1. Dispatch as messenger The ruler of the land, From Sela in the wilderness To the mount of Fair Zion:
2. "Like fugitive birds, Like nestlings driven away, Moab's villagers linger By the fords of the Arnon.
3. Give advice, Offer counsel. At high noon make Your shadow like night: Conceal the outcasts, Betray not the fugitives.
4. Let Moab's outcasts Find asylum in you; Be a shelter for them Against the despoiler." For violence has vanished, Rapine is ended, And marauders have perished from this land.
5. And a throne shall be established in goodness In the tent of David, And on it shall sit in faithfulness A ruler devoted to justice And zealous for equity.
6. "We have heard of Moab's pride -- Most haughty is he -- Of his pride and haughtiness and arrogance, And of the iniquity in him."
7. Ah, let Moab howl; Let all in Moab howl! For the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth You shall moan most pitifully.
8. The vineyards of Heshbon are withered, And the vines of Sibmah; Their tendrils spread To Baale-goiim, And reached to Jazer, And strayed to the desert; Their shoots spread out And crossed the sea.
9. Therefore, As I weep for Jazer, So I weep for Sibmah's vines; O Heshbon and Elealeh, I drench you with my tears. Ended are the shouts Over your fig and grain harvests.
10. Rejoicing and gladness Are gone from the farm land; In the vineyards no shouting Or cheering is heard. No more does the treader Tread wine in the presses -- The shouts have been silenced.
11. Therefore, Like a lyre my heart moans for Moab, And my very soul for Kir-heres.
12. And when it has become apparent that Moab has gained nothing in the outdoor shrine, he shall come to pray in his temple -- but to no avail.
13. That is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab long ago.
14. And now the LORD has spoken: In three years, fixed like the years of a hired laborer, Moab's population, with all its huge multitude, shall shrink. Only a remnant shall be left, of no consequence.
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