15
The Burden against Moab
(Jeremiah 48:1–47)
1 This is the burden against Moab:
Ar in Moab is ruined,
destroyed in a night!
Kir in Moab is devastated,
destroyed in a night!
2 Dibon goes up to its temple
to weep at its high places.
Moab wails over Nebo,
as well as over Medeba.
Every head is shaved,
every beard is cut off.
3 In its streets they wear sackcloth;
on the rooftops and in the public squares
they all wail, falling down weeping.
4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voices are heard as far as Jahaz.
Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out;
their souls tremble within.
5 My heart cries out over Moab;
her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
as far as Eglath-shelishiyah.*
With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith;
they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up,
and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone,
and the greenery is no more.
7 So they carry their wealth and belongings
over the Brook of the Willows.†
8 For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab.
Their wailing reaches Eglaim;
it is heard in Beer-elim.
9 The waters of Dimon ‡ are full of blood,
but I will bring more upon Dimon—
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
and upon the remnant of the land.
* 15:5 Or Zoar, like a heifer three years of age. † 15:7 Or Poplars ‡ 15:9 MT, twice in this verse; DSS and Vulgate Dibon; Dimon, a wordplay on Dibon (see verse 2), sounds like the Hebrew for blood.