Moab’s Destruction

¹ Send the tribute lambs

to the ruler of the land,

from Sela in the desert

to the mount of Daughter Zion.

² Like fluttering birds

pushed out of the nest,

so are the daughters of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon:

³ “Give us counsel;

render a decision.

Shelter us at noonday

with shade as dark as night.

Hide the refugees;

do not betray the one who flees.

⁴ Let my fugitives stay with you;

be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.”

When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased,

and the oppressors have vanished from the land,

⁵ in loving devotion^* a throne will be established

in the tent of David.

A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness

will sit on it in faithfulness.

⁶ We have heard of Moab’s pomposity,

his exceeding pride and conceit,

his overflowing^* arrogance.

But his boasting is empty.

⁷ Therefore let Moab wail;

let them wail together for Moab.

Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth,

you who are utterly stricken.

⁸ For the fields of Heshbon have withered,

along with the grapevines of Sibmah.

The rulers^* of the nations

have trampled its choicest vines,

which had reached as far as Jazer

and spread^* toward the desert.

Their shoots had spread out

and passed over the sea.

⁹ So I weep with Jazer

for the vines of Sibmah;

I drench Heshbon and Elealeh

with my tears.

Triumphant shouts have fallen silent

over your summer fruit and your harvest.

¹⁰ Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard;

no one sings^* or shouts^* in the vineyards.

No one tramples the grapes^* in the winepresses;

I have put an end to the cheering.

¹¹ Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp,

my inmost being for Kir-heres.

¹² When Moab appears on the high place,

when he wearies himself

and enters his sanctuary to pray,

it will do him no good.

¹³ This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. ¹⁴ And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left^* will be few and feeble.”