<p class="poetry">Set up a gravestone for Moab,p> <p class="poetry">for it will certainly be laid in ruins!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Its cities will be laid wastep> <p class="poetry">and become uninhabited.&#8221;p>

on Kerioth and Bozrah. It will come on all the towns of Moab, both far and near.

<p class="poetry">Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab.p> <p class="poetry">Go and live in the cliffs.p> <p class="poetry">Be like a dove that makes its nestp> <p class="poetry">high on the sides of a ravine.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">You will stumble and fall, you proud city;p> <p class="poetry">no one will help you get up.p> <p class="poetry">I will set fire to your towns;p> <p class="poetry">it will burn up everything that surrounds you.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

The city remained under siege until Zedekiah&#8217;s eleventh year.

By the ninth day of the fourth month<n id="1" /> the famine in the city was so severe the residents<n id="2" /> had no food.

If you do this,<n id="1" /> then the kings and princes who follow in David&#8217;s succession<n id="2" /> and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to enter through these gates, as well as their officials and the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.<n id="3" /> This city will always be filled with people.<n id="4" />

&#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all<n id="1" /> says, &#8216;I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it<n id="2" /> all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused<n id="3" /> to pay any attention to what I have said!&#8217;&#8221;p>

Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city<n id="1" /> in order to capture it. War,<n id="2" /> starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians<n id="3" /> who are attacking it.<n id="4" /> <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="5" /> you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place.<n id="6" />

The Babylonian soldiers<n id="1" /> that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops.<n id="2" />

For I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm that<n id="1" /> I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">But where are the gods you made for yourselves?p> <p class="poetry">Let them save you when you are in trouble.p> <p class="poetry">The sad fact is that<n id="1" /> you have as many godsp> <p class="poetry">as you have towns, Judah.p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Come back to me, my wayward sons,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;for I am your true master.<n id="1" /> If you do,<n id="2" /> I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Announce<n id="2" /> this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem:<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Sound the trumpet<n id="4" /> throughout the land!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">Shout out loudly,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">Like a lion that has come up from its lair<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He is coming out to lay your land waste.p> <p class="poetry">Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.p>

<p class="poetry">They are saying,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Announce to the surrounding nations,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;The enemy is coming!&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Proclaim this message<n id="4" /> to Jerusalem:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Those who besiege cities<n id="5" /> are coming from a distant land.p> <p class="poetry">They are ready to raise the battle cry against<n id="6" /> the towns in Judah.&#8221;&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">All of this is because<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="2" /> has said:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Cut down the trees around Jerusalemp> <p class="poetry">and build up a siege ramp against its walls.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This is the city which is to be punished.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Nothing but oppression happens in it.<n id="5" />p>

I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">The snorting of the enemy&#8217;s horsesp> <p class="poetry">is already being heard in the city of Dan.p> <p class="poetry">The sound of the neighing of their stallions<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">causes the whole land to tremble with fear.p> <p class="poetry">They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!p> <p class="poetry">They are coming to destroy<n id="2" /> the cities and everyone who lives in them!&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will make Jerusalem<n id="2" /> a heap of ruins.p> <p class="poetry">Jackals will make their home there.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I will destroy the towns of Judahp> <p class="poetry">so that no one will be able to live in them.&#8221;p>