1   Of the people of Ammon. Thus says the Lord:

Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?
Why has Milcom inherited the land of Gad,
  and why do his people live in the cities of Gad?

Prophecies against the nations
2   Look, therefore, a time is coming,
    says the Lord,
when I will make Rabbath Ammon hear the battle-cry,
    when it will become a desolate mound of ruins
  and its villages will be burnt to ashes,
  and Israel shall disinherit those who disinherited him,
    says the Lord.


3   Howl, Heshbon, for Ai is despoiled.
    Cry aloud, you villages round Rabbath Ammon,
  put on sackcloth and beat your breast,
  and score your bodies with gashes. ^note
  For Milcom will go into exile,
  and with him his priests and officers.
   4   Why do you boast of your resources,
    you whose resources are melting away,
you wayward people who trust in your arsenals,
  and say, ‘Who will dare attack me?’
5   Beware, I am bringing fear upon you from every side, ^note
  and every one of you shall be driven headlong
    with no man to round up the stragglers.
6   Yet after this I will restore the fortunes of Ammon.
    This is the very word of the Lord.

7   Of Edom. The Lord of Hosts has said:

  Is wisdom no longer to be found in Teman?
  Have her sages no skill in counsel?
    Has their wisdom decayed?
   8   The people of Dedan have turned and fled
    and taken refuge in remote places;
  for I will bring Esau's calamity upon him
    when his day of reckoning comes.
   9    ^note When the vintagers come to you
    they will surely leave gleanings;
  and if thieves raid your early crop in the night,
    they will take only as much as they want.
   10   But I have ransacked Esau's treasure,
    I have uncovered his hiding-places,
    and he has nowhere to conceal himself;
his children, his kinsfolk and his neighbours are despoiled;
    there is no one to help him.

Prophecies against the nations
   11   What! am I to save alive your fatherless children?
    Are your widows to trust in me?

12   For the Lord has spoken: Those who were not doomed to drink the cup shall drink it none the less. Are you alone to go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you shall drink it. 13   For by my life, says the Lord, Bozrah shall become a horror and reproach, a byword and a thing of ridicule; and all her towns shall be a byword for ever.

   14    ^note When a herald was sent among the nations, crying,
  ‘Gather together and march against her,
    rouse yourselves for battle’,
  I heard this message from the Lord:


15   Look, I make you the least of all nations,
  an object of all men's contempt.
16   Your overbearing arrogance and your insolent heart
    have led you astray,
  you who haunt the crannies among the rocks
  and keep your hold on the heights of the hills.
  Though you build your nest high as a vulture,
    thence I will bring you down.
    This is the very word of the Lord.
   17   Edom shall become a scene of horror,
  all who pass that way shall be horror-struck
  and shall jeer in derision at the blows she has borne,
   18   overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbours, ^note
    says the Lord.
  No man shall live there,
  no mortal make a home in her.
   19   Look, like a lion coming up
  from Jordan's dense thickets to the perennial pastures,
  in a moment I will chase every one away
  and round up the choicest of ^note her rams.
  For who is like me? Who is my equal?
What shepherd can stand his ground before me?

20   Therefore listen to the Lord's whole purpose against Edom and all his plans against the people of Teman:

  The young ones of the flock shall be carried off,
and their pasture shall be horrified at their fate.
   21   At the sound of their fall the land quakes;
it cries out, and the cry is heard at the Red Sea. ^note

Prophecies against the nations
   22   A vulture shall soar and swoop down
    and spread out his wings over Bozrah,
  and on that day the spirit of Edom's warriors shall fail
    like the spirit of a woman in labour.

23   Of Damascus.

  Hamath and Arpad are in confusion,
  for they have heard news of disaster;
  they are tossed up and down in anxiety
    like the unresting sea.
24   Damascus has lost heart and turns to flight;
    trembling has seized her,
the pangs of childbirth have gripped her.
   25   How forlorn is the town of joyful song,
    the city of gladness ^note!
26   Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets
and all her warriors lie still in death that day.
    This is the very word of the Lord of Hosts.
27   Then will I kindle a fire against the wall of Damascus
  and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

28   Of Kedar and the royal princes ^note of Hazer which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon subdued. The Lord has said:

  Come, attack Kedar,
    despoil the Arabs of the east.
   29   Carry off their tents and their flocks,
  their tent-hangings and all their vessels,
  drive off their camels too,
and a cry shall go up: ‘Terror let loose!’
   30   Flee, flee; make haste,
  take refuge in remote places, O people of Hazer,
  for the king of Babylon ^note has laid his plans
  and formed a design against you,
    says the Lord.
31   Come, let us attack a nation living at peace,
    in fancied security, ^note
  with neither gates nor bars,
    sufficient to themselves.
   32   Their camels shall be carried off as booty,
    their vast herds of cattle as plunder;

Prophecies against the nations
I will scatter them before the wind to roam the fringes of the desert, ^note
  and bring ruin upon them from every side.
   33   Hazer shall become a haunt of wolves,
    for ever desolate;
  no man shall live there,
  no mortal make a home in her.
    This is the very word of the Lord.

34   This came to the prophet Jeremiah as the word of the Lord concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah: Thus says the Lord of Hosts: 35   

  Listen, I will break the bow of Elam,
    the chief weapon of their might;
   36   I will bring four winds against Elam
    from the four quarters of heaven;
  I will scatter them before these four winds,
    and there shall be no nation
  to which the exiles from Elam shall not come.
   37   I will break Elam before their foes,
    before those who are bent on their destruction;
  I will vent my anger upon them in disaster; ^note
  I will harry them with the sword
    until I make an end of them.
   38   Then I will set my throne in Elam,
and there I will destroy the king and his officers.
    This is the very word of the Lord.
39   Yet in days to come I will restore the fortunes of Elam.
    This is the very word of the Lord.

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