12  You¹ will say in that day:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,

for though you were angry with me,

^uyour anger turned away,

that you might ^vcomfort me.

2  “Behold, God is my salvation;

I will ^wtrust, and will not be afraid;

for ^xthe Lord God² is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation.”

^z“Give thanks to the Lord,

call upon his name,

make known his deeds among the peoples,

proclaim that his name is exalted.

5  “Sing praises to the Lord, ^afor he has done gloriously;

let this be made known⁴ in all the earth.

6  ^bShout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,

for great in your⁵ midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

2  On a bare hill raise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for them to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3  I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.¹

4  The sound of a tumult is on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

5  They come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole land.²

6  ^eWail, ^ffor the day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty³ it will come!

7  Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart will melt.

8  They will be dismayed:

^gpangs and agony will seize them;

they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9  Behold, the day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and to destroy its sinners from it.

10  For the stars of the heavens and their constellations

^hwill not give their light;

the sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11  I will ⁱpunish the world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12  I will make people more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the gold of ^jOphir.

13  Therefore I will make the ^kheavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14  And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

^leach will turn to his own people,

and each will flee to his own land.

15  Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16  Their infants will be ^mdashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

17  Behold, I am stirring up the ⁿMedes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18  Their bows will slaughter⁴ the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,

will be ^olike Sodom and Gomorrah

^pwhen God overthrew them.

20  It will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

no Arab will pitch his tent there;

no shepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21  But ^qwild animals will lie down there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ostriches⁵ will dwell,

and there wild goats will dance.

22  Hyenas⁶ will cry in its towers,

and jackals in the pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.

“How the oppressor has ceased,

the insolent fury² ceased!

5  The Lord has ^xbroken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

6  that struck the peoples in wrath

with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrelenting persecution.

7  The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

they ^ybreak forth into singing.

8  The cypresses rejoice at you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low,

no ^zwoodcutter comes up against us.’

9  Sheol beneath is stirred up

to meet you when you come;

it rouses the shades to greet you,

all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

all who were kings of the nations.

10  All of them will answer

and say to you:

‘You too have become as weak as we!

You have become like us!’

11  Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

the sound of your harps;

maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,

and worms are your covers.

12  “How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!

13  You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high;

I will sit on the mount of assembly

in the far reaches of the north;³

14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.’

15  But you are brought down to Sheol,

to the far reaches of the pit.

16  Those who see you will stare at you

and ponder over you:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who shook kingdoms,

17  who made the world like a desert

and overthrew its cities,

who ^adid not let his prisoners go home?’

18  All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

each in his own tomb;⁴

19  but you are cast out, away from your grave,

like a loathed branch,

clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,

who go down to the stones of the pit,

like a dead body trampled underfoot.

20  You will not be joined with them in burial,

because you have destroyed your land,

you have slain your people.

“May the offspring of evildoers

nevermore be named!

21  Prepare slaughter for his sons

^bbecause of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities.”

24  The Lord of hosts has sworn:

^d“As I have planned,

so shall it be,

and as I have purposed,

so shall it stand,

25  that ^eI will break the Assyrian in my land,

and on my mountains trample him underfoot;

and ^fhis yoke shall depart from them,

and his burden from their shoulder.”

26  This is the purpose that is purposed

concerning the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is stretched out

over all the nations.

27  For the Lord of hosts has purposed,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and ^gwho will turn it back?

29  ⁱRejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,

that the rod that struck you is broken,

for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,

and its fruit will be a ^jflying fiery serpent.

30  And the firstborn of the poor will graze,

and the needy lie down in safety;

but I will kill your root with famine,

and your remnant it will slay.

31  Wail, O gate; cry out, O city;

melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!

For smoke comes out of the north,

and there is no straggler in his ranks.

32  What will one answer the messengers of the nation?

“The Lord has ^kfounded Zion,

and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone;

because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,

Moab is undone.

2  He has gone up to the temple,¹ and to Dibon,

to the high places² to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba

Moab wails.

^mOn every head is baldness;

every beard is shorn;

3  in the streets they wear sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

everyone wails and melts in tears.

4  Heshbon and Elealeh ⁿcry out;

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;

his soul trembles.

5  My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For ^oat the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;

6  the waters of Nimrim

are a desolation;

the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,

the greenery is no more.

7  Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Brook of the Willows.

8  For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

her wailing reaches to Eglaim;

her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

9  For the waters of Dibon³ are full of blood;

for I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

16  Send the ^plamb to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, by way of the desert,

to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

2  Like fleeing birds,

like a scattered nest,

so are the daughters of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.

3  “Give counsel;

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

shelter the outcasts;

do not reveal the fugitive;

4  let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a shelter to them¹

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5  then a ^qthrone will be established in steadfast love,

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

6  ^rWe have heard of the ^spride of Moab—

how proud he is!—

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;

in his idle boasting he is not right.

7  Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,

let everyone wail.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8  For the fields of Heshbon languish,

and the vine of Sibmah;

the lords of the nations

have struck down its branches,

which reached to Jazer

and strayed to the desert;

its shoots spread abroad

and passed over the sea.

9  Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh;

for over your summer fruit and your harvest

the shout has ceased.

10  And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field,

and in the vineyards no songs are sung,

no cheers are raised;

no treader treads out wine in the presses;

I have put an end to the shouting.

11  Therefore ^tmy inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab,

and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.