CHAP, 1 I will send forth the son of the ruler of the land,
XVI.
From Selah of the desert to the mount of the daughter
of Sion:

2 And as wandering birds, driven from the nest,

So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Ar

non.

3 Impart counsel; interpose with equity;

Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of noon-day.
Hide the outcasts; discover not the fugitive.

4 Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn with thee, [O Sion];
Be thou to them a covert from the destroyer.

For the oppressor is no more, the destroyer ceaseth;
He that trampled you under foot is perished from the
land.

5 And the throne shall be established in mercy,

And in truth shall One sit thereon;

In the tabernacle of David a judge,

Carefully searching out the right, and despatching justice. 6 We have heard the pride of Moab: he is very proud; His haughtiness, and his pride, and his anger: vain are his lies.

7 Therefore shall Moab lament aloud:

For the whole people of Moab shall he lament:
For the men of Kirhares shall ye make a moan.
8 For the fields of Heshbon are put to shame;
The vine of Sibmah languisheth,

Whose generous shoots overpowered the mighty lords
of the nations;

They reached unto Jazer; they strayed to the desert;
Her branches extended themselves, they passed over the

sea.

9 Wherefore I will weep, as with the weeping of Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;

I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh !

For upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy vintage, the destroyer hath fallen;

10 And joy and gladness is taken away from the fruitful field;

And in the vineyards they shall not sing, they shall not
shout:

In the vats the treader shall not tread out the wine;
An end is put to the shouting.

11 Wherefore my bowels for Moab like a harp shall sound; And mine entrails for Kirhares.

12

And it shall be, when Moab shall see

That he hath wearied himself out on the high place,
That he shall enter his sanctuary,

To intercede; but he shall not prevail.

13 This is the word, which JEHOVAH spake concerning 14 Moab long ago; but now JEHOVAH hath spoken, saying:

After three years, as the years of an hireling,

The glory of Moab shall be debased, in all his great multitude;

And the remnant shall be few, small, and without strength.

CHAP. 1
XVII.

THE ORACLE CONCERNING DAMASCUS.

BEHOLD Damascus is removed, so as to be no more a city;

It shall even become a ruinous heap. 2 The cities are deserted for ever;

They shall be given up to the flocks,

And they shall lie down, and none shall scare them

away.

3 And the fortress shall cease from Ephraim,

And the kingdom from Damascus ;

And the pride of Syria shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel;

Saith JEHOVAH the God of Hosts.

4 And it shall come to pass in that day,

The glory of Jacob shall be diminished,

And the fatness of his flesh shall become lean :

5 And it shall be, as when one gathereth the standing harvest,

And his arm reapeth the ears of corn;

Or as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim. 6 A gleaning shall be left in it, as in the shaking of the olive tree;

Two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough;
Four or five on the straggling fruitful branches:

Saith JEHOVAH the God of Israel.

In that day shall a man regard his Maker,

And toward the Holy One of Israel shall his eyes look: 8 And he shall not regard the altars dedicated to the work of his hands;

And what his fingers have made, he shall not respect;
Nor the groves, nor the solar statues.

9 In that day shall his strongly fenced cities become
Like the desertion of the Hivites and the Amorites,
When they deserted the land before the face of the sons
of Israel;

And the land shall become a desolation.

10 Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation,
And hast not remembered the rock of thy strength;

Therefore, when thou shalt have planted pleasant plants,
And shalt have set shoots from a foreign soil;

11 In the day when thou shalt have made thy plants to
grow,

12

And in the morning, when thou shalt have made thy shoots to spring forth;

Even in the day of possession shall the harvest be taken

away,

And there shall be sorrow without hope.

Wo to the multitude of the numerous peoples,
Who make a sound like the sound of the seas;
And to the roaring of the nations,

Who make a roaring like the roaring of mighty waters. 13 Like the roaring of mighty waters do the nations roar; But he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far away; And they shall be driven like the chaff of the hills before the wind,

And like the gossamer before the whirlwind.

14 At the season of evening, behold terror!
Before the morning, and he is no more!
This is the portion of those that spoil us;
And the lot of those that plunder us.

CHAP. 1 XVIII.

Ho! to the land of the winged cymbal,
Which borders on the rivers of Cush;
2 Which sendeth ambassadors on the sea,

And in vessels of papyrus on the face of the waters.

Go, ye swift messengers,

To a nation stretched out in length, and smoothed;
To a people terrible from the first, and hitherto;
A nation meted out by line, and trodden down;
Whose land the rivers have nourished.

8 Yea, all ye that inhabit the world, and that dwell on the earth,

When the standard is lifted up on the mountains, behold!

And when the trumpet is sounded, hear!

4 For thus hath JEHOVAH said unto me:

I will sit still, and regard my fixed habitation;

Like the clear heat after rain,

Like the dewy cloud in the day of harvest.

5 Surely before the vintage, when the bud is perfect,
And the blossom is become a swelling grape;

He shall cut off the shoots with pruning-hooks,

And the branches he shall take away, he shall cut down. 6 They shall be left together to the rapacious bird of the mountains;

And to the wild beasts of the earth:

And the rapacious bird shall summer upon it;

And every wild beast of the earth shall winter upon it. 7 At that time shall a gift be brought to JEHOVAH the God of Hosts,

From a people stretched out in length, and smoothed;
And from a people terrible from the first, and hitherto ;
A nation meted out by line, and trodden down,

Whose land the rivers have nourished;

To the place of the name of JEHOVAH God of Hosts, to
Mount Sion.

CHAP. 1 THE ORACLE CONCERNING EGYPT.

XIX.

BEHOLD, JEHOVAH rideth

On a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt!

And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence; And the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of her. 2 And I will excite Egyptians against Egyptians,

And they shall fight, every man against his brother, and every man against his neighbour;

City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of her; And I will swallow up her counsel:

And they shall seek to the idols, and to the sorcerers,
And to the necromancers, and to the wizards:

4 And I will give up Egypt bound into the hands of cruel lords,

And a fierce king shall rule over them;
Saith the Lord JEHOVAH God of Hosts.
5 Then shall the waters fail from the sea,
And the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And the streams shall become putrid;

The canals of Egypt shall be emptied and dried up.
The reed and the lotus shall wither:

7 The meadow by the canal, even at the mouth of the canal,

And all that is sown by the canal,

Shall wither, be blasted, and be no more. 8 And the fishers shall mourn, and lament; All those that cast the hook in the river,

And those that spread nets on the face of the waters, shall languish.

9 And they that work the fine flax shall be confounded, And they that weave net-work.

10 And her stores shall be broken up;

Even of all that make a gain of pools for fish.

11 Surely, the princes of Zoan are fools;

The wise counsellors of Pharaoh have counselled a brutish counsel.

How will ye boast unto Pharaoh :

I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? 12 Where are they; where, thy wise men? let them come; And let them tell thee now, and let them declare,

What JEHOVAH God of Hosts hath determined against Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived;

They have caused Egypt to err, even the chief pillars of her tribes.

14 JEHOVAH hath mingled in the midst of them a spirit of giddiness;

And they have caused Egypt to err in all her works,
As a drunkard staggereth in his vomit: