< Isaiah 15 >
1 [I received] this message [from Yahweh] about the Moab [people-group]: In one night [two of your important cities], Ar and Kir, will be destroyed.
This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night!
2 The people of Dibon, [your capital city, ] will go to their temple to mourn/weep; they will go to [their shrines] on the hilltops to weep. They will wail because of [what happened to] Nebo and Medeba [towns in the south]; they will all shave the hair of their heads, and the men will cut off their beards [to show that they are grieving].
Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
3 In the streets people will wear rough sackcloth, and on their [flat] rooftops and in the [city] plazas everyone will wail, with tears streaming down their faces.
In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.
4 [The people of] Heshbon [city] and Elealeh [towns in the north of Moab] will cry out; people as far away as Jahaz [town in the south] will hear them wailing. Therefore the soldiers of Moab will tremble and cry out and they will be very afraid [IDM].
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within.
5 I feel very sorry for [the people of] Moab; they will flee to Zoar and Eglath-Shelishiyah [towns in the far south]. They will cry as they walk up to Luhith [town]. All along the road to Horonaim [town] people will mourn because their country has been destroyed.
My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
6 The water in Nimrim [Valley] will have dried up. The grass there will be withered; the green plants will [all] be gone, and there will be nothing left that is green.
The waters of Nimrim are dried up, and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone, and the greenery is no more.
7 The people will pick up their possessions and carry them across Willows Brook.
So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows.
8 Throughout the country of Moab, [people] will be crying; people as far away as Eglaim [in the south] and Beer-Elim [in the north] will hear them wailing.
For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim.
9 The stream near Dimon will become red from the blood [of people who have been killed], but I will cause the people of Moab to experience even more [trouble]: Lions will attack those who [are trying to] escape from Moab and will [also] attack the people who remain in that country.
The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon— a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.