1Concerning Moab. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, for it is devastated! Kiriathaim is put to shame and captured; the stronghold is put to shame and shattered.
2The praise of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.’ You too, Madmen, shall be silenced; the sword will pursue you.
3A sound of an outcry from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’
4Moab is broken; her little ones have raised a cry.
5For up the ascent of Luhith, with weeping one goes up weeping; for on the descent of Horonaim the adversaries have heard the cry of ruin.
6Flee! Save your lives! Become like a juniper in the wilderness.
7For because you trusted in your works and in your treasures, you too shall be captured; and Chemosh shall go out into exile, his priests and his officials together.
8A devastator will come against every city, and no city shall escape; the valley shall perish and the plateau be destroyed, as Yahweh has said.
9Give wings to Moab, for she must fly away; her cities shall become a desolation, with no one dwelling in them.
10Cursed is the one who does the work of Yahweh negligently, and cursed is the one who withholds his sword from blood.
11Moab has been at ease from his youth, settled on his dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel, and into exile he has not gone. Therefore his taste has stayed in him, and his aroma is unchanged.
12Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will send to him tippers who will tip him over; they will empty his vessels and smash their jars.
13Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
14How can you say, ‘We are warriors, and men of valor for the battle’?
15Moab is devastated, and its cities have gone up in smoke; the choicest of his young men have gone down to the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.
16The disaster of Moab is near at hand, and his trouble hastens exceedingly.
17Mourn for him, all you around him, and all who know his name; say, ‘How the mighty staff is broken, the glorious rod!’
18Come down from glory and sit in thirst, O enthroned daughter of Dibon, for the devastator of Moab has come up against you; he has ruined your fortresses.
19Stand by the road and watch, O inhabitant of Aroer; ask the one fleeing and the one escaping, say, ‘What has happened?’
20Moab is put to shame, for it is shattered. Wail and cry out! Declare it by the Arnon, that Moab is devastated.
21Judgment has come upon the land of the plateau — upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath,
22and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim,
23and upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon,
24and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
25The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares Yahweh.
26Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against Yahweh; let Moab wallow in his vomit, and let him too become a laughingstock.
27Was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you shook your head?
28Leave the cities and dwell among the rocks, O inhabitants of Moab; be like a dove that nests at the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
29We have heard of the pride of Moab — he is exceedingly proud — his loftiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.
30I know his insolence, declares Yahweh; it is not right — his boasts are not right; they have not acted rightly.
31Therefore I wail over Moab, and for all Moab I cry out; for the men of Kir-heres one moans.
32More than the weeping of Jazer I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah; your tendrils crossed over the sea, they reached as far as the sea of Jazer. Upon your summer fruit and upon your vintage the destroyer has fallen.
33Gladness and rejoicing are gathered away from the fruitful land, from the land of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one treads with a shout — the shout is no shout.
34From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, as far as Jahaz they have raised their voice, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim have become desolations.
35And I will bring to an end for Moab — declares Yahweh — the one who offers on a high place and the one who burns incense to his gods.
36Therefore my heart moans for Moab like flutes, and my heart moans like flutes for the men of Kir-heres; therefore the abundance they gained has perished.
37For every head is bald and every beard cut off; on all hands are gashes, and on the loins sackcloth.
38On all the rooftops of Moab and in her open squares, all of it is lamentation; for I have shattered Moab like a vessel in which there is no delight — declares Yahweh.
39How it is shattered! They wail. How Moab has turned its back in shame! So Moab has become a laughingstock and a terror to all around it.
40For thus says Yahweh: Look, like an eagle he swoops, and he spreads his wings toward Moab.
41Kerioth is captured, and the strongholds are seized; and in that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because it magnified itself against Yahweh.
43Terror and pit and snare are upon you, O inhabitant of Moab — declares Yahweh.
44The one fleeing from the terror will fall into the pit, and the one climbing up from the pit will be caught in the snare; for I will bring upon her, upon Moab, the year of their reckoning — declares Yahweh.
45In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand without strength; for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and it has devoured the border of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult.
46Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh has perished; for your sons have been taken in captivity and your daughters into exile.
47Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days — declares Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
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