The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 God's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Moab - make that four - I'm not putting up with her any longer. She violated the corpse of Edom's king, burning it to cinders.
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Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
2 For that, I'm burning down Moab, burning down the forts of Kerioth. Moab will die in the shouting, go out in the blare of war trumpets.
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But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
3 I'll remove the king from the center and kill all his princes with him."
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And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
4 God's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Judah - make that four - I'm not putting up with them any longer. They rejected God's revelation, refused to keep my commands. But they swallowed the same old lies that got their ancestors onto dead-end roads.
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Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
5 For that, I'm burning down Judah, burning down all the forts of Jerusalem." Destroyed from the Roots Up
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But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
6 God's Message: "Because of the three great sins of Israel - make that four - I'm not putting up with them any longer. They buy and sell upstanding people. People for them are only things - ways of making money. They'd sell a poor man for a pair of shoes. They'd sell their own grandmother!
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Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
7 They grind the penniless into the dirt, shove the luckless into the ditch. Everyone and his brother sleeps with the 'sacred whore' - a sacrilege against my Holy Name.
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That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
8 Stuff they've extorted from the poor is piled up at the shrine of their god, While they sit around drinking wine they've conned from their victims.
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And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.
9 "In contrast, I was always on your side. I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you, Amorites with the stature of great cedars, tough as thick oaks. I destroyed them from the top branches down. I destroyed them from the roots up.
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Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
10 And yes, I'm the One who delivered you from Egypt, led you safely through the wilderness for forty years And then handed you the country of the Amorites like a piece of cake on a platter.
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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 I raised up some of your young men to be prophets, set aside your best youth for training in holiness. Isn't this so, Israel?" God's Decree.
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And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
12 "But you made the youth-in-training break training, and you told the young prophets, 'Don't prophesy!'
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But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
13 You're too much for me. I'm hard-pressed - to the breaking point. I'm like a wagon piled high and overloaded, creaking and groaning.
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Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
14 "When I go into action, what will you do? There's no place to run no matter how fast you run. The strength of the strong won't count. Fighters won't make it.
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Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:
15 Skilled archers won't make it. Fast runners won't make it. Chariot drivers won't make it.
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Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself: neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
16 Even the bravest of all your warriors Won't make it. He'll run off for dear life, stripped naked." God's Decree.
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And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.