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 

Is this really your boisterous city ¹  whose origins are in the distant past, ²  and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

In a year’s time ¹  you carefree ones will shake with fear, for the grape ²  harvest will fail, and the fruit harvest will not arrive.

Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns; thickets and weeds will grow ¹  in her fortified cities. Jackals will settle there; ostriches will live there. ² 

You who live in Aroer, ¹  stand by the road and watch. Question the man who is fleeing and the woman who is escaping. Ask them, ‘What has happened?’

They made your oars from oaks of Bashan; they made your deck ¹  with cypresses ²  from the Kittean isles. ³ 

For this reason I ¹  will mourn and wail; I will walk around barefoot ²  and without my outer garments. ³  I will howl ⁴  like a wild dog, ⁵  and screech ⁶  like an owl. ⁷ 

Therefore you ¹  will have to say farewell ²  to Moresheth Gath. The residents ³  of Achzib ⁴  will be as disappointing as a dried up well ⁵  to the kings of Israel. ⁶ 

Because ¹  he was not able to repay it, ²  the lord ordered him to be sold, along with ³  his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made.

The priest ¹  is to present it before the Lord and make atonement ²  on her behalf, and she will be clean ³  from her flow of blood. ⁴  This is the law of the one who bears a child, for the male or the female child.

So Saul’s servants spoke these words privately ¹  to David. David replied, “Is becoming the king’s son-in-law something insignificant to you? I’m just a poor and lightly-esteemed man!”

I purchased male and female slaves, and I owned slaves who were born in my house; ¹  I also possessed more livestock – both herds and flocks – than any of my predecessors in Jerusalem. ² 

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

The wild animals of the desert honor me, the jackals and ostriches, because I put water in the desert and streams in the wilderness, to quench the thirst of my chosen people,

The person who lives in Zion says, “May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.” Jerusalem says, “May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” ¹ 

צ (Tsade) The Lord is right to judge me! ¹  Yes, I rebelled against his commands. ²  Please listen, all you nations, ³  and look at my suffering! My young women and men have gone into exile.

When you built your chamber at the head of every street and put up your pavilion in every public square, you were not like a prostitute, because you scoffed at payment. ¹ 

And ¹  in that you saw iron mixed with wet clay, so people will be mixed ²  with one another ³  without adhering to one another, just as ⁴  iron does not mix with clay.

If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, ¹  if she is past the bloom of youth ²  and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.

But the man who is firm in his commitment, and is under no necessity but has control over his will, and has decided in his own mind to keep his own virgin, does well.