1Concerning Mo’aḇ. This is what יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl said, “Woe to Neḇo! For it is ravaged, Qiryathayim is put to shame, captured. The high stronghold is put to shame and broken down.

2“There is praise for Mo’aḇ no longer. In Ḥeshbon they have devised evil against her, ‘Come and let us cut it off as a nation.’ O Maḏmĕn, you are also cut off, a sword goes after you.

3“Listen! An outcry from Ḥoronayim, ravaging and great destruction!

4“Mo’aḇ shall be destroyed, her little ones shall cry out.

5“For on the ascent to Luḥith they go up weeping bitterly. For in the descent of Ḥoronayim the enemies shall hear a cry of destruction.

6“Flee, deliver your own lives! And be like a bush in the wilderness.

7“For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures, you shall be captured. And Kemosh shall go forth into exile, his priests and his heads together.

8“And a ravager shall come into every city, no one escapes. And the valley shall perish, and the plain be destroyed, as יהוה has spoken.

9“Give wings to Mo’aḇ, for she has to flee away, and her cities become a ruin, with no one to dwell in them.

10(Cursed is he who is slack in doing the work of יהוה, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood).

11“Mo’aḇ has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore his flavour has stayed in him, and his fragrance is unchanged.

12“Therefore see, the days are coming,” declares יהוה, “when I shall send him tilters, who shall tilt him over and empty his vessels and break the bottles.

13“And Mo’aḇ shall be ashamed because of Kemosh, as the house of Yisra’ĕl was ashamed of Bĕyth Ěl, their refuge.

14“How do you say, ‘We are mighty and strong men for battle’?

15“Mo’aḇ is ravaged and her cities have been entered. And her chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” declares the Sovereign, whose Name is יהוה of hosts.

16“The calamity of Mo’aḇ is near to come and his affliction hurries fast.

17“Lament for him, all you who are around him. And all you who know his name, say, ‘How the strong sceptre has been broken, the staff of splendour!’

18“Come down from your esteem, and sit in thirst, O inhabitant, daughter of Diḇon. For the ravager of Mo’aḇ shall come against you, he shall destroy your strongholds.

19“Stand by the way and watch, O inhabitant of Aro‛ĕr. Ask him who flees and her who escapes; say, ‘What has been done?’

20“Mo’aḇ has been put to shame, for it has been broken down. Howl and cry! Let it be heard in Arnon that Mo’aḇ is ravaged.

21“And judgment has come on the plain country, on Ḥolon and on Yaḥtsah and on Mopha‛ath,

22and on Diḇon and Neḇo and on Bĕyth Diḇlathayim,

23and on Qiryathayim and on Bĕyth Gamul and on Bĕyth Me‛on,

24and on Qeriyoth and on Botsrah, and on all the cities of the land of Mo’aḇ, far or near.

25“The horn of Mo’aḇ has been cut off, and his arm has been broken,” declares יהוה.

26“Make him drunk, because he has made himself great against יהוה. Mo’aḇ shall splash in his vomit, and he shall also be in mockery.

27“And was not Yisra’ĕl a mockery to you? Was he found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him, you shake your head.

28“O inhabitants of Mo’aḇ, leave the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove making a nest in the sides of the cave’s mouth.

29“We have heard of the pride of Mo’aḇ (he is very proud!), of his loftiness and arrogance and pride, and of the haughtiness of his heart.”

30“I know his wrath,” declares יהוה, “and his boastings are untrue, and his deeds are false.

31“Therefore I wail for Mo’aḇ, and I cry out for all Mo’aḇ. I mourn for the men of Qir Ḥeres.

32“O vine of Siḇmah! I weep for you with the weeping of Ya‛zĕr. Your branches have passed over the sea, they have come to the sea of Ya‛zĕr. The ravager has fallen on your summer fruit and your grape harvest.

33“Joy and gladness have been taken away from the orchard and from the land of Mo’aḇ. And I have made wine to cease from the winepresses. No one treads with shouting – the shouting is no shouting!

34“From the outcry of Ḥeshbon unto El‛alĕh, unto Yahats, they shall raise their voice, from Tso‛ar to Ḥoronayim, like a three-year-old heifer, for even the waters of Nimrim are dried up.

35“And I shall make an end in Mo’aḇ to him who offers in the high places and burns incense to his mighty ones,” declares יהוה.

36“So My heart sounds for Mo’aḇ like flutes, and My heart sounds for the men of Qir Ḥeres like flutes. Therefore the wealth they made shall be gone.

37“For every head is bald, and every beard clipped – cuts on all the hands, and sackcloth on the loins.

38“On all the house-tops of Mo’aḇ and in its streets it is all lamentation, for I have broken Mo’aḇ like a vessel in which no one delights,” declares יהוה.

39“How has she been broken down! They shall wail! How has Mo’aḇ turned her back with shame! So Mo’aḇ shall be a mockery and a horror to all those about her.”

40For thus said יהוה, “See, he soars like an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Mo’aḇ.

41“Qeriyoth shall be captured, and the strongholds seized. And the heart of the mighty men in Mo’aḇ on that day shall be like the heart of a woman in labour.

42“And Mo’aḇ shall be destroyed as a people, because he has made himself great against יהוה.

43“Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of Mo’aḇ,” declares יהוה.

44“He who flees from the fear falls into the pit, and he who gets out of the pit is caught in the snare. For I am bringing upon Mo’aḇ the year of their punishment,” declares יהוה.

45“Those who fled stood powerless under the shadow of Ḥeshbon. But a fire shall come out of Ḥeshbon, and a flame from the midst of Siḥon, and consume the brow of Mo’aḇ and the crown of the head of the sons of uproar.

46“Woe to you, O Mo’aḇ! The people of Kemosh have perished, for your sons have been taken into exile, and your daughters into exile.

47“But I shall turn back the captivity of Mo’aḇ in the latter days,” declares יהוה. Thus far is the judgment of Mo’aḇ.