1 Y ou send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela or Petra through the desert and wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion.

2 F or like wandering birds, like a brood cast out and a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

3 G ive counsel, execute justice; make your shade like night in the midst of noonday; hide the outcasts, betray not the fugitive to his pursuer.

4 L et our outcasts of Moab dwell among you; be a sheltered hiding place to them from the destroyer. When the extortion and the extortioner have been brought to nought, and destruction has ceased, and the oppressors and they who trample men are consumed and have vanished out of the land,

5 T hen in mercy and loving-kindness shall a throne be established, and One shall sit upon it in truth and faithfulness in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and being swift to do righteousness.

6 W e have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud—even of his arrogance, his conceit, his wrath, his untruthful boasting.

7 M oab therefore shall wail for Moab; everyone shall wail. For the ruins, flagons of wine, and the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you shall sigh and mourn, utterly stricken and discouraged.

8 F or the fields of Heshbon languish and wither, and the vines of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down choice vine branches, which reached even to Jazer, wandering into the wilderness; its shoots stretched out abroad, they passed over the Sea.

9 T herefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for upon your summer fruits and your harvest the shout has fallen.

10 A nd gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing, nor is there joyful sound; the treaders tread out no wine in the presses, for the shout of joy has been made to cease.

11 W herefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inner being for Kir-hareseth.

12 I t shall be that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, he will come to his sanctuary, but he will not prevail.

13 T his is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time.

14 B ut now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, in spite of all his mighty multitudes of people; and the remnant that survives will be very small, feeble, and of no account.