The Father's Judgment on the Nations
2 1 This is what our Father says: "For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke it—because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime. 1 1 v1 "Three transgressions… and for four" is a Hebrew idiom for repeated, escalating wrongdoing — the numbers signal accumulation, not a literal count. 2 So I will send fire on Moab and it will devour the strongholds of Kerioth Moab will die amid the uproar, with shouting and the sound of the shofar. 3 I will cut off the ruler from her midst and kill all her officials with him, " says our Father.
The Father's Judgment on Judah
4 This is what our Father says: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke it—because they rejected the instruction of our Father and did not keep his statutes, and their lies led them astray, the same lies their ancestors had followed. 5 So I will send fire on Judah and it will devour the strongholds of Jerusalem."
The Father's Judgment on Israel
6 This is what our Father says: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke it—because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. 7 They trample the heads of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted off the road. A man and his father go to the same girl, profaning my holy name. 8 They stretch out beside every altar on garments taken as collateral and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those they have fined. 9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, as tall as the cedars and as strong as the oaks I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below. 10 And it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness, to take possession of the land of the Amorite. 11 I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men as Nazirites. Is this not so, people of Israel? declares our Father.
12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, saying, "Do not prophesy." 13 Look, I will crush you in your place, as a cart full of sheaves crushes the ground beneath it. 14 Even the swift will find no escape, the strong will not hold on to his strength and the warrior will not save his life. 15 The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet-footed will not escape and the horseman will not save his life. 16 Even the bravest of the warriors will flee away naked on that day, declares our Father.