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1 Thus has the Lord said concerning Moab, Woe to Nebo! for it has perished: Kiriathaim is taken: Amath and Agath are put to shame. 2 There is no longer any healing for Moab, nor glorying in Heshbon: he has devised evils against her: we have cut her off from being a nation, and she shall be completely still: after thee shall go a sword; 3 for there is a voice of men crying out of Horonaim, destruction and great ruin. 4 Moab is ruined, proclaim it to Zoar: 5 for Luhith is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Horonaim; ye have heard a cry of destruction.
6 Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert. 7 Since thou hast trusted in thy stronghold, therefore thou shalt be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together. 8 And destruction shall come upon every city, it shall by no means escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain country shall be completely destroyed, as the Lord has said. 9 Set marks upon Moab, for she shall be touched with a plague spot, and all her cities shall become desolate; whence shall there be an inhabitant for her? 10 Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.
11 Moab has been at ease from a child, and trusted in his glory; he has not poured out his liquor from vessel to vessel, and has not gone into banishment, therefore his taste remained in him, and his smell departed not. 12 Therefore, behold, his days come, saith the Lord, when I shall send upon him bad leaders, and they shall lead him astray, and they shall utterly break in pieces his possessions, and shall cut his horns asunder. 13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their hope, having trusted in them.
14 How will ye say, We are strong, and men strong for war? 15 Moab is ruined, even his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter. 16 The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly to vengeance. 17 Shake the head at him, all ye that are round about him; all of you utter his name; say ye, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!
18 Come down from thy glory, and sit down in a damp place: Dibon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against thee one to ravage thy stronghold. 19 Stand by the way, and look, thou that dwellest in Aroer; and ask him that is fleeing, and him that escapes, and say, What has happened?
20 Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished. 21 And judgment is coming against the land of Misor, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, 22 and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon the house of Beth-diblathaim, 23 and upon Kiriathaim, and upon the house of Gamul, and upon the house of Meon, 24 and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.
26 Make ye him drunk; for he has magnified himself against the Lord: and Moab shall clap with his hand, and shall be also himself a laughingstock. 27 For surely Israel was to thee a laughingstock, and was found among thy thefts, because thou didst fight against him. 28 The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and dwelt in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.
29 And I have heard of the pride of Moab, he has greatly heightened his pride and his haughtiness, and his heart has been lifted up. 30 But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?
31 Therefore howl ye for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men in a gloomy place. I will weep for thee, 32 O vine of Aserema, as with the weeping of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon thy fruits, and upon thy grape-gatherers. 33 Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and though there was wine in thy presses, in the morning they trod it not, neither in the evening did they raise the cry of joy. 34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Aetam their cities uttered their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim, and their tidings as a heifer of three years old, for the water also of Nimrim shall be dried up.
35 And I will destroy Moab, saith the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods. 36 Therefore the heart of Moab shall sound as pipes, my heart shall sound as a pipe for the shorn men; forasmuch as what every man has gained has perished from him. 37 They shall all have their heads shaved in every place, and every beard shall be shaved; and all hands shall beat the breasts, and on all loins shall be sackcloth. 38 And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets shall be mourning: for I have broken him, saith the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless. 39 How has he changed! how has Moab turned his back! Moab is put to shame, and become a laughingstock, and an object of anger to all that are round about him.
40 For thus said the Lord; 41 Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds have been taken together. 42 And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord. 43 A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab. 44 He that flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he that comes up out of the pit shall even be taken in the snare: for I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their visitation.