2 Meqabyan 3:1-29

¹And the prophet came from Riemat and spoke to him (for Riemat, which is part of Moab, is near Syria).

²He (Meqabees) dug a pit and entered it up to his neck, weeping bitter tears; he entered into repentance because of the sin he had committed before the Lord.

³And the Lord told the prophet: Return from the land of Judah to Riemat, to the Moabite official Meqabees. Tell him, The Lord says this to you. Tell him, I, the Lord your Creator, sent you by My own Will to destroy My country. Do not say, I destroyed the honored city, Jerusalem, by the strength of my own power and the abundance of my army, for it was not you who did this thing.

⁴For that city saddened Me with all its greed, treachery, and lustfulness.

⁵I neglected and cast her away by your hand. And now, the Lord has forgiven your sin because of the children you have fathered. It is not because of you, who hardened your mind and said, I encircled Jerusalem by my own authority and strength.

⁶As those who doubt are not disciplined enough to enter repentance, do not be a doubter; enter into repentance now, being disciplined in your entire mind.

⁷However, those who enter into repentance with their whole mind and do not return to their old desires and sins are admired among all who have repented.

⁸Those who return to their Creator, the Lord, with discipline, mourning, sadness, bowing, and many pleas are admired. For He told them: You are My wealth, you who entered repentance after misleading others who repented.

⁹He told the arrogant Meqabees when he returned to Him in repentance after being misled: I forgive your sin because of your fear and alarm; for I am the Lord your Creator, who brings hardship upon children for the father's sin up to seven generations if the child continues in the father's sin, but who shows mercy up to ten thousand generations for those who love Me and keep My Law.

¹⁰And now I will establish My oath with you because of these children you have fathered. The Lord who rules all and honors Israel said: I will accept the repentance you made for the sin you committed.

¹¹At that time, he came out of the pit and bowed to the prophet. He swore, saying: As I have saddened the Lord, let me do what you desire; let the Lord do so to me if I separate from you. As we had no Law, I did not live firmly in His Command like my fathers. You know that our fathers taught us to worship idols.

¹²I am a sinner who lived firmly in my sin, in the hardness of my mind and the arrogance of my thoughts, by which I saddened the Command of the Lord. But until now, I had not heard the word of the Lord's servants, the prophets, and I did not live by the Law and the Command He gave me.

¹³The prophet told him, As there were none from your kindred before you who confessed their sin, I know that the Lord has received your repentance today.

¹⁴But now, leave your idol worship and return to knowing the Lord so that your repentance may be true. He fell and bowed at the prophet's feet, and the prophet lifted him up and instructed him in all the good works required of him.

¹⁵And he returned to his house, doing exactly as the Lord commanded him.

¹⁶Meqabees turned his body to the worship of the Lord; he removed from his house the idols, the sorcery, the idol worshippers, the diviners, and the magicians.

¹⁷Morning and evening, just as the fathers do, he would examine the children he had captured and brought from Jerusalem in all the Lord's Commands, His Order, and His Law.

¹⁸From the children he had captured, he appointed knowledgeable ones over his house.

¹⁹He also appointed knowledgeable children to teach the smaller children, showing them the bedding where they might learn the Law of the Lord that the children of Israel follow. He would hear from the captured children of Israel the Order, the Law, and the Nine Laws, realizing that the orders of the Moabites and the mosques they built were in vain.

²⁰He destroyed those mosques, the idols, and the sorcery, as well as the sacrifices of goats and fattened sheep offered to idols morning and evening.

²¹He destroyed the idols he used to worship and believe in, those he sacrificed to at noon and in the afternoon, following the priests and the idols' desires.

²²Previously, it seemed to him that they saved him in all things, and he did not scorn anything they told him.

²³But Meqabees quit those works.

²⁴After he heard the words of Ra'ay (the prophet), he completed his work in repentance. Even as the children of Israel would sadden the Lord, and then cry out to Him when He punished them with tribulation - all his people worked better deeds than the children of Israel did in that season.

²⁵When the Lord heard that they were seized and abused by the nations who brought tribulation upon them, and that they cried to Him, He remembered the oath of their fathers; He would forgive them because of Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob.

²⁶But when He saved them, they would forget the Lord who saved them from tribulation and return to worshipping idols.

²⁷Then He would arouse nations against them to bring tribulation. When they were saddened by this, they would cry to the Lord; because He loved them as His own creation, He would be kind and forgive them.

²⁸But once He protected them, they again returned to sin, saddening Him with the work of their hands and worshipping idols in their councils.

²⁹So He would arouse against them the Moabites, Philistines, Syrians, Midianites, and Egyptians. When these enemies defeated them, they would cry and weep. When they were taxed and ruled over, the Lord would arouse princes for them to save them in the time He chose.