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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.

2

Dibon has gone up to the temple,

to the high places to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba

Moab wails.

On every head is baldness,

every beard is shorn;

3

in the streets they bind on sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

everyone wails and melts in tears.

4

Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

their voices are heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the loins of Moab quiver;

his soul trembles.

5

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;

6

the waters of Nimrim

are a desolation;

the grass is withered, the new growth fails,

the verdure is no more.

7

Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Wadi of the Willows.

8

For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

the wailing reaches to Eglaim,

the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

9

For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

yet I will bring upon Dibon even more—

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.