CHAPTER 48
1 To Moab, the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things. Woe on Nebo, for it is destroyed, and shamed; Kiriathaim is taken, the strong city is shamed, and trembled.
2 And full out joying is no more in Moab; they thought evil against Hesh-bon. Come ye, and lose we it from [the] folk. Therefore thou being still, [thou] shalt be stilled, and sword shall follow thee.
3 A voice of cry from Horonaim, destroying, and great sorrow.
4 Moab is defouled, tell ye [out the] cry to little children thereof.
5 For a man weeping, ascended [or went up] with weeping, by the ascending [or going up] of Luhith; for in the coming down of Horonaim, [the] enemies heard the yelling of sorrow.
6 Flee ye, save ye your lives; and ye shall be as brooms in desert.
7 For that that thou haddest trust in thy strongholds, and in thy treasures, also thou shalt be taken. And Chemosh shall go into passing over, the priests thereof and the princes thereof together.
8 And a robber shall come to each city, and no city shall be saved; and valleys shall perish, and field places shall be destroyed, for the Lord said.
9 Give ye the flower of Moab, for it shall go out flowering; and the cities thereof shall be forsaken, and unhabitable.
10 He is cursed, that doeth the work of God guilefully; and he is cursed, that forbiddeth his sword from blood.
11 Moab was plenteous from his young waxing age, and rested in his dregs, neither was shed [or poured] out from vessel into vessel, and went not into passing over; therefore his taste dwelled in him, and his odour is not changed.
12 Therefore lo! days come, saith the Lord, and I shall send to it ordainers, and arrayers of pottles; and they shall array it, and they shall waste the vessels thereof, and hurtle together the pottles of them.
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which it had trust.
14 How say ye, We be strong, and stalworthy men to fight?
15 Moab is destroyed, and they have burnt the cities thereof, and the chosen young men thereof went down into slaying, saith the king, the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 The perishing of Moab is nigh, that it come, and the evil thereof runneth full swiftly.
17 All ye that be in the compass thereof, comfort it; and all ye that know the name thereof, say, How is the strong rod broken, the glorious staff?
18 Thou dwelling of the daughter of Dibon, go down from glory, sit thou in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab shall ascend [or go up] to thee, and he shall destroy thy strongholds.
19 Thou dwelling of Aroer, stand in the way, and behold; ask thou him that fleeth, and him that escaped; say thou, What befell?
20 Moab is shamed, for he is over-come; yell ye, and cry; tell ye in Arnon, that Moab is destroyed.
21 And doom is come to the land of the field, on Holon, and on Jahazah, and on Mephaath,
22 and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on the house of Diblathaim,
23 and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Bethmeon,
24 and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, that be far, and that be nigh.
25 The horn of Moab is cut away, and the arm thereof is all-broken, saith the Lord.
26 Fill ye him greatly, for he is raised against the Lord; and he shall hurtle down the hand of Moab in his spewing, and he also shall be into scorn.
27 For why, Israel, he was into scorn to thee, as if thou haddest found him among thieves; therefore for thy words which thou spakest against him, thou shalt be led prisoner.
28 Ye dwellers of Moab, forsake cities, and dwell in the stone, and be ye as a culver making nest in the highest mouth of an hole.
29 We have heard the pride of Moab; he is full proud. I know, saith the Lord, the highness thereof, and pride in word, and pride in bearing, and the highness of heart,
30 and the boast thereof, and that the virtue thereof is not nigh, either like it, neither it enforced or endeavoured to do after that that it might.
31 Therefore I shall wail on Moab, and I shall cry to all Moab, to the men of the earthen wall, that wail.
32 Of the wailing of Jazer I shall weep to thee, thou vine of Sibmah; thy scions passed the sea, those [or they] came unto the sea of Jazer; a robber fell in on thy ripe corn, and on thy vintage.
33 Full out joy and gladness is taken away from Carmel, and from the land of Moab, and I have taken away wine from [the] pressers [or wine presses]; a stamper of [the] grape shall not sing a customable merry song.
34 Of the cry of Heshbon unto Elealeh and Jahaz they gave their voice, from Zoar unto Horonaim a cow calf of three years; forsooth the waters of Nimrim shall be full evil.
35 And I shall take away from Moab, saith the Lord, him that offereth in high places, and him that maketh sacrifice to the gods thereof.
36 Therefore mine heart shall sound as a pipe of brass to Moab, and mine heart shall give sound of pipes to the men of the earthen wall; for it did more than it might, therefore they perished.
37 For why each head shall be bald-ness, and each beard shall be shaved; in all hands shall be binding together, and an hair-shirt shall be on each back.
38 And all wailing shall be on all the roofs of Moab, and in the streets thereof, for I have all-broken Moab as an unprofitable vessel, saith the Lord.
39 How is it overcome, and they yelled? how hath Moab cast down the noll, and is shamed? And Moab shall be into scorn, and into ensample to all men in his compass.
40 The Lord saith these things, Lo! as an eagle he shall fly out, and he shall stretch forth his wings to Moab.
41 Kerioth is taken, and strongholds be taken; and the heart of strong men of Moab shall be in that day, as the heart of a woman travailing of child.
42 And Moab shall cease to be a people, for it had glory against the Lord.
43 Dread, and ditch, and snare is on thee, thou dweller of Moab, saith the Lord.
44 He that fleeth from the face of dread, shall fall into a ditch; and they that ascend [or go up] from the ditch, shall be taken with a snare. For I shall bring on Moab the year of the visitation of them, saith the Lord.
45 Men fleeing from the snare stood in the shadow of Heshbon, for why fire went out of Heshbon, and flame from the midst of Sihon; and [it] devoured a part of Moab, and the top of the sons of noise.
46 Moab, woe to thee; thou people of Chemosh, hast perished, for why thy sons and thy daughters be taken into captivity.
47 And I shall turn the captivity of Moab in the last days, saith the Lord. Hitherto be the dooms of Moab.