you.
3 “A voice! A cry from Horonaim,
‘Desolation and great destruction!’
4 Moab is destroyed;
her little ones have made a cry.
5 For kat the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;2
for at the descent of Horonaim
they have heard the distressed cry3 of destruction.
6 Flee! Save yourselves!
You will be llike a juniper in the desert!
7 For, because you trusted in your works and your treasures,
you also shall be taken;
and mChemosh nshall go into exile
with his priests and his officials.
8 The odestroyer shall come upon every city,
and no city shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
and the plain shall be destroyed,
as the Lord has spoken.
9 “Give wings to Moab,
for she would fly away;
her cities shall become a desolation,
with no inhabitant in them.
10 “Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.
11 “Moab has been at ease from his youth
and has settled on his dregs;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
nor has he gone into exile;
so his taste remains in him,
and his scent is not changed.
12 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I shall send to him pourers who will pour him, and empty his vessels and break his4 jars in pieces. 13 Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was pashamed of qBethel, their confidence.
14 “How do you say, ‘We are heroes
and mighty men of war’?
15 The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up,
and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
declares the rKing, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
and his affliction hastens swiftly.
17 Grieve for him, all you who are around him,
and all who know his name;
say, ‘How the mighty scepter is sbroken,
the glorious staff.’
18 “Come down from your glory,
and sit on the parched ground,
O inhabitant of Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
he has destroyed your strongholds.
19 Stand by the way and watch,
O inhabitant of Aroer!
Ask him who flees and her who escapes;
say, ‘What has happened?’
20 Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
wail and cry!
Tell it beside the Arnon,
that Moab is laid waste.
21 “Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, 22 and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, 23 and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, 24 and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The thorn of Moab is cut off, and his uarm is broken, declares the Lord.
26 “Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the Lord, so that Moab shall wallow in his vvomit, and he too shall be held in derision. 27 Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?
28 “Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
29 wWe have heard of the pride of Moab—
he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
and the haughtiness of his heart.
30 I know his insolence, declares the Lord;
his boasts are false,
his deeds are false.
31 Therefore I wail for Moab;
I cry out for all Moab;
for the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.
32 More than for Jazer I weep for you,
O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches passed over the sea,
reached to the Sea of Jazer;
on your summer fruits and your grapes
the destroyer has fallen.
33 Gladness and joy have been taken away
from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have made the wine cease from the winepresses;
no one treads them with shouts of joy;
the shouting is not the shout of joy.
34 “From the xoutcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For the waters of Nimrim also have become desolate. 35 And I will bring to an end in Moab, declares the Lord, him who offers sacrifice in the yhigh place and makes offerings to his god. 36 Therefore zmy heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-hareseth. Therefore the riches they gained have perished.
37 “For aevery head is shaved and every beard cut off. On all the hands are bgashes, and around the waist is sackcloth. 38 On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken Moab clike a vessel for which no one cares, declares the Lord. 39 How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are around him.”
40 For thus says the Lord:
d“Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
and spread his wings against Moab;
41 the cities shall be taken
and the strongholds seized.
The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day
like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;
42 Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people,
ebecause he magnified himself against the Lord.
43 fTerror, pit, and snare
are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
declares the Lord.
44 He who flees from the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For I will bring these things upon Moab,
the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.
45 “In the shadow of Heshbon
fugitives stop without strength,
for gfire came out from Heshbon,
flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed the forehead of Moab,
the crown of the sons of tumult.
46 Woe to you, O Moab!
The people of Chemosh are undone,
for your sons have been taken captive,
and your daughters into captivity.
47 Yet I will hrestore the fortunes of Moab
in the latter days, declares the Lord.”
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.
Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is eseated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the ftrue gtent1 that the Lord set up, hnot man. 3 For ievery high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a jcopy and kshadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, l“See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ2 has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the mcovenant he nmediates is obetter, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For pif that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:3
q“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 rFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and sI will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and tI will remember their sins no more.”
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
