Not a town will escape the destruction; both valley and plain will be ruined. I, the LORD, have spoken.

Moab and its cities are destroyed; its finest young men have been slaughtered. I am the king, the LORD Almighty, and I have spoken.

'I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the LORD, have spoken.

They wait on the banks of the Arnon River and move aimlessly back and forth, like birds driven from their nest.

I will let the cities that defend the border of Moab be attacked, including even the finest cities---Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim.

I will let the tribes of the eastern desert conquer Moab, together with Ammon, so that Moab will no longer be a nation.

The LORD said, "Moab has always lived secure and has never been taken into exile. Moab is like wine left to settle undisturbed and never poured from jar to jar. Its flavor has never been ruined, and it tastes as good as ever.

On all the housetops of Moab and in all its public squares there is nothing but mourning, because I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants.

The rich people send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; they come back with their jars empty. Discouraged and confused, they hide their faces.

Then the LORD told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me

Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams.

You will break them with an iron rod; you will shatter them in pieces like a clay pot.' "

You will be shattered like a clay pot, so badly broken that there is no piece big enough to pick up hot coals with or to dip water from a cistern."

(The LORD is about to restore the glory of Israel, as it was before her enemies plundered her.)