27. Wasn’t Israel the butt of your jokes?Didn’t you shake your headas if they were thievescaught in the act?
28. Leave your towns, head for the cliffs,you people of Moab.Hide like a dovethat nests in the mouth of a cave.
29. We have heard of Moab’s pride:arrogant, puffed up, exalted,high and mighty, boastful!
30. I myself know about its arrogance,declares the Lord, the idle talk, the empty deeds.
31. But I’ll still wail for Moab;I’ll cry out for all Moab;I’ll sob for the people of Kir-heres.
32. I’ll weep for you, vine of Sibmah,more than I would for Jazer.Though your branches extended to the seaand reached the coast of Jazer,now the destroyer has cometo harvest your grapes and summer fruits.
33. Joy and gladness have been takenfrom the orchards and farms of Moab.I have stopped making wine in the presses.No one shouts with joywhile treading the grapes.Though there are shouts,they are not shouts of joy!
34. Screams are heard from Heshbonto Elealeh and Jahaz;their cries resound from Zoarto Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah.Even the waters of Nimrim are dried up.
35. I’ll put an end to Moab,declares the Lord, for making offerings on the shrines,and worshipping their gods.
36. Therefore, my heart wails for Moablike a mournful flute that plays the dirge;my heart wails for the people of Kir-heres,like a mournful flute.Their abundance is now gone.
37. Every head is shaved,every beard is cut off,every hand is slashed,and everyone wears mourning clothes.
38. On every housetop of Moaband in all its streets,there’s nothing but mourning.I have shattered Moablike a pottery vessel no one wants,declares the Lord.
39. How it’s shattered! Go wail!How Moab turns away!What shame!Moab has become the butt of every joke,horrific to all its neighbors.