Numbers 21:27

He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.

“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

The children of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;

Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

The praise of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: ‘Come! Let’s cut her off from being a nation.’ You also, Madmen, will be brought to silence. The sword will pursue you.

Because of Yahweh’s wrath she won’t be inhabited, but she will be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, ‘We are utterly ruined! My people’s possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!’ ”

saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!

From there they traveled, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, “Vaheb in Suphah, the valleys of the Arnon,

He took up his parable, and said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.

The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day.

Heshbon with its pasture lands, Jazer with its pasture lands: four cities in all.

Saul said to David, “Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh’s battles.” For Saul said, “Don’t let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.”

(and he commanded them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow; behold, it is written in the book of Jashar):

When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and stored them in the house. Then he let the men go, and they departed.

At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

Heshbon with its pasture lands, and Jazer with its pasture lands.

All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

Yahweh, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?

An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, won’t be blessed in the end.

Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, both come to poverty.

The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.

For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”

who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.

who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”

Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.

Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.

I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I will drive them.

A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’

The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,” says Yahweh.

The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

“How Sheshach is taken! How the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.

So it will be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes—I, Yahweh, have spoken it—

“Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

The strong among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of Sheol with those who help him. They have gone down. The uncircumcised lie still, slain by the sword.

As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,

Wherever the children of men dwell, he has given the animals of the field and the birds of the sky into your hand, and has made you rule over them all. You are the head of gold.

He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.

Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’

Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.

He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.

I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

“Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.”