Jeremiah 48

Alas for Nebo, it is laid waste!

Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;

the fortress is put to shame and broken down;

²the renown of Moab is no more.

In Heshbon they planned evil 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.

³Hark! a cry from Horonaim,

“Desolation and great destruction!”

⁴“Moab is destroyed!”

her little ones cry out.

⁵For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping bitterly;

for at the descent of Horonaim

they have heard the distressing cry of anguish.

⁶Flee! Save yourselves!

Be like a wild ass in the desert!

⁷Surely, because you trusted in your strongholds and your treasures,

you also shall be taken;

Chemosh shall go out into exile,

with his priests and his attendants.

⁸The destroyer shall come upon every town,

and no town shall escape;

the valley shall perish,

and the plain shall be destroyed,

as the Lord has spoken.

⁹Set aside salt for Moab,

for she will surely fall;

her towns shall become a desolation,

with no inhabitant in them.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth,

settled like wine on its dregs;

he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

nor has he gone into exile;

therefore his flavor has remained

and his aroma is unspoiled.

¹⁴How can you say, “We are heroes

and mighty warriors”?

¹⁵The destroyer of Moab and his towns has come up,

and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,

says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near at hand

and his doom approaches swiftly.

¹⁷Mourn over him, all you his neighbors,

and all who know his name;

say, “How the mighty scepter is broken,

the glorious staff!”

¹⁸Come down from glory,

and sit on the parched ground,

enthroned daughter Dibon!

For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;

he has destroyed your strongholds.

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,

you inhabitant of Aroer!

Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping;

say, “What has happened?”

²⁰Moab is put to shame, for it is broken down;

wail and cry!

Tell it by the Arnon,

that Moab is laid waste.

²⁸Leave the towns, and live on the rock,

O inhabitants of Moab!

Be like the dove that nests

on the sides of the mouth of a gorge.

²⁹We 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.

³⁰I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;

his boasts are false,

his deeds are false.

³¹Therefore I wail for Moab;

I cry out for all Moab;

for the people of Kir-heres I mourn.

³²More than for Jazer I weep for you,

O vine of Sibmah!

Your branches crossed over the sea,

reached as far as Jazer;

upon your summer fruits and your vintage

the destroyer has fallen.

³³Gladness and joy have been taken away

from the fruitful land of Moab;

I have stopped the wine from the wine presses;

no one treads them with shouts of joy;

the shouting is not the shout of joy.

⁴⁰For thus says the Lord:

Look, he shall swoop down like an eagle,

and spread his wings against Moab;

⁴¹the towns shall be taken

and the strongholds seized.

The hearts of the warriors of Moab, on that day,

shall be like the heart of a woman in labor.

⁴²Moab shall be destroyed as a people,

because he magnified himself against the Lord.

⁴³Terror, pit, and trap

are before you, O inhabitants of Moab!

says the Lord.

⁴⁴Everyone who flees from the terror

shall fall into the pit,

and everyone who climbs out of the pit

shall be caught in the trap.

For I will bring these things upon Moab

in the year of their punishment,

says the Lord.

⁴⁵In the shadow of Heshbon

fugitives stop exhausted;

for a fire has gone out from Heshbon,

a flame from the house of Sihon;

it has destroyed the forehead of Moab,

the scalp of the people of tumult.

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab!

The people of Chemosh have perished,

for your sons have been taken captive,

and your daughters into captivity.

⁴⁷Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab

in the latter days, says the Lord.

Thus far is the judgment on Moab.