The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how handsome you are, my lover! ¹  Oh, ²  how delightful ³  you are! The lush foliage ⁴  is our canopied bed; ⁵ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Until the dawn arrives ¹  and the shadows flee, turn, ²  my beloved – be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain gorges. ³ 

Wild animals will rest there, the ruined ¹  houses will be full of hyenas. ²  Ostriches will live there, wild goats will skip among the ruins. ³ 

All of them respond to you, saying: ‘You too have become weak like us! You have become just like us!

“Bring a plan, make a decision! ¹  Provide some shade in the middle of the day! ²  Hide the fugitives! Do not betray ³  the one who tries to escape!

So Moab wails over its demise ¹  – they all wail! Completely devastated, they moan about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. ² 

When the Moabites plead with all their might at their high places, ¹  and enter their temples to pray, their prayers will be ineffective! ² 

So I say: “Don’t look at me! ¹  I am weeping bitterly. Don’t try ²  to console me concerning the destruction of my defenseless people.” ³ 

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹ 

Here is a message about Tyre: Wail, you large ships, ¹  for the port is too devastated to enter! ²  From the land of Cyprus ³  this news is announced to them.

Lament, ¹  you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon ²  who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

Mourn ¹  over the land of my people, which is overgrown with thorns and briers, and over all the once-happy houses ²  in the city filled with revelry. ³ 

Let the desert and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live! Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a snare. They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger, by the battle cry of your God. ¹ 

Each one says, ¹  ‘Come on, I’ll get some wine! Let’s guzzle some beer! Tomorrow will be just like today! We’ll have everything we want!’ ² 

For this reason deliverance ¹  is far from us ²  and salvation does not reach us. We wait for light, ³  but see only darkness; ⁴  we wait for ⁵  a bright light, ⁶  but live ⁷  in deep darkness. ⁸ 

For look, the Lord comes with fire, his chariots come like a windstorm, ¹  to reveal his raging anger, his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ² 

Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ¹  The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ²  His horses move more swiftly than eagles.” I cry out, ³  “We are doomed, ⁴  for we will be destroyed!”

They will say, ¹  ‘Prepare to do battle ²  against it! Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’ But later they will say, ³  ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! ⁴  The day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long.

The people cry out, ¹  “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! ²  Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!