¹ Of Moab. The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Sorrow on Nebo, for it has been made waste; Kiriathaim has been put to shame and is taken: the strong place is put to shame and broken down.

² The praise of Moab has come to an end; as for Heshbon, evil has been designed against her; come, let us put an end to her as a nation. But your mouth will be shut, O Madmen; the sword will go after you.

³ There is the sound of crying from Horonaim, wasting and great destruction;

⁴ Moab is broken; her cry has gone out to Zoar.

⁵ For by the slope of Luhith they will go up, weeping all the way; for on the way down to Horonaim the cry of destruction has come to their ears.

⁶ Go in flight, get away with your lives, and let your faces be turned to Aroer in the Arabah.

⁷ For because you have put your faith in your strong places, you, even you, will be taken: and Chemosh will go out as a prisoner, his priests and his rulers together.

⁸ And the attacker will come against every town, not one will be safe; and the valley will be made waste, and destruction will come to the lowland, as the Lord has said.

⁹ Put up a pillar for Moab, for she will come to a complete end: and her towns will become a waste, without anyone living in them.

¹⁰ Let him be cursed who does the Lord's work half-heartedly; let him be cursed who keeps back his sword from blood.

¹¹ From his earliest days, Moab has been living in comfort; like wine long stored he has not been drained from vessel to vessel, he has never gone away as a prisoner: so his taste is still in him, his smell is unchanged.

¹² So truly, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send to him men who will have him turned over till there is no more wine in his vessels, and his wine-skins will be completely broken.

¹³ And Moab will be shamed on account of Chemosh, as the children of Israel were shamed on account of Beth-el their hope.

¹⁴ How say you, We are men of war and strong fighters?

¹⁵ He who makes Moab waste has gone up against her; and the best of her young men have gone down to their death, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies.

¹⁶ The fate of Moab is near, and trouble is coming on him very quickly.

¹⁷ All you who are round about him, give signs of grief for him, and all you who have knowledge of his name, say, How is the strong rod broken, even the beautiful branch!

¹⁸ Come down from your glory, O people of Dibon, and take your seat in the place of the waste; for the attacker of Moab has gone up against you, sending destruction on your strong places.

¹⁹ O daughter of Aroer, take your station by the way, on the watch: questioning him who is in flight, and her who has got away safe, say, What has been done?

²⁰ Moab has been put to shame, she is broken: make loud sounds of grief, crying out for help; give the news in Arnon, that Moab has been made waste.

²¹ And punishment has come on the lowlands; on Holon and Jahzah, and on Mephaath,

²² And on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth-diblathaim,

²³ And on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Beth-meon,

²⁴ And on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.

²⁵ The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.

²⁶ Make him full of wine, for his heart has been lifted up against the Lord: and Moab will be rolling in the food he was not able to keep down, and everyone will be making sport of him.

²⁷ For did you not make sport of Israel? was he taken among thieves? for whenever you were talking about him, you were shaking your head over him.

²⁸ O people of Moab, go away from the towns and take cover in the rock; be like the dove of the Arabah, which makes her living-place in holes.

²⁹ We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride; and his great opinion of himself, and that his heart is lifted up.

³⁰ I have knowledge of his wrath, says the Lord, that it is nothing; his high-sounding words have done nothing.

³¹ For this cause I will give cries of grief for Moab, crying out for Moab, even for all of it; I will be sorrowing for the men of Kir-heres.

³² My weeping for you, O vine of Sibmah, will be more than the weeping of Jazer: your branches have gone over the sea, stretching even to Jazer: destruction has come down on your summer fruits and your cut grapes.

³³ All joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile field and for the land of Moab; I have made the wine come to an end from the crushing vessels: no longer will the grapes be crushed with the sound of glad voices.

³⁴ The cry of Heshbon comes even to Elealeh; to Jahaz their voice is sounding; from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim will become dry.

³⁵ And I will put an end in Moab, says the Lord, to him who is making offerings in the high place and burning perfumes to his gods.

³⁶ So my heart is sounding for Moab like the sound of pipes, and my heart is sounding like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: for the wealth he has got for himself has come to an end.

³⁷ For everywhere the hair of the head and the hair of the face is cut off: on every hand there are wounds, and haircloth on every body.

³⁸ On all the house-tops of Moab and in its streets there is weeping everywhere; for Moab has been broken like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, says the Lord.

³⁹ How is it broken down! how is Moab's back turned in shame! so Moab will be a cause of sport and of fear to everyone round about him.

⁴⁰ For the Lord has said, See, he will come like an eagle in flight, stretching out his wings against Moab.

⁴¹ Kerioth is taken, and the strong places have been forced, and the hearts of Moab's men of war in that day will be like the heart of a woman in birth-pains.

⁴² And Moab will come to an end as a people, because he has been lifting himself up against the Lord.

⁴³ Fear and death and the net have come on you, O people of Moab, says the Lord.

⁴⁴ He who goes in flight from the fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the net: for I will make this come on Moab, even the year of their punishment, says the Lord.

⁴⁵ Those who went in flight from the fear are waiting under the shade of Heshbon: for a fire has gone out from Heshbon and a flame from the house of Sihon, burning up the pride of Moab and the crown of the head of the violent ones.

⁴⁶ Sorrow is yours, O Moab! the people of Chemosh are overcome: for your sons have been taken away as prisoners, and your daughters made servants.

⁴⁷ But still, I will let the fate of Moab be changed in the last days, says the Lord.

¹ Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

² My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall condense as the dew, as the small rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.

³ For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh. Ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴ The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he.

⁵ They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish. [They are] a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶ Do you thus requite Yahweh, foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.

⁷ Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

⁹ For Yahweh's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

¹⁰ He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹ As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his feathers.

¹² Yahweh alone led him. There was no foreign god with him.

¹³ He made him ride on the high places of the earth. He ate the increase of the field. He caused him to suck honey out of the rock, oil out of the flinty rock;

¹⁴ Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat. Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

¹⁵ But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶ They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]. They provoked him to anger with abominations.

¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, [which were] no God, to gods that they didn't know, to new [gods] that came up of late, which your fathers didn't dread.

¹⁸ Of the Rock who became your father, you are unmindful, and have forgotten God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them], because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

²⁰ He said, "I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹ They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

²² For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

²³ "I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them.

²⁴ [They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵ Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the rooms, terror; on both young man and virgin, The nursing infant with the gray-haired man.

²⁶ I said, I would scatter them afar. I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

²⁷ were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge wrongly, lest they should say, 'Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.'"

²⁸ For they are a nation void of counsel. There is no understanding in them.

²⁹ Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

³⁰ How could one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and Yahweh had delivered them up?

³¹ For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

³² For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter.

³³ Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.

³⁴ "Isn't this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?

³⁵ Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. The things that are to come on them shall make haste."

³⁶ For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.

³⁷ He will say, "Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;

³⁸ Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection.

³⁹ "See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

⁴⁰ For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,

⁴¹ if I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me.

⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."

⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, [with] his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will render vengeance to his adversaries, And will make expiation for his land, for his people.

⁴⁴ Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

⁴⁵ Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;

⁴⁶ He said to them, "Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this law.

⁴⁷ For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it."

⁴⁸ Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

⁴⁹ "Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;

⁵⁰ and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:

⁵¹ because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.

⁵² For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel."