Lament over Moab

15 Oracle on Moab

Alas! In a night has Ar-Moab

been wasted and ruined.

Alas! In a night has Kir-Moab

been wasted and ruined.

2 Gone up is the daughter of Dibon

to weep on the heights;

on the summits of Nebo and medeba

Moab wails.

On every head there is baldness,

and beards are all shorn.

3 On her streets they have girt them with sackcloth,

on roofs is lament;

on her squares, one and all they are wailing

with torrents of tears.

4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,

and their cry reaches Jahaz;

whereat Moab’s loins fall a-quiver,

the soul of her quivers.

5 My heart cruet out for Moab,

they flee towards Zoar;

they climb the ascent unto Luhith

and weep as they go;

they raise on the way to Horonaim

a cry of destruction.

6 For ruin has clean overtaken

the waters of Nimrim;

the herbage is gone, the grass withered,

and verdure is none.

7 So they bring o’er the Brook of the Willows

their riches and stores;

8 for the cry (of despair) has gone round

all the borders of Moab;

the wail thereof reaches Eglaim,

it reaches Beer-elim.

9 For the waters of Dimon are bloody.

Yet more will I bring upon Dimon –

a lion on those who escape

and are left out of Moab.

16 Tribute of lambs they despatched

to the lord of the land,

from the Sela, by way of the wilderness,

unto Mount Zion.

2 And then at the fords of the Arnon

the daughters of Moab

will flutter like birds, and will fly

as when nestlings are scattered.

3 ‘Grant us the laid of you counsel,

and mediate (for us);

shelter us as in the noon-tide

with shade deep as night.

Bring into shelter the outcasts,

betray no the fugitives;

4 suffer the outcasts of Moab

to dwell in your land.

Be you a shelter to them

from the face of the spoiler.’

When the ruthless are brought to an end,

and the spoiler has ceased;

when the heel of the tyrant has vanished

clean out of the land;

5 then the throne will be established by kindness,

and on it will sit

in the tent of King David in faithfullness

one who will judge

with a spirit intent on the right

and on promptness of justice.

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab,

the utterly proud –

of her haughty and insolent pride,

and her prating all baseless.

7 So Moab for Moab is wailing,

she wails altogether;

yea, utterly stricken they moan

for the cakes of Kir-heres.

8 The vine-tracts of Heshbon are withered,

the vineyards of Sabah,

whose choice red wine has laid low

many a lord of the nations.

Her cluster did stretch unto Jazer,

they strayed to the desert.

Her tendrils were spread far abroad,

they passed over the sea.

9 So I share in the weeping of Jazer

for the vineyards of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh:

for over your grapes and your vintage

the war-cry is fallen.

10 From the land of gardens is vanished

all gladness and joy;

there resounds no cry in the vineyards,

no shout any more;

no wine in the presses is trodden,

the shouting is stilled.

11 So my soul like a harp makes moaning for Moab,

and my heart for Kir-heres.

12 When Moab appears on the heights

and makes herself weary,