God

ADONAI has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,

You thought to yourself, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above God's stars. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north.

I will rise past the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.'

"I will arise against them," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot. "I will cut off from Bavel name and remnant, offshoot and offspring," says ADONAI.

"I will make it a haunt for hedgehogs, it will become a swampy waste, I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

ADONAI-Tzva'ot has sworn, "Just as I thought it, it will occur; just as I planned it, so it will be.

I will break Ashur in my land, I will trample him down on my mountains. Then his yoke will fall off them, his burden be removed from their shoulders."

ADONAI-Tzva'ot has made his decision. Who is there that can stop him? He has stretched out his hand. Who can turn it back?

And what is one to answer the messengers of the nation? That ADONAI founded Tziyon, and there the poor of his people will find refuge.

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, yet I have worse in store for Dimon - a lion for those who escape from Mo'av and for those who remain in its land.

Let our outcasts live with you! Protect Mo'av from the attacks of robbers!" For when the extorting ends, the spoiling ceases, and those trampling on the land are destroyed,

a throne will be set up by grace, and on it, in the tent of David, will sit an honest judge, seeking justice and pursuing righteousness.

Therefore I will weep for Sibmah's vine as I weep for Ya'zer; I will water you with my tears, Heshbon and El'aleh; because the shouts of battle are falling on your summer fruits and harvest;

gladness and joy are removed from the fruitful fields. No revelry in the vineyards, no happy shouting, no one treading grapes in the wine presses - I have silenced the vintage-cheers.

This is the word ADONAI spoke against Mo'av in the past.

But now ADONAI has said, "Within three years [and not a day more], as if a hired worker were keeping track of the time, the glory of Mo'av will be brought into contempt, despite its large population; and the surviving remnant will be few and feeble."

Efrayim will have no defenses, Dammesek will cease to rule, and Aram's survivors will share the fate of Isra'el's finest sons," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

Yet gleanings will be left, as when beating an olive tree - two or three olives at the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches," says ADONAI, the God of Isra'el.

On that day, a person will heed his Maker and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra'el.

For you have forgotten the God who saved you, failed to remember the Rock of your strength; so you plant pagan-style gardens and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.

Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean, but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee, driven like chaff by a mountain wind, like whirling dust in advance of the storm.

For ADONAI has said this to me: "I will look on from my place and do nothing, like heat shimmering in the sun, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

For before the harvest, when the flowering is over, and the bud becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives, lop off the twigs and take them away.

At that time tribute will be brought to ADONAI-Tzva'ot from a nation tall and bronzed, from a people feared far and near, from a strong and conquering nation whose land is divided by rivers, to the place where the name of ADONAI-Tzva'ot lives, Mount Tziyon.

This is a prophecy about Egypt: Look! ADONAI is riding a swift cloud, on his way to Egypt. Before him Egypt's idols tremble, Egypt's courage melts within them.