Judgment on Moab
1 The [mournful, inspired] oracle (15:1 I.e. an urgent message the prophet is under compulsion to proclaim.a burden to be carried) concerning Moab:
Because in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Because in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
2 They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba;
Everyone’s head is shaved, and every beard is cut off [in mourning]. [Jer 48:37]
3 In their streets they have wrapped themselves with sackcloth;
On their [flat] housetops and in their open squares
Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh [cities claimed by Moab] cry out;
Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out;
Moab’s soul trembles within him.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are [fleeing] as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
For on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their destruction. [Jer 48:5]
6 For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Indeed the grass is withered, the new growth dies;
There is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored away
They carry off over the Brook of the Willows.
8 For the cry of distress has echoed around the territory of Moab;
The wailing goes as far as Eglaim and the mournful cry to Beer-elim.
9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;
Yet I will bring even more woes on Dimon—
A lion upon those of Moab who escape and upon the remnant of the land.