They say, "Help us! Tell us what to do. Protect us from our enemies as shade protects us from the noon sun. We are running from our enemies. Hide us! Don't give us to our enemies.
People from Moab were forced to leave their homes. So let them live in your land. Hide them from their enemies." The robbing will stop. The enemy will be defeated. The men who hurt the people will be gone from the land.
Then a new king will come. He will be from David's family. He will be loyal, loving, and kind. He will be a king who judges fairly. He will do what is right and good.
The fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah no longer grow grapes. Foreign rulers have destroyed the vines. The enemy has reached Jazer and has spread into the desert and down to the sea.
I will cry with the people of Jazer and Sibmah, because the grapes have been destroyed. I will cry with the people of Heshbon and Elealeh because there will be no harvest. There will be no summer fruit, and there will be no shouts of joy for the harvest.
There will be no joy and happiness in the orchard. I will end the happy singing and shouting in the vineyard. The grapes are ready to make wine, but they will all be ruined.
And now the Lord says, "In three years (counting as exactly as a hired worker would) all those people and the things they are proud of will be gone. Only a few of their weakest people will be left."