Jeremiah

¹ Thus has the Lord said concerning Moab , Woe to Nabau! for it has perished: Cariathaim is taken: Amath and Agath are put to shame.

² There is no longer any healing for Moab, nor glorying in Esebon: he has devised evils against her: we have cut her off from being a nation, and she shall be completely still: after thee shall go a sword;

³ for there is a voice of men crying out of Oronaim, destruction and great ruin.

⁴ Moab is ruined, proclaim it to Zogora:

⁵ for Aloth is filled with weeping: one shall go up weeping by the way of Oronaim; ye have heard a cry of destruction.

⁶ Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert.

⁷ Since thou hast trusted in thy strong-hold, therefore thou shalt be taken: and Chamos shall go forth into captivity, and his priests, and his princes together.

⁸ And destruction shall come upon every city, it shall by no means escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain country shall be completely destroyed, as the Lord has said.

⁹ Set marks upon Moab, for she shall be touched with a plague-spot, and all her cities shall become desolate; whence shall there be an inhabitant for her?

¹⁰ Cursed is the man that does the works of the Lord carelessly, keeping back his sword from blood.

¹¹ Moab has been at ease from a child, and trusted in his glory; he has not poured out his liquor from vessel to vessel, and has not gone into banishment, therefore his taste remained in him, and his smell departed not.

¹² Therefore, behold, his days come, saith the Lord, when I shall send upon him bad leaders, and they shall lead him astray, and they shall utterly break in pieces his possessions, and shall cut his horns asunder.

¹³ And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bæthel their hope, having trusted in them.

¹⁴ How will ye say, We are strong, and men strong for war?

¹⁵ Moab is ruined, even his city, and his choice young men have gone down to slaughter.

¹⁶ The day of Moab is near at hand, and his iniquity moves swiftly to vengeance .

¹⁷ Shake the head at him, all ye that are round about him; all of you utter his name; say ye, How is the glorious staff broken to pieces, the rod of magnificence!

¹⁸ Come down from thy glory, and sit down in a damp place: Dæbon shall be broken, because Moab is destroyed: there has gone up against thee one to ravage thy strong-hold.

¹⁹ Stand by the way, and look, thou that dwellest in Arer; and ask him that is fleeing, and him that escapes, and say, What has happened?

²⁰ Moab is put to shame, because he is broken: howl and cry; proclaim in Arnon, that Moab has perished.

²¹ And judgment is coming against the land of Misor, upon Chelon, and Rephas, and Mophas,

²² and upon Dæbon, and upon Nabau, and upon the house of Dæthlathaim,

²³ and upon Cariathaim, and upon the house of Gæmol, and upon the house of Maon,

²⁴ and upon Carioth, and upon Bosor, and upon all the cities of Moab, far and near.

²⁵ The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is crushed.

²⁶ Make ye him drunk; for he has magnified himself against the Lord: and Moab shall clap with his hand, and shall be also himself a laughing-stock.

²⁷ For surely Israel was to thee a laughing-stock, and was found among thy thefts, because thou didst fight against him.

²⁸ The inhabitants of Moab have left the cities, and dwelt in rocks; they have become as doves nestling in rocks, at the mouth of a cave.

²⁹ And I have heard of the pride of Moab, he has greatly heightened his pride and his haughtiness, and his heart has been lifted up.

³⁰ But I know his works: is it not enough for him? has he not done thus?

³¹ Therefore howl ye for Moab on all sides; cry out against the shorn men in a gloomy place. I will weep for thee,

³² O vine of Aserema, as with the weeping of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they reached the cities of Jazer: destruction has come upon thy fruits, and upon thy grape-gatherers.

³³ Joy and gladness have been utterly swept off the land of Moab: and though there was wine in thy presses, in the morning they trod it not, neither in the evening did they raise the cry of joy.

³⁴ From the cry of Esebon even to Ætam their cities uttered their voice, from Zogor to Oronaim, and their tidings as a heifer of three years old, for the water also of Nebrin shall be dried up.

³⁵ And I will destroy Moab, saith the Lord, as he comes up to the altar, and burns incense to his gods.

³⁶ Therefore the heart of Moab shall sound as pipes, my heart shall sound as a pipe for the shorn men; forasmuch as what every man has gained has perished from him.

³⁷ They shall all have their heads shaved in every place, and every beard shall be shaved; and all hands shall beat the breasts , and on all loins shall be sackcloth.

³⁸ And on all the housetops of Moab, and in his streets shall be mourning : for I have broken him , saith the Lord, as a vessel, which is useless.

³⁹ How has he changed! how has Moab turned his back! Moab is put to shame, and become a laughing-stock, and an object of anger to all that are round about him.

⁴⁰ For thus said the Lord;

⁴¹ Carioth is taken, and the strong-holds have been taken together.

⁴² And Moab shall perish from being a multitude, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.

⁴³ A snare, and fear, and the pit, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab.

⁴⁴ He that flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he that comes up out of the pit shall even be taken in the snare: for I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their visitation.