The Pillars of Three Faiths: Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran. Various Authors

Heshbon, for Ai is undone;Cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth;Lament, and run to and fro among the folds;For Malcam shall go into captivity,His priests and his princes together.⁴Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys,Thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?That didst trust in thy treasures:'Who shall come unto me?'⁵Behold, I will bring a terror upon thee,Saith the Lord God of hosts,From all that are round about thee;And ye shall be driven out every man right forth,And there shall be none to gather up him that wandereth.⁶But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon,Saith the Lord.

       ⁷Of Edom.

      Thus saith the Lord of hosts:Is wisdom no more in Teman?Is counsel perished from the prudent?Is their wisdom vanished?⁸Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep,O inhabitants of Dedan;For I do bring the calamity of Esau upon him,The time that I shall punish him.⁹If grape-gatherers came to thee,Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?If thieves by night,Would they not destroy till they had enough?¹⁰But I have made Esau bare,I have uncovered his secret places,And he shall not be able to hide himself;His seed is spoiled, and his brethren,And his neighbours, and he is not.¹¹Leave thy fatherless children, I will rear them,And let thy widows trust in Me.

      ¹²For thus saith the Lord: Behold, they to whom it pertained not to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink. ¹³For I have sworn by Myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.

      ¹⁴I have heard a message from the Lord,And an ambassador is sent among the nations:'Gather yourselves together, and come against her,And rise up to the battle.'¹⁵For, behold, I make thee small among the nations,And despised among men.¹⁶Thy terribleness hath deceived thee,Even the pride of thy heart,O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,That holdest the height of the hill;Though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle,I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.¹⁷And Edom shall become an astonishment;Every one that passeth by itShall be astonished and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and GomorrahAnd the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord,No man shall abide there,Neither shall any son of man dwell therein.¹⁹Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the thickets of the JordanAgainst the strong habitation;For I will suddenly make him run away from it,And whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it;For who is like Me? and who will appoint Me a time?And who is that shepherd that will stand before Me?²⁰Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord,That He hath taken against Edom;And His purposes, that He hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman:Surely the least of the flock shall drag them away,Surely their habitation shall be appalled at them.²¹The earth quaketh at the noise of their fall;There is a cry, the noise whereof is heard in the Red Sea.²²Behold, he shall come up and swoop down as the vulture,And spread out his wings against Bozrah;And the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that dayShall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

       ²³Of Damascus.

      Hamath is ashamed, and Arpad;For they have heard evil tidings, they are melted away;There is trouble in the sea;It cannot be quiet.²⁴Damascus is waxed feeble, she turneth herself to flee,And trembling hath seized on her;Anguish and pangs have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.²⁵'How is the city of praise left unrepaired,The city of my joy?'²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her broad places,And all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day,Saith the Lord of hosts.²⁷And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,And it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

       ²⁸Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote.

      Thus saith the Lord:Arise ye, go up against Kedar,And spoil the children of the east.²⁹Their tents and their flocks shall they take,They shall carry away for themselves their curtains,And all their vessels, and their camels;And they shall proclaim against them a terror on every side.³⁰Flee ye, flit far off, dwell deep,O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the Lord;For Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you,And hath conceived a purpose against you.³¹Arise, get you up against a nation that is at ease,That dwelleth without care, saith the Lord;That have neither gates nor bars,That dwell alone.³²And their camels shall be a booty,And the multitude of their cattle a spoil;And I will scatter unto all winds them that have the corners polled;And I will bring their calamity from every side of them, saith the Lord.³³And Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals,A desolation for ever; no man shall abide there,Neither shall any son of man dwell therein.

       ³⁴The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:

      ³⁵Thus saith the Lord of hosts:Behold, I will break the bow of ElamThe chief of their might.³⁶And I will bring against Elam the four windsFrom the four quarters of heaven,And will scatter them toward all those winds;And there shall be no nation whither the dispersed of Elam shall not come.³⁷And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies,And before them that seek their life;And I will bring evil upon them,Even My fierce anger, saith the Lord;And I will send the sword after them,Till I have consumed them;³⁸And I will set My throne in Elam,And will destroy from thence king and princes, saith the Lord.³⁹But it shall come to pass in the end of days,That I will bring back the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord.

       50The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

      ²Declare ye among the nations and announce,And set up a standard;Announce, and conceal not;Say: 'Babylon is taken,Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed;Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.'³For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her,Which shall make her land desolate,And none shall dwell therein;They are fled, they are gone, both man and beast.⁴In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord,The children of Israel shall come,They and the children of Judah together;They shall go on their way weeping,And shall seek the Lord their God.⁵They shall inquire concerning ZionWith their faces hitherward:'Come ye, and join yourselves to the LordIn an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.' ⁶My people hath been lost sheep;Their shepherds have caused them to go astray,They have turned them away on the mountains;They have gone from mountain to hill,They have forgotten their resting-place.⁷All that found them have devoured them;And their adversaries said: 'We are not guilty';Because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers. ⁸Flee out of the midst of Babylon,And go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,And be as the he-goats before the flocks.⁹For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against BabylonAn assembly of great nations from the north country;And they shall set themselves in array against her,From thence she shall be taken;Their arrows shall be as of a mighty man that maketh childless;None shall return in vain.¹⁰And Chaldea shall be a spoil;All that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord.¹¹Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice,O ye that plunder My heritage,Because ye gambol as a heifer at grass,And neigh as strong horses;¹²Your mother shall be sore ashamed,She that bore you shall be confounded;Behold, the hindermost of the nationsShall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.¹³Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited,But it shall be wholly desolate;Every one that goeth by BabylonShall be appalled and hiss at all her plagues.¹⁴Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about,All ye that bend the bow,Shoot at her, spare no arrows;For she hath sinned against the Lord.¹⁵Shout against her round about, she hath submitted herself;Her buttresses are fallen, her walls are thrown down;For it is the vengeance of the Lord, take vengeance upon her;As she hath done, do unto her.¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon,And him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest;For fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people,And they shall flee every one to his own land. ¹⁷Israel is a scattered sheep,The lions have driven him away;First the king of Assyria hath devoured him,And last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.¹⁸Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the