Jeremiah 49:17-39 ▼

17 |Edom will become an object of horror. Everyone who passes by her will be horrified and will scoff because of all her wounds.

18 Just like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,| says the LORD, |no one will live there. No human being will reside in it.

19 Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?|

20 Therefore, hear the plan that the LORD has made against Edom, and the strategy that he devised against the inhabitants of Teman. Surely he will drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them.

21 The earth will quake at the sound of their fall. A cry—it's her voice—is heard at the Reed Sea.

22 Look, he will rise up and fly swiftly like an eagle. He will spread his wings against Bozrah, and on that day the hearts of the warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

23 To Damascus: |Hamath and Arpad will be humiliated. Their courage melts because they have heard bad news. There is anxiety like the sea that cannot be calmed.

24 Damascus will become weak. She will turn to flee, but panic will seize her. Distress and anguish will take hold of her like that of a woman giving birth.

25 Why is the famous city, the joyful town, not abandoned?

26 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her soldiers will be silenced on that day,| declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

27 |I'll kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.|

28 To Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed: This is what the LORD says: |Arise, go against Kedar! Plunder the people of the east!

29 Take their tents and their flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. Take their camels away from them. Cry out against them, 'Terror is all around!'

30 Flee! Run away quickly! Go to a remote place to stay, residents of Hazor,| declares the LORD. |For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has formed a plan and devised a strategy against them.

31 |Arise, go up against a nation at ease, living securely,| declares the LORD, |without gates or bars, living alone.

32 Their camels will become booty, their many herds will become spoil. I'll scatter to the winds those who shave the corners of their beards, and I'll bring disaster on them from every side,| declares the LORD.

33 |Hazor will become a dwelling place for jackals, a perpetual wasteland. No one will live there; no human being will reside in it.|

34 This is what came as a message from the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah:

35 This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: |Look, I'm going to break the bow of Elam, the finest of their troops.

36 I'll bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I'll scatter them to all these winds. There will be no nation to which the exiles from Elam won't go.

37 I'll terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek to kill them. I'll bring on them disaster and become fiercely angry at them,| declares the LORD. |I'll send the sword after them, until I've made an end of them.

38 I'll put my throne in Elam, and destroy the king and the officials there,| declares the LORD.

39 |But in the latter days I'll restore the fortunes of Elam,| declares the LORD.