1. This message is to the country of Moab.This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says:“How terrible it will be for the city of Nebo,because it will be ruined.The town of Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured;the strong city will be disgraced and shattered.
2. Moab will not be praised again.Men in the town of Heshbon plan Moab’s defeat.They say, ‘Come, let us put an end to that nation!’Town of Madmen, you will also be silenced.The sword will chase you.
3. Listen to the cries from the town of Horonaim,cries of much confusion and destruction.
4. Moab will be broken up.Her little children will cry for help.
5. Moab’s people go up the path to the town of Luhith,crying loudly as they go.On the road down to Horonaim,cries of pain and suffering can be heard.
6. Run! Run for your lives!Go like a bush being blown through the desert.
7. You trust in the things you do and in your wealth,so you also will be captured.The god Chemosh will go into captivityand his priests and officers with him.
8. The destroyer will come against every town;not one town will escape.The valley will be ruined,and the high plain will be destroyed,as the Lord has said.
9. Give wings to Moab,because she will surely leave her land.Moab’s towns will become empty,with no one to live in them.
10. A curse will be on anyone who doesn’t do what the Lord says,and a curse will be on anyone who holds back his sword from killing.
11. “The people of Moab have never known trouble.They are like wine left to settle;they have never been poured from one jar to another.They have not been taken into captivity.So they taste as they did before,and their smell has not changed.
12. A time is coming,” says the Lord,“When I will send people to pour you from your jars.They will empty Moab’s jarsand smash her jugs.
13. The people of Israel trusted that god in the town of Bethel,and they were ashamed when there was no help.In the same way Moab will be ashamed of their god Chemosh.
14. “You cannot say, ‘We are warriors!We are brave men in battle!’
15. The destroyer of Moab and her towns has arrived.Her best young men will be killed!” says the King,whose name is the Lord All-Powerful.
16. “The end of Moab is near,and she will soon be destroyed.
17. All you who live around Moab,all you who know her, cry for her.Say, ‘The ruler’s power is broken;Moab’s power and glory are gone.’
18. “You people living in the town of Dibon, come down from your place of honorand sit on the dry ground,because the destroyer of Moab has come against you.And he has destroyed your strong, walled cities.