³ “Hark! a cry from Horona′im,
    ‘Desolation and great destruction!’
⁴ Moab is destroyed;
    a cry is heard as far as Zo′ar.^[c]
5 For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;^[d]
for at the descent of Horona′im
    they have heard the cry^[e] of destruction.
⁶ Flee! Save yourselves!
    Be like a wild ass^[f] in the desert!
⁷ For, because you trusted in your strongholds^[g] and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
and Chemosh shall go forth into exile,
    with his priests and his princes.
⁸ The destroyer shall come upon every city,
    and no city shall escape;
the valley shall perish,
    and the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the Lord has spoken.

⁹ “Give wings to Moab,
    for she would fly away;
her cities shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.

¹¹ “Moab has been at ease from his youth
    and has settled on his lees;
he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
so his taste remains in him,
    and his scent is not changed.

¹⁴ “How do you say, ‘We are heroes
    and mighty men of war’?
¹⁵ The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up,
    and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
    says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
¹⁶ The calamity of Moab is near at hand
    and his affliction hastens apace.
¹⁷ Bemoan him, all you who are round about him,
    and all who know his name;
say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff.’

¹⁸ “Come down from your glory,
    and sit on the parched ground,
    O inhabitant of Dibon!
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹ Stand by the way and watch,
    O inhabitant of Aro′er!
Ask him who flees and her who escapes;
    say, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰ Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
    wail and cry!
Tell it by the Arnon,
    that Moab is laid waste.

²⁸ “Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
Be like the dove that nests
    in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.
³⁰ I know his insolence, says the Lord;
    his boasts are false,
    his deeds are false.
³¹ Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the men of Kir-he′res I mourn.
³² More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches passed over the sea,
    reached as far as Jazer;^[i]
upon your summer fruits and your vintage
    the destroyer has fallen.
³³ Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
I have made the wine cease from the wine presses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop without strength;
for a fire has gone forth from Heshbon,
    a flame from the house of Sihon;
it has destroyed the forehead of Moab,
    the crown of the sons of tumult.
⁴⁶ Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of Chemosh is undone;
for your sons have been taken captive,
    and your daughters into captivity.
⁴⁷ Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, says the Lord.”
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

² The Lord has destroyed without mercy
    all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
    the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
    the kingdom and its rulers.

³ He has cut down in fierce anger
    all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
    in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
    consuming all around.

⁴ He has bent his bow like an enemy,
    with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has slain all the pride of our eyes
    in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵ The Lord has become like an enemy,
    he has destroyed Israel;
he has destroyed all its palaces,
    laid in ruins its strongholds;
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
    mourning and lamentation.

⁶ He has broken down his booth like that of a garden,
    laid in ruins the place of his appointed feasts;
the Lord has brought to an end in Zion
    appointed feast and sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned
    king and priest.

⁷ The Lord has scorned his altar,
    disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
    the walls of her palaces;
a clamor was raised in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed feast.

⁸ The Lord determined to lay in ruins
    the wall of the daughter of Zion;
he marked it off by the line;
    he restrained not his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament,
    they languish together.

⁹ Her gates have sunk into the ground;
    he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
    the law is no more,
and her prophets obtain
    no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰ The elders of the daughter of Zion
    sit on the ground in silence;
they have cast dust on their heads
    and put on sackcloth;
the maidens of Jerusalem
    have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹ My eyes are spent with weeping;
    my soul is in tumult;
my heart is poured out in grief^[a]
    because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babes faint
    in the streets of the city.

¹² They cry to their mothers,
    “Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like wounded men
    in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
    on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³ What can I say for you, to what compare you,
    O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
    O virgin daughter of Zion?
For vast as the sea is your ruin;
    who can restore you?

¹⁴ Your prophets have seen for you
    false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
    to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
    false and misleading.

¹⁵ All who pass along the way
    clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
    at the daughter of Jerusalem;
“Is this the city which was called
    the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶ All your enemies
    rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
    they cry: “We have destroyed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
    now we have it; we see it!”

¹⁷ The Lord has done what he purposed,
    has carried out his threat;
as he ordained long ago,
    he has demolished without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you,
    and exalted the might of your foes.

¹⁸ Cry aloud^[b] to the Lord!
    O^[c] daughter of Zion!
Let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

¹⁹ Arise, cry out in the night,
    at the beginning of the watches!
Pour out your heart like water
    before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
    for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
    at the head of every street.

²⁰ Look, O Lord, and see!
    With whom hast thou dealt thus?
Should women eat their offspring,
    the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be slain
    in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹ In the dust of the streets
    lie the young and the old;
my maidens and my young men
    have fallen by the sword;
in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them,
    slaughtering without mercy.

²² Thou didst invite as to the day of an appointed feast
    my terrors on every side;
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
    none escaped or survived;
those whom I dandled and reared
    my enemy destroyed.