Moab's Cities and Refugees Lament Sudden Ruin

Moab's towns fall in a night, and the body language of grief fills the roads

The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence. He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.

Heshbon and Elealeh cry; Jahaz hears it; the heart of Moab's armed men cries out. Sudden ruin, shaved heads, sackcloth, and public howling portray a neighbor's catastrophe. The oracle is not a warrant to map Moab onto a living people or to punish a modern group as Moab.

Refugees carry what they can while waters fail and streams run with blood

My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

The cry is gone round the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim and Beer-elim. The waters of Dimon are full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land. Flight, dried pasture, packed goods, and bloodied water complete the scene. Even the prophet's heart cries out. Collective punishment and colonial domination are not the lesson.