HUMAN GODS ARE UNRELIABLE

“Woe to Nebo, for it will be ruined.
    Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured;
    the stronghold^[a] will be disgraced and shattered.
² Moab will be praised no more;
    in Heshbon^[b] people will plot her downfall:
    ‘Come, let us put an end to that nation.’
You, the people of Madmen,^[c] will also be silenced;
    the sword will pursue you.
³ Cries of anguish arise from Horonaim,
    cries of great havoc and destruction.
⁴ Moab will be broken;
    her little ones will cry out.^[d]
5 They go up the hill to Luhith,
    weeping bitterly as they go;
on the road down to Horonaim
    anguished cries over the destruction are heard.
⁶ Flee! Run for your lives;
    become like a bush^[e] in the desert.
⁷ Since you trust in your deeds and riches,
    you too will be taken captive,
and Chemosh will go into exile,
    together with his priests and officials.
⁸ The destroyer will come against every town,
    and not a town will escape.
The valley will be ruined
    and the plateau destroyed,
    because the Lord has spoken.
⁹ Put salt on Moab,
    for she will be laid waste^[f];
her towns will become desolate,
    with no one to live in them.

¹⁰ “A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!
    A curse on anyone who keeps their sword from bloodshed!

¹¹ “Moab has been at rest from youth,
    like wine left on its dregs,
not poured from one jar to another—
    she has not gone into exile.
So she tastes as she did,
    and her aroma is unchanged.
¹² But days are coming,”
    declares the Lord,
“when I will send men who pour from pitchers,
    and they will pour her out;
they will empty her pitchers
    and smash her jars.
¹³ Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,
    as Israel was ashamed
    when they trusted in Bethel.

¹⁴ “How can you say, ‘We are warriors,
    men valiant in battle’?
¹⁵ Moab will be destroyed and her towns invaded;
    her finest young men will go down in the slaughter,”
    declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
¹⁶ “The fall of Moab is at hand;
    her calamity will come quickly.
¹⁷ Mourn for her, all who live around her,
    all who know her fame;
say, ‘How broken is the mighty scepter,
    how broken the glorious staff!’

¹⁸ “Come down from your glory
    and sit on the parched ground,
    you inhabitants of Daughter Dibon,
for the one who destroys Moab
    will come up against you
    and ruin your fortified cities.
¹⁹ Stand by the road and watch,
    you who live in Aroer.
Ask the man fleeing and the woman escaping,
    ask them, ‘What has happened?’
²⁰ Moab is disgraced, for she is shattered.
    Wail and cry out!
Announce by the Arnon
    that Moab is destroyed.
²¹ Judgment has come to the plateau—
    to Holon, Jahzah and Mephaath,
²²     to Dibon, Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,
²³     to Kiriathaim, Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,
²⁴     to Kerioth and Bozrah—
    to all the towns of Moab, far and near.
²⁵ Moab’s horn^[g] is cut off;
    her arm is broken,”
declares the Lord.