“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste!
    Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;
the fortress is put to shame and broken down;
²     the renown of Moab is no more.
In Heshbon they planned disaster against her:
    ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!’
You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;
    the sword shall pursue you.

³ “A voice! A cry from Horonaim,
    ‘Desolation and great destruction!’
⁴ Moab is destroyed;
    her little ones have made a cry.
⁵ For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;^[a]
for at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressed cry^[b] of destruction.
⁶ Flee! Save yourselves!
    You will be like a juniper in the desert!
⁷ For, because you trusted in your works and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
and Chemosh shall go into exile
    with his priests and his officials.
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 dregs;
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,
    declares the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
¹⁶ The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his affliction hastens swiftly.
¹⁷ Grieve for him, all you who are around 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 Aroer!
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 beside 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, declares 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-hareseth I mourn.
³² More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
Your branches passed over the sea,
    reached to the Sea of Jazer;
on your summer fruits and your grapes
    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 winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.

⁴⁰ For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
    and spread his wings against Moab;
⁴¹ the cities shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day
    like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;
⁴² Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people,
    because he magnified himself against the Lord.
⁴³ Terror, pit, and snare
    are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
declares the Lord.
⁴⁴ He who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
For I will bring these things upon Moab,
    the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.

⁴⁵ “In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop without strength,
for fire came out from Heshbon,
    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 are 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, declares the Lord.”
Thus far is the judgment on Moab.