Horonaim

Horonaim is a Moabite town named in two prophetic oracles against Moab — Isaiah's earlier oracle and Jeremiah's longer doom-song. In every reference the town is paired with cries, weeping, or destruction.

In Isaiah's oracle against Moab

Isaiah names Horonaim alongside Luhith on the lament-route of fleeing Moabites: "My heart cries out for Moab; her nobles [flee] to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction" (Isa 15:5).

In Jeremiah's oracle against Moab

Jeremiah's parallel oracle names Horonaim three times, each time bound to crying or destruction. The opening cry of disaster places it first: "The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!" (Jer 48:3). The descent into Horonaim is then echoed in the same Luhith pairing as Isaiah, with the topographical contrast of ascent and descent: "For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping they will go up; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction" (Jer 48:5). Later in the oracle the town reappears in a roll-call of Moabite places caught up in the lament: "From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also will become desolate" (Jer 48:34).

The two oracles use the same vocabulary — Luhith, Zoar, Eglath-shelishiyah, Horonaim — to mark the geography of Moab's collapse.