“What sorrow awaits the city of Nebo;
    it will soon lie in ruins.
The city of Kiriathaim will be humiliated and captured;
    the fortress will be humiliated and broken down.

²² on Dibon and Nebo and Beth-diblathaim,
²³     on Kiriathaim and Beth-gamul and Beth-meon,

“The people of Moab have sinned again and again,^[a]
    and I will not let them go unpunished!
They desecrated the bones of Edom’s king,
    burning them to ashes.
² So I will send down fire on the land of Moab,
    and all the fortresses in Kerioth will be destroyed.
The people will fall in the noise of battle,
    as the warriors shout and the ram’s horn sounds.

In one night the town of Ar will be leveled,
    and the city of Kir will be destroyed.
² Your people will go to their temple in Dibon to mourn.
    They will go to their sacred shrines to weep.
They will wail for the fate of Nebo and Medeba,
    shaving their heads in sorrow and cutting off their beards.
³ They will wear burlap as they wander the streets.
    From every home and public square will come the sound of wailing.
⁴ The people of Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out;
    their voices will be heard as far away as Jahaz!
The bravest warriors of Moab will cry out in utter terror.
    They will be helpless with fear.

⁵ My heart weeps for Moab.
    Its people flee to Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah.
Weeping, they climb the road to Luhith.
    Their cries of distress can be heard all along the road to Horonaim.
⁶ Even the waters of Nimrim are dried up!
    The grassy banks are scorched.
The tender plants are gone;
    nothing green remains.
⁷ The people grab their possessions
    and carry them across the Ravine of Willows.
⁸ A cry of distress echoes through the land of Moab
    from one end to the other—
    from Eglaim to Beer-elim.
⁹ The stream near Dibon^[a] runs red with blood,
    but I am still not finished with Dibon!
Lions will hunt down the survivors—
    both those who try to escape
    and those who remain behind.

¹⁰ They will receive the wages of their pride,
    for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
¹¹ The Lord will terrify them
    as he destroys all the gods in the land.
Then nations around the world will worship the Lord,
    each in their own land.