There is no more praise for Moab. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: ‘Come, let’s cut her off as a nation.’ You too, Madmen, will be silenced— the sword will chase you.
“From the outcry of Heshbon to Elealeh, as far as Jahaz they will raise their voice—from Zoar to Horonaim and a 3-year old heifer—for the Waters of Nimrim also will be waste.
“In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stop, exhausted, for fire breaks out of Heshbon flame from within Sihon, and it singes the foreheads and the scalps of Moab’s noisy sons.
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, gluttony, and careless ease—so had she and her daughters—and she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
“I will return their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them, your own captivity.
Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites, who had fought with the former king of Moab and had taken from his control all the land as far as the Arnon.
Now the Horites used to live in Seir, but the sons of Esau drove them out and destroyed them from before themselves and settled in their place—just as Israel did to the land of its possession that Adonai gave to them.)
“Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites who were living beyond the Jordan. Though they fought against you, I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land when I destroyed them from before you.
While Israel was living in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities on both sides of the Arnon for 300 years, why didn’t you try to recover them all that time?