The people contended ¹  with Moses, saying, ²  “If only ³  we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!

When my enemies turn back, they trip and are defeated ¹  before you.

So my heart moans for Moab like a flute playing a funeral song. Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song, my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres. For the wealth they have gained will perish.

The Lord who rules over all ¹  spoke about Edom. ²  “Is wisdom no longer to be found in Teman? ³  Can Edom’s counselors not give her any good advice? ⁴  Has all of their wisdom turned bad? ⁵ 

ק (Qof) I called for my lovers, ¹  but they had deceived me. My priests and my elders perished in the city. Truly they had ²  searched for food to ³  keep themselves ⁴  alive. ⁵ 

Faithful men have disappeared ¹  from the land; there are no godly men left. ²  They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³  they hunt their own brother with a net. ⁴ 

Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, ¹  and because of greed ²  have abandoned themselves ³  to ⁴  Balaam’s error; hence, ⁵  they will certainly perish ⁶  in Korah’s rebellion.

And he said, ¹  “Go!” So ²  they came out and went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake and drowned in the water.

from the blood of Abel ¹  to the blood of Zechariah, ²  who was killed ³  between the altar and the sanctuary. ⁴  Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against ⁵  this generation.

Moab, you are doomed! ¹  You people who worship Chemosh will be destroyed. Your sons will be taken away captive. Your daughters will be carried away into exile. ² 

“Since, I, the Lord, do not go back on my promises, ¹  you, sons of Jacob, have not perished.

Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them.

“Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died ¹  and no eye would have seen me!

They will sing this lament over you: ¹  “‘How you have perished – you have vanished ²  from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror! ³ 

And all living things ¹  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

When I was with them I kept them safe ¹  and watched over them ²  in your name ³  that you have given me. Not one ⁴  of them was lost except the one destined for destruction, ⁵  so that the scripture could be fulfilled. ⁶ 

Just then ¹  a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people ²  were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ¹  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ²  a land rich in ³  milk and honey.

He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them ¹  died ²  together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning ³  of the barley harvest.