Jeremiah 49:26-33

The Message

“Hamath and Arpad will be in shock
    when they hear the bad news.
Their hearts will melt in fear
    as they pace back and forth in worry.
The blood will drain from the face of Damascus
    as she turns to flee.
Hysterical, she’ll fall to pieces,
    disabled, like a woman in childbirth.
And now how lonely—bereft, abandoned!
    The once famous city, the once happy city.
Her bright young men dead in the streets,
    her brave warriors silent as death.
On that day”—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies—
    “I’ll start a fire at the wall of Damascus
    that will burn down all of Ben-hadad’s forts.”

“On your feet! Attack Kedar!
    Plunder the Bedouin nomads from the east.
    Grab their blankets and pots and pans.
Steal their camels.
    Traumatize them, shouting, ‘Terror! Death! Doom!
Danger everywhere!’
    Oh, run for your lives,
You nomads from Hazor.” God’s Decree.
    “Find a safe place to hide.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
    has plans to wipe you out,
    to go after you with a vengeance:
‘After them,’ he says. ‘Go after these relaxed nomads
    who live free and easy in the desert,
Who live in the open with no doors to lock,
    who live off by themselves.’
Their camels are there for the taking,
    their herds and flocks, easy picking.
I’ll scatter them to the four winds,
    these defenseless nomads on the fringes of the desert.
I’ll bring terror from every direction.
    They won’t know what hit them.” God’s Decree.
“Jackals will take over the camps of Hazor,
    camps abandoned to wind and sand.
No one will live there,
    no mortal soul move in there.”