¹ Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the desert, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion,

² for soon, like a fluttered bird, like nestlings cast out, will be the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

³ Hold a council, make a decision. At noon spread your shadow as if it were night. Hide those who have been driven out, do not betray the fugitive,

⁴ let those who have been driven out of Moab come and live with you; be their refuge in the face of the devastator. Once the oppression is past, and the devastation has stopped and those now trampling on the country have gone away,

⁵ the throne will be made secure in faithful love and on it will sit in constancy within the tent of David, a judge seeking fair judgement and pursuing uprightness.

⁶ We have heard about Moab's pride, about how very proud it is, about its arrogance, its pride, its rage, its bravado, which will come to nothing!

⁷ And so Moab is wailing for Moab, wailing, every one of them. For the raisin cakes of Kir-Hareseth you mourn, stricken with grief.

⁸ For Heshbon's vineyards are withering, the vine of Sibmah whose red grapes used to overcome the overlords of the nations. It used to reach to Jazer, had wound its way into the desert, its shoots grew so numerous they spread across the sea.

⁹ And so I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vine of Sibmah. I water you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. For over your harvest and vintage the cheering has died away;

¹⁰ joy and gladness have vanished from the orchards. No more revelry in the vineyards, no more happy shouting; no more the treader treads wine in the presses, the cheering has ceased.

¹¹ That is why my whole being quivers like harp strings for Moab, my very heart, for Kir-Heres.

¹² Moab will be seen, wearing itself out on the high places and going to its temple to pray, but it will accomplish nothing.

¹³ Such was the word which Yahweh spoke about Moab in the past.

¹⁴ And now Yahweh has spoken in these terms, 'Within three years, as a hired worker reckons them, the glory of Moab will be humbled, despite its teeming population. It will be reduced to nothing, an insignificant remnant.'