¹To Moab, this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“Woe to Nebo,

For it has been devastated.

Kiriathaim has been put to shame and captured.

Misgab has been put to shame

And is in disarray.

²There is no more praising of Moab.

In Heshbon they have plotted harm against it, saying,

‘Come, let us cut it off from being a nation.’

City of Madmen, you will also be reduced to silence;

The sword will come after you.

³There is a sound of shouting from Horonaim,

Of violence and large scale wreckage.

⁴Moab has collapsed;

Her young ones have uttered a shout.

⁵For in the ascent of Luhith,

Weeping upon weeping will arise.

For at the descent of Horonaim,

The distressing shout of destruction was heard.

⁶Take flight,

Save your life,

And be like a leafless tree

In the desert.

⁷For since your trust is in your works and your treasures,

You too will be captured,

And Chemosh will go into exile

– Its priests and its officials together.

⁸The plunderer will go to every city,

And no city will escape,

And the valley will be lost,

And the plain will be laid waste,

According to what the Lord says.

⁹Give Moab plumage,

For it urgently needs to take flight,

And its cities will be a desolation,

Without any inhabitant left in them.

¹⁰Cursed is he who does the Lord's work remissly,

And cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood.

¹¹Moab has been at ease since its youth,

And it has been resting on its lees

And has not been emptied from jar to jar

And has not gone into exile,

Which is why its original taste remains,

And its smell is unchanged.

¹²Therefore behold, the days are coming,

Says the Lord,

When I will send tilters who will tilt it

And empty its jars

And burst their wineskins.

¹³And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,

As the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-El,

Their object of confidence.

¹⁴How can you say,

‘We are valiant men

And warriors ready for war’?

¹⁵Moab has been plundered,

And its cities have gone up in flames,

And the elite of its youths have gone down to face slaughter,

Says the king

– The Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁶The downfall of Moab is close to coming,

And its demise is hastening fast.

¹⁷Bewail it,

All who are around it,

And all who know its name.

Say, ‘How the strong sceptre has been broken

– The magnificent staff.’

¹⁸Come down from glory,

And dwell in thirst,

You daughter who dwells in Dibon,

For the despoiler of Moab has come up against you

And will sack your fortresses.

¹⁹Stand on the road and keep watch,

You inhabitant of Aroer.

Ask a fugitive and one who has escaped,

And say, ‘What has happened?’

²⁰Moab has been put to shame,

For it is in disarray;

Wail and cry out

And report in Arnon

That Moab has been despoiled.

²¹And judgment has come on the level country,

On Holon, and on Jahzah,

And on Mephaath,

²²And on Dibon, and on Nebo,

And on Beth-Diblathaim,

²³And on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-Gamul,

And on Beth-Meon,

²⁴And on Kerioth, and on Bozrah,

And on all the cities of the land of Moab

– Those far off

And those nearby.

²⁵The horn of Moab has been cut off,

And its arm has been broken,

Says the Lord.

²⁶Make it drunk,

For it has exalted itself against the Lord.

But Moab will wallow in its own vomit,

And it too will become a laughing stock.

²⁷And was not Israel a laughing stock to you?

Was it found among thieves?

For every time you speak against it,

You convulse with laughter.

²⁸Leave the cities and dwell in the rock,

You inhabitants of Moab,

And be like a dove;

It builds its nest at the sides of the mouth of a pit.

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab

– He is very proud –

His arrogance and his pride and his haughtiness,

And the exaltation of his heart.

³⁰I know,

Says the Lord,

His presumptuousness,

But he is dishonest;

His lies deal dishonestly.

³¹Which is why I will wail for Moab,

And for all Moab I will cry out,

And for the men of Kir-Heres he will lament.

³²O vine of Sibmah,

I will weep for you

With more than the weeping of Jazer.

Your shoots have crossed the sea;

They have reached the sea of Jazer.

The plunderer has attacked your summer harvest and your grape harvest.

³³And joy and rejoicing have been taken away

From the cultivated land and from the land of Moab.

And I have put a stop to wine from the wine vats;

They will not tread wine with shouting

– The shouting will be different shouting.

³⁴Because of the crying out in Heshbon to Elealeh,

And to Jahaz,

They have raised their voice,

And from Zoar to Horonaim

– A heifer three years old –

For the waters of Nimrim will also become desolations.

³⁵And I will put a stop,

Says the Lord,

To anyone in Moab going up to an idolatrous raised site,

And burning incense to his gods.

³⁶This is why my heart is humming for Moab

Like pipe music for a dirge,

And my heart is humming for the men of Kir-Heres

Like pipe music:

Because the wealth which they had accumulated

Has gone to waste.

³⁷For every head will be bald,

And every beard removed.

On all hands will be incisions,

And around the waist,

Sackcloth.

³⁸On all the roofs of Moab and in its streets

There will be mourning all round,

For I will have broken Moab

Like an article in which there is no satisfaction,

Says the Lord.

³⁹‘How it is in disarray’,

They will howl,

‘How Moab has turned its back in shame.’

And Moab will be a laughing stock

And a cause of trepidation

To all those around it.

⁴⁰For this is what the Lord says:

‘Look, he will swoop like an eagle

And spread his wings over Moab.

⁴¹Kerioth will be captured,

And the strongholds will be taken,

And the hearts of the warriors of Moab on that day

Will be like the heart of a woman in labour pains.

⁴²And Moab will be cut off from being a people,

For it has exalted itself against the Lord.

⁴³Fear, and a pitfall, and a snare

Are looming over you,

You inhabitants of Moab,

Says the Lord.

⁴⁴And the fugitive from the fear

Will fall into the pit,

And he who comes up out of the pit

Will be caught in the snare,

For I will bring on it

– On Moab –

The year of their visitation,

Says the Lord.

⁴⁵Those who flee from the invading force

Will stand in the shadow of Heshbon,

But a fire will come out of Heshbon,

And a flame from the midst of Sihon,

And it will consume the sideboards of Moab

And the crown of the head of the tumultuous warriors.

⁴⁶Woe to you, Moab.

The people of Chemosh have been ruined,

For your sons have been taken into captivity,

And your daughters into deportation.

⁴⁷But I will reverse the captivity of Moab

In the latter days,

Says the Lord.’ ”

That was the judgment on Moab.