CHAPTER 2 Nov. 22 
Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime; 2but I will send a fire on Moab, and it will  destroy the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the  trumpet; 3and I will cut off the judge from their midst, and will kill all their princes with him, says Yahweh. 4Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected Yahweh’s law, and have not kept His statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked; 5but I will send a fire on Judah, and it will eat up the palaces of Jerusalem. 6Thus says Yahweh: For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its  punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; 7they trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same girl, to profane My holy name; 8and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes  taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of the condemned. 9Yet I destroyed 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. 10Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. 11I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Isn’t this true, you children of Israel? says Yahweh. 12But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Don’t prophesy!’. 13See, I will crush you in your place, as a cart crushes that is full of grain. 14Flight will flee from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 15neither shall he stand who handles the bow; and he who is swift of foot won’t escape; neither shall he who rides the horse deliver himself; 16and he who is courageous among the mighty will flee away naked in that day, says Yahweh.

Commentary

2:1 I will not turn away its punishment- A tacit recognition that God can state a punishment or destiny against a person or group, and yet turn away from doing it in the light of their repentance, as happened with Israel at the time of Moses, or with Nineveh in the book of Jonah. However there is a point where such changes are no longer possible; a change of mind is no longer a possibility (Hos. 13:14).
2:2 The “fire” promised here and throughout chapter 1 is not so much literal fire as symbolic of God’s anger and condemnation (see too Jer. 17:27; Jude 7). When Jesus spoke of fire as the punishment of the wicked and used the metaphor of Gehenna, the ever burning garbage site near Jerusalem, He too wasn’t speaking literally but in harmony with His Father’s figurative usage of “fire” in the Old Testament as a metaphor for judgment. 
2:7 To profane My holy name- In our context, we have been baptized into the same Name. We can likewise profane that Name by our behaviour. This is the essence of the meaning of blaspheming God’s Name.
2:8 Drink the wine of the condemned- Under the New Covenant, we too run the risk of drinking the wine of that covenant to our own condemnation (1 Cor. 11:29). As we hold that cup, we realize we are at a T-junction; we shall either be saved or condemned, and we should live life in the intensity of that knowledge.
2:11 I raised up… Nazirites- Becoming a Nazirite was totally voluntary. Yet God works through our freewill.
2:12 You gave the Nazirites wine to drink- Nazirites weren’t allowed to drink wine (Num. 6:3). To lead others into sin, or discourage them from the spiritual commitments they have made, is reckoned by God as worthy of the strongest condemnation. We should be positive and supportive of others’ spirituality rather than destructive of it. Jesus therefore had so much anger with the Pharisees and Jewish leadership for the very same reason.