1About the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: "Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does their king possess Gad, and his people live in its cities?"
2"So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make the alarm of war be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a desolate heap, and her daughters will be burned with fire. Then Israel will be heir to those who were his heirs, says the LORD."
3Howl, Heshbon, for Ai is ruined. Cry out, you daughters of Rabbah. Put on sackcloth. Mourn, and run here and there among the hedges. For their king will go into captivity, and his priests and his princes with him.
4Why do you boast about your valleys, your flowing valley, you backsliding daughter? You trusted in your treasures, saying, "Who will come to me?"
5"Look, I will bring fear on you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those around you. You will be driven out, every one of you straight ahead, and no one will gather up the one who wanders."
6"But afterward I will bring back the captives of the people of Ammon, says the LORD."
7About Edom, this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Has good advice perished from the wise? Has their wisdom vanished?"
8"Flee, turn back, hide yourselves deep, you people of Dedan. For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him, at the time when I punish him."
9"If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes behind? If thieves came by night, they would take only until they had enough."
10"But I have stripped Esau bare. I have uncovered his hiding places, and he cannot hide himself. His children are destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbours, and he is no more."
11"Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive. And let your widows trust in me."
12For this is what the LORD says: "Look, those whose sentence was not to drink the cup have certainly drunk it. And are you the one who will go completely unpunished? You will not go unpunished. You will surely drink it."
13"For I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that Bozrah will become a horror, a shame, a ruin and a curse. All its cities will be ruins for ever."
14I have heard a message from the LORD, and a messenger is sent to the nations, saying, "Gather together, and come against her, and rise up for battle."
15"For look, I will make you small among the nations, and despised among people."
16"The terror you caused has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the LORD."
17Edom will also become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be shocked, and will hiss at all its wounds.
18"As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, with the cities near them, says the LORD, no one will live there, and no human being will stay in it."
19"Look, he will come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the strong home. But I will suddenly make him run away from her. And who is the chosen man I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who will set me a time? And who is the shepherd that can stand before me?"
20So hear the plan of the LORD, which he has made against Edom, and his purposes, which he has purposed against the people of Teman. Surely the least of the flock will drag them away. Surely he will make their homes desolate with them.
21The earth shakes at the noise of their fall. At their cry, the sound of it was heard in the Red sea.
22Look, he will come up and fly like the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah. On that day the heart of the mighty men of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in her birth pains.
23About Damascus. Hamath is dismayed, and Arpad too, for they have heard bad news. They lose heart. There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be still.
24Damascus has grown weak. She turns to flee, and terror has gripped her. Anguish and pain have taken hold of her, like a woman in labour.
25How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26"So her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be silenced on that day, says the LORD of hosts."
27"And I will light a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will burn up the palaces of Benhadad."
28About Kedar, and about the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon will strike down, this is what the LORD says: "Get up, go up to Kedar, and destroy the men of the east."
29"They will take away their tents and their flocks. They will carry off their curtains, and all their goods, and their camels. And people will cry out to them, 'Fear is on every side.'"
30"Flee, go far away, hide yourselves deep, you people of Hazor, says the LORD. For Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has made a plan against you, and has formed a purpose against you."
31"Get up, go up against the nation at ease, which lives without a care, says the LORD. It has no gates and no bars; its people live alone."
32"Their camels will be taken as plunder, and their many herds as spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who cut the corners of their hair, and I will bring disaster on them from every side, says the LORD."
33"Hazor will become a home for dragons, a waste place for ever. No one will live there, and no human being will stay in it."
34The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah:
35This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their strength."
36"On Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them to all those winds. There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam do not come."
37"For I will make Elam terrified before their enemies, and before those who want to kill them. I will bring disaster on them, my fierce anger, says the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have finished them off."
38"I will set my throne in Elam, and destroy from there the king and the princes, says the LORD."
39"But in the days to come I will bring back the captives of Elam, says the LORD."