16 They have sent lambs
    to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
    to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
² Like fluttering birds,
    like scattered nestlings,
so are the daughters of Moab
    at the fords of the Arnon.
³ “Give counsel,
    grant justice;
make your shade like night
    at the height of noon;
hide the outcasts,
    betray not the fugitive;
⁴ let the outcasts of Moab
    sojourn among you;
be a refuge to them
    from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
    and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples under foot
    has vanished from the land,
⁵ then a throne will be established in steadfast love
    and on it will sit in faithfulness
    in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
    and is swift to do righteousness.”

⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab,
    how proud he was;
of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence—
    his boasts are false.
⁷ Therefore let Moab wail,
    let every one wail for Moab.
Mourn, utterly stricken,
    for the raisin-cakes of Kir-har′eseth.

⁸ For the fields of Heshbon languish,
    and the vine of Sibmah;
the lords of the nations
    have struck down its branches,
which reached to Jazer
    and strayed to the desert;
its shoots spread abroad
    and passed over the sea.
⁹ Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer
    for the vine of Sibmah;
I drench you with my tears,
    O Heshbon and Ele-a′leh;
for upon your fruit and your harvest
    the battle shout has fallen.
¹⁰ And joy and gladness are taken away
    from the fruitful field;
and in the vineyards no songs are sung,
    no shouts are raised;
no treader treads out wine in the presses;
    the vintage shout is hushed.^[d]
11 Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab,
    and my heart for Kir-he′res.

⁴ And in that day
    the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
    and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵ And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
    and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
    in the Valley of Reph′aim.
⁶ Gleanings will be left in it,
    as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
    in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
    on the branches of a fruit tree,
                says the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
    and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
    and set out slips of an alien god,
¹¹ though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
    and make them blossom in the morning that you sow;
yet the harvest will flee away
    in a day of grief and incurable pain.

¹² Ah, the thunder of many peoples,
    they thunder like the thundering of the sea!
Ah, the roar of nations,
    they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!
¹³ The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
    but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind
    and whirling dust before the storm.
¹⁴ At evening time, behold, terror!
    Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who despoil us,
    and the lot of those who plunder us.

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
    When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴ For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
    like clear heat in sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,
    and the spreading branches he will hew away.
⁶ They shall all of them be left
    to the birds of prey of the mountains
    and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer upon them,
    and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them,

³ The wicked go astray from the womb,
    they err from their birth, speaking lies.
⁴ They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
    like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
⁵ so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
    or of the cunning enchanter.

⁶ O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
    tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
⁷ Let them vanish like water that runs away;
    like grass let them be trodden down and wither.^[b]
8 Let them be like the snail which dissolves into slime,
    like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
⁹ Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
    whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

¹⁰ The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
    he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
¹¹ Men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
    surely there is a God who judges on earth.”