Isaiah 15

The Voice

15 A message about Moab:
In the cover of night, Moab was attacked and decimated.
    Both Ar and Kir were decimated in a single night.
² The whole community traipses up to the temple, to Dibon
    to weep and cry out to the gods.
Moab weeps and wails over the dead in Nebo and Medeba,
    every head and beard shaved in mourning.
³ They wander the streets dressed in sackcloth;
    on roofs and public places people wail, collapsing in abundance of tears.
⁴ The cries of Heshbon in the north and Elealeh nearby
    reach to Jahaz in the east.
Moab is shaken to the core, wracked with terror, sadness, and grief;
    even its bravest soldiers cry out.
⁵ It breaks my heart to hear Moab.
    Refugees make for Zoar at Edom’s border to Eglath-shelishiyah.
They climb, weeping, to the heights of Luhith and along roads to Horonaim.
They go with shattering cries.
    The land itself is destroyed, dead.
⁶ Where it had been green and rippling with tall grasses, now it’s brown and dusty.
    Where sweet water glistened all along Nimrim, now it’s dry and desolate.
⁷ So the people are carting away all their belongings.
    Whatever they’ve gathered, they carry along the brook lined with poplars.
⁸ And Moab cries; the whole country wails.
    From Eglaim to Beer-elim, you can hear the crying.
⁹ The waters of Dimon run red with blood.