Lament for Moab

¹ An oracle concerning Moab:

Laid waste in a night,

Ar of Moab is silent!

Laid waste in a night,

Kir of Moab is ruined!

² The people of Diman have gone

to the high places to weep.

Over Nebo and Medeba Moab wails.

Every head is shaved,

every beard is shorn.

³ In the streets they wear sackcloth,

on the rooftops and in the squares;

everyone wails,

every heart melts in tears.

⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;

their howling is heard as far as Jahaz;

the armed men of Moab cry aloud

and their hearts are faint.

⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,

as far as Eglath-shelishiyah.

At the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the way to Horonaim

their cries are heart-rending.

⁶ The watered fields of Nimrim

have become a wasteland;

the turf is dried up,

the grass is withered,

the verdure is gone.

⁷ Now they carry away their possessions,

the wealth they have stored up,

to the Brook of the Willows.

⁸ Their cry rings round the border of Moab,

resounds as far as Eglaim,

reaches as far as Beer Elim.

⁹ The waters of Dimon flow with blood,

but worse is yet in store,

for I will bring lions upon Dimon,

upon those who escape from Moab,

and upon those who survive in the land.