1-6. God’s Message on the Ammonites:“Doesn’t Israel have any children,no one to step into her inheritance?So why is the god Milcom taking over Gad’s land,his followers moving into its towns?But not for long! The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“When I’ll fill the ears of Rabbah, Ammon’s big city,with battle cries.She’ll end up a pile of rubble,all her towns burned to the ground.Then Israel will kick out the invaders.I, God, say so, and it will be so.Wail Heshbon, Ai is in ruins.Villages of Rabbah, wring your hands!Dress in mourning, weep buckets of tears.Go into hysterics, run around in circles!Your god Milcom will be hauled off to exile,and all his priests and managers right with him.Why do you brag of your once-famous strength?You’re a broken-down has-been, a castoffWho fondles his trophies and dreams of glory daysand vainly thinks, ‘No one can lay a hand on me.’Well, think again. I’ll face you with terror from all sides.”Word of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.“You’ll be stampeded headlong,with no one to round up the runaways.Still, the time will comewhen I will make things right with Ammon.” God’s Decree.
12-13. Indeed. God says, “I tell you, if there are people who have to drink the cup of God’s wrath even though they don’t deserve it, why would you think you’d get off? You won’t get off. You’ll drink it. Oh yes, you’ll drink every drop. And as for Bozrah, your capital, I swear by all that I am”—God’s Decree—“that that city will end up a pile of charred ruins, a stinking garbage dump, an obscenity—and all her daughter-cities with her.”