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15. Prophecy Against Moab

1 A prophecy against Moab:

   Ar in Moab is ruined,
   destroyed in a night!
Kir in Moab is ruined,
   destroyed in a night!

2 Dibon goes up to its temple,
   to its high places to weep;
   Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
   and every beard cut off.

3 In the streets they wear sackcloth;
   on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
   prostrate with weeping.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
   their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
   and their hearts are faint.

    5 My heart cries out over Moab;
   her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
   as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the hill to Luhith,
   weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
   they lament their destruction.

6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up
   and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
   and nothing green is left.

7 So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
   they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.

8 Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
   their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
   their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.

9 The waters of Dimon Dimon, a wordplay on Dibon (see verse 2), sounds like the Hebrew for blood. are full of blood,
   but I will bring still more upon Dimon Dimon, a wordplay on Dibon (see verse 2), sounds like the Hebrew for blood.—
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
   and upon those who remain in the land.


3. In his streets. 239239    {Bogus footnote} He proceeds with the same subject, describing more fully the tokens of mourning, in which the eastern nations abound more than others; for, having quicker understandings and keener feelings, they express their emotions by outward signs more than others do, who, being slower in apprehension, are likewise slower in movement and gesture. It was no doubt faulty in them that they indulged in so many ceremonies and gesticulations; but the Prophet spoke of them as what was known and common, only for the purpose of describing the grief which would follow the desolation of that country.

Every one shall howl and descend to weeping. 240240    {Bogus footnote} It was with good reason that he added this description; for we are never moved by predictions, unless the Lord place them, as it were, before our eyes. Lest the Jews should think that these matters might be lightly passed by, when he described that destruction, he determined to mention also mourning, weeping, and howling, that they might see almost with their own eyes those events which appear to be incredible, for the Moabites were at that time in a state of profound peace, and believers had the more need of being confirmed, that they might not call this prophecy in question. By the same means he points out the despair to which unbelievers are liable in adversity, for the support on which they rely is insecure.


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