Chapter 2

1 Thus saith Jehovah,— For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not be propitious to him; For he burnt the bones of the king of Edom into ashes:

2 And I will send a fire on Moab, And it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth; And die in a tumult shall Moab, With shouting, at the sound of the trumpet;

3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst of him, And with him all his princes will I slay, saith Jehovah.

4 Thus saith Jehovah,— For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not be propitious to him; For they have despised the law of Jehovah, And his statutes have they not kept; And to go astray have their lies made them, After which their fathers walked:

5 And I will send a fire on Judah, And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

6 Thus saith Jehovah,— For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not be propitious to him; For they have sold the just for silver, and the poor for shoes;

7 Panting for the dust of the earth on the head of the needy, They turn aside the way of the miserable; The son and his father enter in into the same maid, So that they profane my holy name;

8 And on pledged garments they lie near every altar, And the wine of the condemned they drink In the house of their god.

9 Yet I exterminated the Amorite before their face, Whose tallness was like the tallness of cedars, And who was strong like the oak; And I destroyed his fruit above and his root beneath;

10 And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you in the desert forty years, That you might possess the land of the Amorite;

11 And I raised up Prophets from your sons, And from your youths, Nazarites;— Have I not done all this, O children of Israel, saith Jehovah:

12 But to the Nazarites have ye quaffed wine; And on my Prophets have ye laid a command, Saying, “Ye shall not prophesy.”

13 Behold, I am fast bound under you, (196) As a wagon is bound, which is full of sheaves.—

14 Perish shall flight from the swift, And the valiant shall not confirm his strength, And the strong shall not deliver his life,

15 And the holder of the bow shall not stand, And the swift on foot shall not escape, Nor shall he who mounts a horse save his life;

16 Yea, the strong of heart, among the valiant, Shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.