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,15:2 Hebrew the house and to Dibon,

to the high places15:2 Or temple, even Dibon to the high places 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 Dibon15:9 Dead Sea Scroll, Vulgate (compare Syriac); Masoretic Text Dimon; twice in this verse 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.