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. Because in a night Ar of Moab was destroyed—It has been cut off, Because in a night Kir of Moab was destroyed—It has been cut off.

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 has gone up to Bajith and Dibon, The high places—to weep, Moab howls on Nebo and on Medeba, Baldness [is] on all its heads, every beard 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 out-places they girded on sackcloth, On its pinnacles, and in its broad places, Everyone howls—going down 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].

And Heshbon and Elealeh cry, Their voice has been heard to Jahaz, Therefore the armed ones of Moab shout, His life has been grievous to 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 [is] toward Moab, Her fugitives cry to Zoar, a heifer of the third [year], For—the ascent of Luhith—He goes up in it with weeping, For in the way of Horonaim, They wake 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 are desolations, For the hay has been withered, The tender grass has been finished, There has not been a green thing.

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

Therefore the abundance he made, and their store, They carry to 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 the cry has gone around the border of Moab, Its howling [is] to Eglaim, And its howling [is] to 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 have been full of blood, For I set additions on Dimon, A lion for the escaped of Moab, And for the remnant of Adamah!