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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
1 This is what the I AM says; For three sins of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away from punishing them, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.
Moab was descended from Lot also. Evidently this brother nation had violated Edom. It is not permissible to be cruel or oppressive even if the one you are being cruel to was cruel themselves. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
2 But I will send a fire on Moab, and it will devour the palaces of Kirioth, and Moab will die with great noise, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
God is killing this nation but good.
3 And I will destroy their rulers, and kill all their princes with him, says the I AM.
4 This is what the I AM says; For three sins of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away from punishing them, because they have despised the law of the I AM, and have not kept His commandments, and their lies caused them to sin the same way their ancestors sinned.
God is mad at Judah because they have disobeyed Him.
5 But I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
That fire was the Babylonian army. It will be a while before it arrives, but arrive it will.
6 This is what the I AM says; For three sins of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away from punishing them, because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
A listing of the sins of Israel beginning with selling their brothers who were poor into slavery; something expressly forbidden in the Law.
7 Who even envy the dirt on the poor person's head, and shove the weak out of their way, and a man and his father will have sex with the same woman to corrupt My holy name.
These people were so greedy they wanted the very dirt on the bodies of the poor people.
It was expressly forbidden in the Law for anyone to have sex with his father’s or son’s woman.
8 And they take naps by their altars on the clothes given to them as collateral for loans, and they drink the wine in their false temples taken from those who have been fined.
Also, when you took an item as collateral for a loan, you were not allowed to keep it overnight, much less take naps on it while drinking to false gods.
9 You know I was the one who destroyed the Amorite before you entered the land, whose height was like the height of the cedar trees, and he was as strong as the oaks. Yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
The Amorites were one of the groups God kicked out of Canaan to let Israel move in. They had a number of giants among their people but it didn’t matter. God destroyed them for their sins.
Even though God had done this for Israel, they had still chosen to worship other gods.
10 Also, I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
11 And I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, and some of your young men to be Nazarites. Isn't this true, O you children of Israel? says the I AM.
12 But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and gave commands to the prophets, saying, “Don't Prophecy!"
14 And so, the swift won't be able to run away, and the strong won't be strong enough to save himself.
15 Neither will the archer be able to stand, the fast runner won't be able to save himself, and the fastest horse won't get you to safety.
16 And the bravest of your warriors will run away naked in that day, says the I AM.
There will be nothing Israel can do to protect herself. Even her best warriors will not be able to win.