Judgment on Moab
Concerning Moab. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, for it is devastated! Kiriathaim is put to shame, captured; the stronghold is put to shame and shattered.
There is no longer praise for Moab. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. Also, Madmen, you will be silenced; after you the sword will go.
A voice of outcry from Horonaim — devastation and great breaking!
Moab is broken; her little ones have made an outcry heard.
For the ascent of Luhith — with weeping one goes up weeping; for at the descent of Horonaim the distresses of the outcry of breaking they have heard.
Flee! Deliver your souls, and be like a shrub in the wilderness!
For because of your trust in your works and in your treasures, you too will be captured; and Chemosh will go out into exile, his priests and his princes together.
And the devastator will come to every city, and no city will escape; and the valley will perish and the plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has said.
Give a wing to Moab, for she must fly away; and her cities will become a horror, with no inhabitant in them.
Cursed is the one who does the work of the LORD slackly, and cursed is the one who withholds his sword from blood.
Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he is quiet on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and into exile he has not gone. Therefore his taste has stood in him, and his scent is not changed.
Therefore, see, days are coming — the utterance of the LORD — when I will send to him tippers, and they will tip him; and they will empty his vessels and shatter their jars.
And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their trust.
How can you say: We are mighty men, and men of valor for the war?
Moab is devastated, and her cities have gone up; and the choicest of his young men have gone down to the slaughter — the utterance of the King, the LORD of hosts is his name.
The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his evil hastens greatly.
Grieve for him, all who are around him and all who know his name. Say: How the staff of strength is broken, the rod of beauty!
Come down from glory and sit in thirst, dweller, daughter of Dibon; for the devastator of Moab has come up against you, he has destroyed your fortresses.
Stand by the way and look out, dweller of Aroer. Ask the one fleeing and the one escaping; say: What has happened?
Moab is put to shame, for it is shattered. Howl and cry out! Declare in Arnon that Moab is devastated.
And judgment has come to the land of the plain — to Holon and to Jahzah and against Mephaath,
and against Dibon and against Nebo and against Beth-diblathaim,
and against Kiriathaim and against Beth-gamul and against Beth-meon,
and against Kerioth and against Bozrah, and against all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
The horn of Moab is cut down, and his arm is broken — the utterance of the LORD.
Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against the LORD; and Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he too will become laughter.
And was not Israel laughter to you? Was he found among thieves, that as often as you spoke of him you shook your head?
Leave the cities and settle in the rock, dwellers of Moab; and be like a dove that nests on the sides of the mouth of a chasm.
We have heard the pride of Moab — he is very proud — his loftiness and his pride and his arrogance and the height of his heart.
I myself know — the utterance of the LORD — his fury, and it is not right; his empty talk — they have not done right.
Therefore I will howl for Moab, and for all Moab I will cry out; for the men of Kir-heres one moans.
With the weeping of Jazer I weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your tendrils crossed the sea; to the sea of Jazer they reached. On your summer fruit and on your vintage the devastator has fallen.
And gladness and rejoicing are gathered in from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab; and I have made wine cease from the winepresses. None will tread with the shout; the shout will be no shout.
From the outcry of Heshbon to Elealeh, to Jahaz they have given their voice; from Zoar to Horonaim, Eglath-shelishiyah. For even the waters of Nimrim will become desolations.
And I will make cease for Moab — the utterance of the LORD — the one going up to a high place and burning incense to his gods.
Therefore my heart moans for Moab like flutes, and my heart for the men of Kir-heres moans like flutes; therefore the abundance he made has perished.
For every head is bald and every beard clipped; on all hands are gashes, and on the loins sackcloth.
On all the roofs of Moab and in her squares, all of it is lamentation; for I have broken Moab like a vessel with no delight in it — the utterance of the LORD.
How it is shattered! Howl! How Moab has turned the back of the neck in shame! And Moab has become laughter and a shattering to all those around him.
For thus says the LORD: See, like an eagle he swoops and spreads his wings against Moab.
Kerioth is captured and the strongholds are seized; and the heart of the mighty men of Moab in that day will be like the heart of a woman in her distress.
And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, for he magnified himself against the LORD.
Dread and the pit and the snare are upon you, dweller of Moab — the utterance of the LORD.
The one fleeing before the dread will fall into the pit, and the one coming up from the pit will be caught in the snare; for I will bring to her, to Moab, the year of their attending — the utterance of the LORD.
In the shadow of Heshbon those fleeing have stopped, without strength; for a fire has gone out from Heshbon and a flame from between Sihon, and it has devoured the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult.
Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh has perished, for your sons are taken in captivity and your daughters in captivity.
And I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the end of days — the utterance of the LORD. Thus far the judgment of Moab.