They will lay it waste. It will lie parched ¹  and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. ² 

Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³ 

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

Yes, ¹  I will restore you to health. I will heal your wounds. I, the Lord, affirm it! ²  For you have been called an outcast, Zion, whom no one cares for.”

Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ¹  you dear poor people of Egypt. ²  But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ³  there will be no healing for you.

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 

On all the housetops in Moab and in all its public squares there will be nothing but mourning. For I will break Moab like an unwanted jar. I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹ 

ב (Bet) She weeps bitterly at night; tears stream down her cheeks. ¹  She has no one to comfort her among all her lovers. ²  All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

ט (Tet) Her menstrual flow ¹  has soiled ²  her clothing; ³  she did not consider ⁴  the consequences of her sin. ⁵  Her demise ⁶  was astonishing, ⁷  and there was no one to comfort her. She cried, “Look, ⁸  O Lord, on my ⁹  affliction because my enemy boasts!”

פ (Pe) Zion spread out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has issued a decree against Jacob; his neighbors ¹  have become his enemies. Jerusalem has become like filthy garbage ²  in their midst. ³ 

ט (Tet) Her city gates have fallen ¹  to the ground; he smashed to bits ²  the bars that lock her gates. ³  Her king and princes were taken into exile; ⁴  there is no more guidance available. ⁵  As for her prophets, they no longer receive ⁶  a vision from the Lord.

I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you, “The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more –

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.

You will say, “I will invade ¹  a land of unwalled towns; I will advance against ²  those living quietly in security – all of them living without walls and barred gates –

For the Israelites ¹  must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols.

All of them are blazing like an oven; they devour their rulers. All of their kings fall – and none of them call on me!

They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.

Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

Listen to the cattle groan! ¹  The herds of livestock wander around in confusion ²  because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

Does a lion roar in the woods if he has not cornered his prey? ¹  Does a young lion bellow from his den if he has not caught something?