< 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 burden of Moab: For in the night of being laid waste, Ar of Moab is destroyed; for in the night of being laid waste, Kir of Moab is 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].
He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep; Moab howleth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, 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 their streets they are girded with sackcloth; on their roofs, and in their broadways, every one howleth, melted into tears.
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].
And Heshbon crieth, and Elealeh: their voice is heard unto Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out: his soul trembleth in him.
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 crieth out for Moab; their fugitives [have fled] unto Zoar, unto Eglath-Sheli-shijah: for by the ascent of Luhith, with weeping they go up by it; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
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.
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the herbage is withered away, the grass hath failed, there is no green thing.
7 The people will pick up their possessions and carry them across Willows Brook.
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, do they carry away to the torrent 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 the cry goeth round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto 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.
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, for I will lay yet more upon Dimon: a lion upon them that are escaped of Moab, and upon that which remaineth of the land.