| 1 | Concerning Moab: This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "Woe to Nebo, for it will be ruined. Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured; the stronghold will be disgraced and shattered. | |
| 2 | Moab will be praised no more; in Heshbon men will plot her downfall: 'Come, let us put an end to that nation.' You too, O Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you. | |
| 3 | Listen to the cries from Horonaim, cries of great havoc and destruction. | |
| 4 | Moab will be broken; her little ones will cry out. | |
| 5 | They go up the way to Luhith, weeping bitterly as they go; on the road down to Horonaim anguished cries over the destruction are heard. | |
| 6 | Flee! Run for your lives; become like a bush in the desert. | |
| 7 | Since you trust in your deeds and riches, you too will be taken captive, and Chemosh will go into exile, together with his priests and officials. | |
| 8 | The destroyer will come against every town, and not a town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plateau destroyed, because the LORD has spoken. | |
| 9 | Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste; her towns will become desolate, with no one to live in them. | |
| 10 | "A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD'S work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed! | |
| 11 | "Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another--she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged. | |
| 12 | But days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will send men who pour from jars, and they will pour her out; they will empty her jars and smash her jugs. | |
| 13 | Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel. | |
| 14 | "How can you say, 'We are warriors, men valiant in battle'? | |
| 15 | Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded; her finest young men will go down in the slaughter," declares the King, whose name is the LORD Almighty. | |
| 16 | "The fall of Moab is at hand; her calamity will come quickly. | |
| 17 | Mourn for her, all who live around her, all who know her fame; say, 'How broken is the mighty scepter, how broken the glorious staff!' | |
| 18 | "Come down from your glory and sit on the parched ground, O inhabitants of the Daughter of Dibon, for he who destroys Moab will come up against you and ruin your fortified cities. | |
| 19 | Stand by the road and watch, you who live in Aroer. Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping, ask them, 'What has happened?' | |
| 20 | Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out! Announce by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed. | |
| 21 | Judgment has come to the plateau--to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath, | |
| 22 | to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim, | |
| 23 | to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon, | |
| 24 | to Kerioth and Bozrah--to all the towns of Moab, far and near. | |
| 25 | Moab's horn is cut off; her arm is broken," declares the LORD. | |
| 26 | "Make her drunk, for she has defied the LORD. Let Moab wallow in her vomit; let her be an object of ridicule. | |
| 27 | Was not Israel the object of your ridicule? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head in scorn whenever you speak of her? | |
| 28 | Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks, you who live in Moab. Be like a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a cave. | |
| 29 | "We have heard of Moab's pride--her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and arrogance and the haughtiness of her heart. | |
| 30 | I know her insolence but it is futile," declares the LORD, "and her boasts accomplish nothing. | |
| 31 | Therefore I wail over Moab, for all Moab I cry out, I moan for the men of Kir Hareseth. | |
| 32 | I weep for you, as Jazer weeps, O vines of Sibmah. Your branches spread as far as the sea; they reached as far as the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your ripened fruit and grapes. | |
| 33 | Joy and gladness are gone from the orchards and fields of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses; no one treads them with shouts of joy. Although there are shouts, they are not shouts of joy. | |
| 34 | "The sound of their cry rises from Heshbon to Elealeh and Jahaz, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim are dried up. | |
| 35 | In Moab I will put an end to those who make offerings on the high places and burn incense to their gods," declares the LORD. | |
| 36 | "So my heart laments for Moab like a flute; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they acquired is gone. | |
| 37 | Every head is shaved and every beard cut off; every hand is slashed and every waist is covered with sackcloth. | |
| 38 | On all the roofs in Moab and in the public squares there is nothing but mourning, for I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants," declares the LORD. | |
| 39 | "How shattered she is! How they wail! How Moab turns her back in shame! Moab has become an object of ridicule, an object of horror to all those around her." | |
| 40 | This is what the LORD says: "Look! An eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab. | |
| 41 | Kerioth will be captured and the strongholds taken. In that day the hearts of Moab's warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor. | |
| 42 | Moab will be destroyed as a nation because she defied the LORD. | |
| 43 | Terror and pit and snare await you, O people of Moab," declares the LORD. | |
| 44 | "Whoever flees from the terror will fall into a pit, whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare; for I will bring upon Moab the year of her punishment," declares the LORD. | |
| 45 | "In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand helpless, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a blaze from the midst of Sihon; it burns the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of the noisy boasters. | |
| 46 | Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are destroyed; your sons are taken into exile and your daughters into captivity. | |
| 47 | "Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come," declares the LORD. Here ends the judgment on Moab. | |