Wail, you large ships, ¹  for your fortress is destroyed!

The destroyer is as good as dead, ¹  you who have not been destroyed! The deceitful one is as good as dead, ²  the one whom others have not deceived! When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed; when you finish ³  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this land to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March up against this land and destroy it!’”’” ¹ 

I have received a distressing message: ¹  “The deceiver deceives, the destroyer destroys. Attack, you Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning!” ² 

Your children hurry back, while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

The leaders of this nation were misleading people, and the people being led were destroyed. ¹ 

Here is a message about Moab: Indeed, in a night it is devastated, Ar of Moab is destroyed! Indeed, in a night it is devastated, Kir of Moab is destroyed!

Even if the forest is destroyed ¹  and the city is annihilated, ² 

Please let the Moabite fugitives live ¹  among you. Hide them ²  from the destroyer!” Certainly ³  the one who applies pressure will cease, ⁴  the destroyer will come to an end, those who trample will disappear ⁵  from the earth.

They come from a distant land, from the horizon. ¹  It is the Lord with his instruments of judgment, ²  coming to destroy the whole earth. ³ 

Were the nations whom my predecessors ¹  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ² 

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

But he does not agree with this, his mind does not reason this way, ¹  for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations. ² 

Look, the Lord’s day of judgment ¹  is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, ²  destroying ³  the earth ⁴  and annihilating its sinners.

You will not be buried with them, ¹  because you destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked will never be mentioned again.

You conceive straw, ¹  you give birth to chaff; your breath is a fire that destroys you. ² 

This is what the Lord says: “When ¹  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes, someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ²  So I will do for the sake of my servants – I will not destroy everyone. ³ 

The splendor of his forest and his orchard will be completely destroyed, ¹  as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. ² 

The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ¹  he shook kingdoms; he ²  gave the order to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ³ 

It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations ¹  and their lands.