¹Send a ram to the ruler of the land, from Sela across the desert to the mountain of ⌞daughter Zion⌟. ²And this shall be: like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon. ³“Bring counsel, make a decision; make your shade like the night in the middle of noonday. Hide the outcasts; you must not betray the fugitive. ⁴Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you; be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.” When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped, the ⌞one who tramples has⌟ disappeared from the land, ⁵then a throne shall be established in steadfast love, and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and zealous for righteousness. ⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud— of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; ⌞his boasting is not true⌟. ⁷Therefore Moab wails; all of it wails for Moab, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, ⌞utterly devastated⌟. ⁸For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah; rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils, they reached up to Jazer, they wandered to the desert; her shoots spread abroad, they crossed over the sea. ⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh, for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest. ¹⁰And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land, and in the vineyards no one exults, no one shouts for joy; no treader treads wine in the presses; I have put to an end to the jubilant shout. ¹¹Therefore my ⌞heart moans⌟ like a harp for Moab and my inner parts for Kir-heres. ¹²And this shall happen: when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail. ¹³This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab ⌞in the past⌟. ¹⁴But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.