¹Thus says the Lord :

“For three transgressions of Moab, and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment,

Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.

²But I will send a fire upon Moab,

And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth;

Moab shall die with tumult,

With shouting and trumpet sound.

³And I will cut off the judge from its midst,[#Num. 24:17; Jer. 48:7]

And slay all its princes with him,”

Says the Lord .

Judgment on Judah

⁴Thus says the Lord :

“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment,

Because they have despised the law of the Lord ,

And have not kept His commandments.

Their lies lead them astray,

Lies which their fathers followed.

⁵But I will send a fire upon Judah,[#Jer. 17:27; Hos. 8:14]

And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”

Judgment on Israel

⁶Thus says the Lord :

“For three transgressions of Israel, and for four,

I will not turn away its punishment,

Because they sell the righteous for silver,

And the poor for a pair of sandals.

⁷They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor,

And pervert the way of the humble.

A man and his father go in to the same girl,

To defile My holy name.

⁸They lie down by every altar on clothes taken in pledge,[#1 Cor. 8:10; #Ex. 22:26]

And drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

⁹“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,[#Gen. 15:16; Num. 21:25; Deut. 2:31; Josh. 10:12]

Whose height was like the height of the cedars,

And he was as strong as the oaks;

Yet I destroyed his fruit above

And his roots beneath.

¹⁰Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt,[#Ex. 12:51; Amos 3:1; 9:7]

And led you forty years through the wilderness,

To possess the land of the Amorite.

¹¹I raised up some of your sons as prophets,[#Num. 12:6]

And some of your young men as Nazirites.

Is it not so, O you children of Israel?”

Says the Lord .

¹²“But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink,

And commanded the prophets saying,

‘Do not prophesy!’

¹³“Behold, I am weighed down by you,[#Is. 1:14]

As a cart full of sheaves is weighed down.

¹⁴Therefore flight shall perish from the swift,[#Jer. 46:6]

The strong shall not strengthen his power,

Nor shall the mighty deliver himself;

¹⁵He shall not stand who handles the bow,

The swift of foot shall not escape,

Nor shall he who rides a horse deliver himself.

¹⁶The most courageous men of might

Shall flee naked in that day,”

Says the Lord .