The Hebrew Prophets

But how can you be still? For ADONAI has given it orders against Ashkelon, against the seacoast; he has assigned it its task there.

Concerning Mo'av, this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "Woe to N'vo, for it is ravaged; Kiryatayim disgraced and captured. Misgav is put to shame, distressed.

"In Mo'av, nothing is left to praise. At Heshbon they plotted her downfall: 'Come, we'll cut her off as a nation.' You too, Madmein, will be silenced; the sword pursues behind you.

An agonized cry from Horonayim, ruin, terrible devastation!

Mo'av has been shattered; the cries of her young ones are heard,

as they ascend the slopes of Luchit, weeping bitterly as they climb. On the road down to Horonayim shrieks of destruction ring out."

Flee! Save your lives! Be strong, like a tamarisk in the desert.

Because you trust in your deeds and your wealth, you too will be captured. Together with his priests and princes, K'mosh will go into exile.

A destroyer will descend on every city, no city will escape. The valley too will perish, the plain will be laid waste, as ADONAI as said.

Give Mo'av wings, so it can fly and get away. Its cities will become ruins, with no one to live in them.

A curse on him who does the work of ADONAI carelessly! A curse on him who withholds his sword from blood!

Mo'av has lived at ease from his youth; he is [wine] settled on its dregs, not decanted from jar to jar - he has not gone into exile. Therefore it retains its own [bad] taste, its aroma remains unchanged.

"So the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will send people to tilt him; they will tilt his jars, emptying them and shattering the wine-flasks to pieces.

Mo'av will be disappointed by K'mosh then, just as the house of Isra'el was disappointed by Beit-El, a god in whom they had put their trust.

"How can you say, 'We are heroes, warriors valiant in battle'?

They are ravaging Mo'av, attacking its cities; its best young men go down to be slaughtered," says the king, whose name is ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

Mo'av's ruin is coming soon, its disaster speeds on swiftly.

Pity him, all of you who are near him, all of you who know his name; say, "How the mighty scepter is shattered, that splendid staff!"

Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst, daughter living in Divon; for Mo'av's destroyer advances on you; he has destroyed your strongholds.

Stand by the road and watch, inhabitant of 'Aro'er; ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping, "What is going on?"

Mo'av is disgraced, indeed, destroyed. Wail aloud! Shriek! Proclaim it by the Arnon that Mo'av has been laid waste.

Judgment has come on the Plain - on Holon, Yachtzah, Mefa'at,

Divon, N'vo, Beit-Diblatayim,

Kiryatayim, Beit-Gamul, Beit-M'on,

K'riot, Botzrah and all the cities in the land of Mo'av, far and near.