For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

  When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

    “How the oppressor has ceased,
        the insolent fury ceased!
    The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
        the scepter of rulers,
    that struck the peoples in wrath
        with unceasing blows,
    that ruled the nations in anger
        with unrelenting persecution.
    The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
        they break forth into singing.
    The cypresses rejoice at you,
        the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
    ‘Since you were laid low,
        no woodcutter comes up against us.’
    Sheol beneath is stirred up
        to meet you when you come;
    it rouses the shades to greet you,
        all who were leaders of the earth;
    it raises from their thrones
        all who were kings of the nations.
    All of them will answer
        and say to you:
    ‘You too have become as weak as we!
        You have become like us!’
    Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
        the sound of your harps;
    maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
        and worms are your covers.
    
    
    “How you are fallen from heaven,
        O Day Star, son of Dawn!
    How you are cut down to the ground,
        you who laid the nations low!
    You said in your heart,
        ‘I will ascend to heaven;
    above the stars of God
        I will set my throne on high;
    I will sit on the mount of assembly
        in the far reaches of the north;
    I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
        I will make myself like the Most High.’
    But you are brought down to Sheol,
        to the far reaches of the pit.
    Those who see you will stare at you
        and ponder over you:
    ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
        who shook kingdoms,
    who made the world like a desert
        and overthrew its cities,
        who did not let his prisoners go home?’
    All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
        each in his own tomb;
    but you are cast out, away from your grave,
        like a loathed branch,
    clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
        who go down to the stones of the pit,
        like a dead body trampled underfoot.
    You will not be joined with them in burial,
        because you have destroyed your land,
        you have slain your people.
    
    
    “May the offspring of evildoers
        nevermore be named!
    Prepare slaughter for his sons
        because of the guilt of their fathers,
    lest they rise and possess the earth,
        and fill the face of the world with cities.”
    
    
      “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, descendants and posterity,” declares the LORD. “And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.

    The LORD of hosts has sworn:
    “As I have planned,
        so shall it be,
    and as I have purposed,
        so shall it stand,
    that I will break the Assyrian in my land,
        and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
    and his yoke shall depart from them,
        and his burden from their shoulder.”
    
    
    This is the purpose that is purposed
        concerning the whole earth,
    and this is the hand that is stretched out
        over all the nations.
    For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
        and who will annul it?
    His hand is stretched out,
        and who will turn it back?
    
    
      In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:

    Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
        that the rod that struck you is broken,
    for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,
        and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
    And the firstborn of the poor will graze,
        and the needy lie down in safety;
    but I will kill your root with famine,
        and your remnant it will slay.
    Wail, O gate; cry out, O city;
        melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
    For smoke comes out of the north,
        and there is no straggler in his ranks.
    
    
    What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
    “The LORD has founded Zion,
        and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
    
    
      An oracle concerning Moab.

    Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
        Moab is undone;
    because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
        Moab is undone.
    He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,
        to the high places to weep;
    over Nebo and over Medeba
        Moab wails.
    On every head is baldness;
        every beard is shorn;
    in the streets they wear sackcloth;
        on the housetops and in the squares
        everyone wails and melts in tears.
    Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
        their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
    therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
        his soul trembles.
    My heart cries out for Moab;
        her fugitives flee to Zoar,
        to Eglath-shelishiyah.
    For at the ascent of Luhith
        they go up weeping;
    on the road to Horonaim
        they raise a cry of destruction;
    the waters of Nimrim
        are a desolation;
    the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
        the greenery is no more.
    Therefore the abundance they have gained
        and what they have laid up
    they carry away
        over the Brook of the Willows.
    For a cry has gone
        around the land of Moab;
    her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
        her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
    For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;
        for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
    a lion for those of Moab who escape,
        for the remnant of the land.
    Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
    from Sela, by way of the desert,
        to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
    Like fleeing birds,
        like a scattered nest,
    so are the daughters of Moab
        at the fords of the Arnon.
    
    
    “Give counsel;
        grant justice;
    make your shade like night
        at the height of noon;
    shelter the outcasts;
        do not reveal the fugitive;
    let the outcasts of Moab
        sojourn among you;
    be a shelter to them
        from the destroyer.
    When the oppressor is no more,
        and destruction has ceased,
    and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
    then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
        and on it will sit in faithfulness
        in the tent of David
    one who judges and seeks justice
        and is swift to do righteousness.”
    
    
    We have heard of the pride of Moab—
        how proud he is!—
    of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;
        in his idle boasting he is not right.
    Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,
        let everyone wail.
    Mourn, utterly stricken,
        for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
    
    
    For the fields of Heshbon languish,
        and the vine of Sibmah;
    the lords of the nations
        have struck down its branches,
    which reached to Jazer
        and strayed to the desert;
    its shoots spread abroad
        and passed over the sea.
    Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer
        for the vine of Sibmah;
    I drench you with my tears,
        O Heshbon and Elealeh;
    for over your summer fruit and your harvest
        the shout has ceased.
    And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field,
    and in the vineyards no songs are sung,
        no cheers are raised;
    no treader treads out wine in the presses;
        I have put an end to the shouting.
    Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,
        and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.
    
    
      And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

  This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in the past. But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who remain will be very few and feeble.” (ESV)

Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:

  “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

  And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. (ESV)