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| 1 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: |
Moab – To the south. R3423:6
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| 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kirioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: |
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| 3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
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| 4 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: |
For three transgressions – The basis of the Jewish Rabbis' teaching of forgiveness for three repented wrongs. R2665:3
Of Judah – To the south. R3423:6
And for four – Peter adds the three and the four, inquiring whether the Lord would have his followers forgive seven times. R2665:3
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| 5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. |
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| 6 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; |
Transgressions of Israel – The ten-tribe kingdom, the center of the prophet's message. R3423:6, R2356:1
Having captured their attention with words descriptive of the troubles coming upon their surrounding enemies, the circle grew narrower; the weight of the prophet's message was especially against themselves, and they were indignant. R3423:6
The punishment – The denunciation of Israel occurs chiefly in chapters 3 to 6 and in chapter 7:9-17. R3423:6
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| 7 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: |
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| 8 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. |
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| 9 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. |
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| 10 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. |
Forty years – Prefiguring the 19 centuries of the Gospel age. R3079:3
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| 11 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. |
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| 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not. |
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| 13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. |
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| 14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself: |
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| 15 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. |
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| 16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the LORD. |
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