Your neck is as elegant as a tower made of ivory. Your eyes shine like the pools of Heshbon by the Bathrabbin gate. Your nose is beautiful, prominent like the tower in Lebanon that faces Damascus.
The people of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out in sadness, their voices heard as far as Jahaz. That's why even the bravest soldiers of Moab shout—because they're so terrified.
No one praises Moab anymore. People in Heshbon are plotting, “We will destroy Moab as a nation. People of the town of Madmen, we will silence you too—you will be attacked by swords and chased down.”
Cries for help reach from Heshbon to Elealeh and all the way to Jahaz. They're shouting out from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the water in the Nimrim Brook has dried up.
Those who run away will be left defenseless in Heshbon where they went for protection, because fire blazes out from Heshbon, a fire from where Sihon once reigned. It burns up the whole country of Moab and its defiant people.
Heshbon was the capital of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the previous king of Moab and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon River.
Previously the Horites lived in Seir, but the descendants of Esau took over their land. They killed the Horites and settled there, just like Israel did when they occupied the land that the Lord had given them.)
After that I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived on the other side of the Jordan. They fought against you but I handed them over to you to defeat and you took over their land. I destroyed them before you.
Israelites have been living in Heshbon, Aroer, their villages, and in all the towns along the banks of the Arnon River for three hundred years. Why didn't you take them back during that time?