Judgment on Moab

15 The pronouncement concerning (A)Moab:

Certainly in a night (B)Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Certainly in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
[a]The people have gone up to the [b]temple and to (C)Dibon, to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone’s head is (D)bald and every beard is cut off.
In their streets they have put on (E)sackcloth;
(F)On their housetops and in their public squares
Everyone is wailing, [c](G)overcome with weeping.
(H)Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the [d]armed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.
My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as (I)Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the (J)ascent of Luhith weeping;
Indeed, on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress (K)over their collapse.
For the (L)waters of Nimrim are [e]desolate.
Indeed, the grass is withered, the new growth has died,
There is (M)no greenery.
Therefore the (N)abundance which they have acquired and stored up,
They carry it off over the brook of [f]Arabim.
For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wailing goes as far as Eglaim and its howling to Beer-elim.
For the waters of Dimon are full of [g]blood;
I will certainly bring added woes upon Dimon,
A (O)lion upon the fugitives of Moab and the remnant of the land.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 15:2 Lit He has gone; i.e., Moab, meaning the people of Moab
  2. Isaiah 15:2 Lit house
  3. Isaiah 15:3 Lit going down in weeping
  4. Isaiah 15:4 Another reading is the loins of
  5. Isaiah 15:6 Lit desolations
  6. Isaiah 15:7 Or the poplars
  7. Isaiah 15:9 Heb dam (a wordplay)

An Oracle concerning Moab

15 An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone;
because Kir is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone.(A)
Daughter Dibon[a] has gone up
    to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
    Moab wails.
Every head is shaved;
    every beard is shorn;(B)
in the streets they bind on sackcloth;
    on the housetops and in the squares
    everyone wails and melts in tears.(C)
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
    their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the loins of Moab quiver;[b]
    his soul trembles.
My heart cries out for Moab;
    his fugitives flee to Zoar,
    to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
    they raise a cry of destruction;(D)
the waters of Nimrim
    are a desolation;
the grass is withered; the new growth fails;
    vegetation is no more.(E)
Therefore the abundance they have gained
    and what they have laid up
they carry away
    over the Wadi of the Willows.(F)
For a cry has gone
    around the land of Moab;
the wailing reaches to Eglaim;
    the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
For the waters of Dibon[c] are full of blood,
    yet I will bring upon Dibon[d] even more—
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
    for the remnant of the land.(G)

Footnotes

  1. 15.2 Cn: Heb the house and Dibon
  2. 15.4 Or the armed men of Moab cry aloud
  3. 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon
  4. 15.9 Q ms Vg: MT Dimon