An Oracle Concerning Moab

¹An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone;

because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone.

²He has gone up to the temple,1 and to Dibon,

to the high places2 to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba

Moab wails.

On every head is baldness;

every beard is shorn;

³in the streets they wear sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

everyone wails and melts in tears.

⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;

his soul trembles.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;

⁶the waters of Nimrim

are a desolation;

the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,

the greenery is no more.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Brook of the Willows.

⁸For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

her wailing reaches to Eglaim;

her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dibon3 are full of blood;

for I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.