Because you rage against me, and the uproar you create has reached my ears; ¹  I will put my hook in your nose, ²  and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him melt down ¹  the silver that has been brought by the people to the Lord’s temple and has been collected by the guards at the door.

During Jehoiakim’s reign, ¹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ²  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ³ 

David asked God, “Should I march up against the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The Lord said to him, “March up! I will hand them over to you!”

Because they were unfaithful to the Lord, in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

All the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “Attack Ramoth Gilead! You will succeed; the Lord will hand it over to the king!”

The Speaker: ¹  Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, like ²  a fragrant billow ³  of myrrh and frankincense, ⁴  every kind of fragrant powder ⁵  of the traveling merchants? ⁶ 

The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; ¹  there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. ² 

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

All the stars in the sky will fade away, ¹  the sky will roll up like a scroll; all its stars will wither, like a leaf withers and falls from a vine or a fig withers and falls from a tree. ² 

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” ¹ 

Because you rage against me and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹  I will put my hook in your nose, ²  and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

Like a lion that has come up from its lair ¹  the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ²  He is coming out to lay your land waste. Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

Moab will be destroyed. Its towns will be invaded. Its finest young men will be slaughtered. ¹  I, the King, the Lord who rules over all, ²  affirm it! ³ 

Come down from your place of honor; sit on the dry ground, ¹  you who live in Dibon. ²  For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you; he will destroy your fortifications.

The Lord says, ¹  “Attack ²  the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! ³  Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! ⁴  Do just as I have commanded you! ⁵ 

As I watched, I saw ¹  tendons on them, then muscles appeared, ²  and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath ³  in them.

For a nation ¹  has invaded ²  our ³  land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁴  Their teeth are like those ⁵  of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ⁶ 

The one who can break through barriers will lead them out ¹  they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. ²  Their king will advance ³  before them, The Lord himself will lead them. ⁴