37. All of them have shaved their heads and cut off their beards. They have all made gashes on their hands, and everyone is wearing sackcloth.
38. On all the housetops of Moab and in all its public squares there is nothing but mourning, because I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants.
39. Moab has been shattered! Cry out! Moab has been disgraced. It is in ruins, and all the surrounding nations jeer at it. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
40. The Lord has promised that a nation will swoop down on Moab like an eagle with its outspread wings,
41. and the towns and fortresses will be captured. On that day Moab's soldiers will be as frightened as a woman in labour.
42. Moab will be destroyed and will no longer be a nation, because it rebelled against me.
43. Terror, pits, and traps are waiting for the people of Moab. The Lord has spoken.
44. Whoever tries to escape the terror will fall into the pits, and whoever climbs out of the pits will be caught in the traps, because the Lord has set the time for Moab's destruction.
45. Helpless refugees try to find protection in Heshbon, the city that King Sihon once ruled, but it is in flames. Fire has burnt up the frontiers and the mountain heights of the war-loving people of Moab.