Judgment on Moab, Judah and Israel
1Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
2But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, [and] with the sound of the trumpet:
3And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
4Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
5But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the [same] maid, to profane my holy name:
8And they lay [themselves] down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned [in] the house of their god.
The Ingratitude of Israel
9Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height [was] like the height of the cedars, and he [was] strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. [Is it] not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed [that is] full of sheaves.
14Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and [he that is] swift of foot shall not deliver [himself]: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16And [he that is] courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
