Study Desk

Mourn for him, all you who live around him,Even all of you who know his name;Say, ‘How has the strong scepter been broken,A staff of beauty!'

Come down from your gloryAnd inhabit the parched ground,O inhabitant of the daughter of Dibon;For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,He has ruined your strongholds.

Moab has been put to shame, for it has been shattered.Wail and cry out;Declare by the ArnonThat Moab has been destroyed.

"Make him drunk, for he has magnified himself against Yahweh; so Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock.

Now was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each time you speak about him you shake your head in scorn.

Therefore I will wail for Moab,Even for all Moab will I cry out;I will moan for the men of Kir‑heres.

More than the weeping for JazerI will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah!Your branches stretched across the sea,They reached to the sea of Jazer;Upon your summer fruits and your grape harvestThe destroyer has fallen.

From the outcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have given forth their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate.

"Therefore My heart moans for Moab like flutes; My heart also moans like flutes for the men of Kir-heres. Therefore they have lost the abundance it produced.

For every head is bald and every beard cut short; there are gashes on all the hands and sackcloth on the loins.

On all the rooftops of Moab and in its open squares there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like an undesirable vessel," declares Yahweh.

For thus says Yahweh:"Behold, one will swoop like an eagleAnd spread out his wings against Moab.

"The one who flees from the panicWill fall into the pit,And the one who climbs up out of the pitWill be caught in the pitfall;For I shall bring upon her, even upon Moab,The year of their punishment," declares Yahweh.

"In the shadow of HeshbonThose who flee stand without strength;For a fire has gone forth from HeshbonAnd a flame from the midst of Sihon,And it has devoured the top of the head of MoabAnd the scalps of those who rumble.

Woe to you, Moab!The people of Chemosh have perished;For your sons have been taken away captiveAnd your daughters into captivity.

"Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed!Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,And rush back and forth inside the walls;For Malcam will go into exileTogether with his priests and his princes.

Flee away, turn back, inhabit the depths,O inhabitants of Dedan,For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon himAt the time I punish him.

For thus says Yahweh, "Behold, those who are not under judgment to drink the cup will certainly drink it, but are you the one who will go completely unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but you will certainly drink it.

For I have sworn by Myself," declares Yahweh, "that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin, and an imprecation; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins."

I have heard a message from Yahweh,And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying,"Gather yourselves together and come against her,And rise up for battle!"