I will make many stumble. ¹  They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. ²  They will say, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’ ³ 

People will not praise Moab any more. The enemy will capture Heshbon ¹  and plot ²  how to destroy Moab, ³  saying, ‘Come, let’s put an end to that nation!’ City of Madmen, you will also be destroyed. ⁴  A destructive army will march against you. ⁵ 

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

You who have escaped the sword, ¹  go, do not delay. ²  Remember the Lord in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem. ³ 

ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! I am distressed; ¹  my stomach is in knots! ²  My heart is pounding ³  inside me. Yes, I was terribly rebellious! ⁴  Out in the street the sword bereaves a mother of her children; ⁵  Inside the house death is present. ⁶ 

ש (Sin/Shin) The young boys and old men lie dead on the ground in the streets. My young women ¹  and my young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them when you were angry; ²  you slaughtered them without mercy. ³ 

I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ¹  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ²  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these ¹  will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them.

All the choice men ¹  among his troops will die ²  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

and say to them, ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, ²  I am against you. ³  I will draw my sword ⁴  from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁵ 

Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone ¹  from the south ²  to the north.

Then everyone will know that I am the Lord, who drew my sword from its sheath – it will not be sheathed again!’

“‘He gave it to be polished, to be grasped in the hand – the sword is sharpened, it is polished – giving it into the hand of the executioner.

So hearts melt with fear and many stumble. At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter. Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

Mark out the routes for the sword to take: “Rabbah of the Ammonites” and “Judah with Jerusalem in it.” ¹ 

They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious ¹  among women, and they executed judgments against her.

That army will pelt them with stones and slash them with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses. ¹ 

He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build a siege wall against you, erect a siege ramp against you, and raise a great shield against you.

With his horses’ hoofs he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will tumble down to the ground.

I am about to bring foreigners ¹  against you, the most terrifying of nations. They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom, ²  and they will defile your splendor.