CHAPTER 48
1Concerning Moab, thus said the LORD of Armies, God of Israel.
Woe to Nebo, for it is ravaged,
Kiriathaim is shamed, is captured.
The stronghold is shamed and shattered.
2The Praise of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they plotted harm against her:
“Come, let us cut her off as a nation
Madmein, too, you shall be mute.
After you the sword shall go.”
3A sound of outcry from Horonaim—
wrack and great ruin.
4Moab is broken,
her young make heard an outcry.
5For on the Ascent of Luhith
weeping upon weeping goes up.
For in the Descent of Horonaim
a distressed outcry of shattering they hear.
6Flee, save your lives,
and become like Aroer in the desert.
7For, as you put trust
in your works and in your treasures,
you, too, shall be caught,
and Chemosh shall go out into exile,
his priests and his nobles together.
8And the ravager shall come to each town,
no town shall escape.
And the valley shall perish,
and the plain be destroyed,
as the LORD said.
9Make a marker for Moab,
for she surely shall go out,
and her towns shall become a desolation
with no dweller within them.
10Cursed be he who deceives when he does the LORD’s task,
and cursed be he who holds back his sword from blood.
11Moab was tranquil from his youth
and settled in his lees,
and was not poured from jug to jug,
nor in exile did he go.
Therefore his flavor stood in him
and his fragrance did not change.
12Therefore, look, days are coming, said the LORD, when I will send him men to tip him over, and they shall pour out his jugs and shatter his flasks. 13And Moab shall be shamed of Chemosh as the house of Israel was shamed of Bethel, their trust.
14How can you say, “We are warriors
and men of valor for battle”?
15Moab is ravaged, gone up from its towns
and its choicest young men gone down to the slaughter
—said the King, LORD of Armies is His name.
16Moab’s disaster is close to come,
and its harm is very swift.
17Console him, all who are round him
Say, how is the staff of strength broken,
the splendid rod!
18Go down from glory, sit in thirst,
O dweller, Daughter of Dibon.
For Moab’s ravager has gone up against you,
laid waste to your fortresses.
19By the wayside stand and look out,
O dweller of Aroer.
Ask him who flees and him who escapes,
Say “What has happened?”
20Moab is shamed, for she is shattered.
Wail and cry out.
Tell it in Arnon
that Moab is ravaged.
21And judgment has come to the plain land, to Holon and to Johzah, and to Maphaath 22and to Dibon and to Nebo and to Beth-Diblathaim 23and to Kiriathaim and to Beth-Gamul and to Beth-Maon 24and to Kerioth and to Bozrah and to all the towns of Moab, far and near.
25The horn of Moab is hacked down
and his arm is broken, said the LORD.
26Make him drunk, for over the LORD he vaunted,
and Moab shall dabble in his vomit
and he, too, shall become a mockery.
27For was not Israel a mockery to you?
Was he found among the thieves,
for as you spoke against him, you shook your head?
28Leave the towns and dwell among the rocks,
O dwellers of Moab,
and be like the dove that nests
on the brink of a pit.
29We have heard the pride of Moab,
very proud,
his haughtiness, headstrong, his pride,
and his overweening heart.
30I know, said the LORD, his rage and his lies are not right, not right have they done. 31Therefore over Moab I wail, and over all Moab I cry out, for the men of Kir-Heres I moan.
32More than the weeping for Jazer I weep for you,
O vine of Sibmah.
Your branches passed over the sea,
to the sea, to Jazer they reached.
On your summer fruit and on your vintage
the ravager has fallen.
33And joy and gladness are taken away
from the farmland, from the land of Moab,
and wine from the presses I made cease,
the shout is no shout.
34From Heshbon’s cry to Eleaheh to Jahaz they raised their voices, from Zoar to Horonaim, Eglath-Shelishiah, for the waters of Nimrim have become a desolation. 35And I have caused to cease for Moab, said the LORD, offering up on the high places and burning incense to his gods. 36Therefore My heart moans for Moab like pipes and, for the men of Kir-Heres like pipes it moans, for the abundance they made—it has vanished.
37For every pate is shaved,
and every beard is shorn,
on all the hands are gashes
and over loins is sackcloth.
38On all the roofs of Moab and in her squares all is lament, for I have broken Moab like an unwanted vessel, said the LORD. 39How she is shattered! O, wail! How Moab has turned its back in shame, and Moab has become a mockery and a fright, said the LORD. 40For thus said the LORD,
and spreads his wings against Moab.
41Kerioth is captured
and the strongholds are seized,
and the heart of Moab’s warriors on that day
is like the heart of a woman in pangs.
42And Moab is destroyed as a people,
for it vaunted over the LORD.
43Terror and pitfall and trap
against you, O dweller of Moab, said the LORD.
44Who flees from the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and who gets up from the pit
shall be caught in the trap.
For I will bring against her, against Moab,
the year of their reckoning, said the LORD.
45In the shadow of Heshbon they stopped,
those fleeing without strength,
for fire has come out from Heshbon
and a flame from within Sihon,
and consumed the brow of Moab
and the pate of the raucous ones.
46Woe to you, O Moab,
Chemosh’s people has perished.
For your sons are taken captive
and your daughters are in captive state.
47But I will restore the fortunes of Moab
in the days after, said the LORD.
Thus far the judgment of Moab.