‘In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth.
On their housetops and in their broad places,
Everyone howls,
Weeping abundantly (literally ‘going down in weeping').
And Heshbon cries out, and Elealeh.
Their voice is heard even to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud,
His soul trembles within him.'
All the land fall to weeping. They wear sackcloth, a sign of mourning. They go to their housetop shrines, and gather in the open spaces to weep. This is the price for opposing Assyria, for their soldiers will show little mercy. Heshbon was the capital city, on the northern border, Elealeh another associated city. But their cries would reach even down to Jahaz in the south. And as the armed men waited for the Assyrian armies to reach them, each of them too would tremble deep within and cry aloud.