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.

THE WORD AGAINST THE LAND OF MOAB. By night the land of Moab shall be destroyed; for by night the wall of the land of Moab shall be destroyed.

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].

Grieve for yourselves; for even Debon, where your altar is, shall be destroyed: there shall you go up to weep, over Nabau of the land of Moab: howl you: baldness shall be on every head, [and] all arms [shall be] wounded.

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.

Gird yourselves with sackcloth in her streets: and lament upon her roofs, and in her streets, and in her ways; howl all of you with 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].

For Esebon and Eleale have cried: their voice was heard to Jassa: therefore the loins of the region of Moab cry aloud; her soul shall know.

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.

The heart of the region of Moab cries within her to Segor; for it is [as] a heifer of three years old: and on the ascent of Luith they shall go up to you weeping by the way of Aroniim: she cries, Destruction, and trembling.

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 water of Nemerim shall be desolate, and the grass thereof shall fail: for there shall be no green grass.

7 The people will pick up their possessions and carry them across Willows Brook.

Shall [Moab] even thus be delivered? for I [will] bring the Arabians upon the valley, and they shall take it.

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 the cry has reached the border of the region of Moab, [even] of Agalim; and her howling [has gone] as far as the well of Aelim.

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.

And the water of Dimon shall be filled with blood: for I will bring Arabians upon Dimon, and I will take away the seed of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Adama.