Isaiah 16

¹Send a ram to the ruler of the land,[#Possibly “rams” if a scribe accidentally omitted the Hebrew plural ending because the next word begins with that same letter]

²And this shall be:

like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest

³“Bring counsel,

make your shade like the night

Hide the outcasts;

⁴Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you;

When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped,

⁵then a throne shall be established in steadfast love,

judging and seeking justice

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—

⁷Therefore Moab wails;

⁸For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah;

they reached up to Jazer,

her shoots spread abroad,

⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah.

¹⁰And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful land,[#The Hebrew is singular]

no one shouts for joy;

¹¹Therefore my heart moans like a harp for Moab[#Literally “intestines moan,”; in Hebrew, the “intestines” are the seat of the emotions, which would correspond to the “heart” in English]

¹²And this shall happen:

when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place

¹³This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab in the past.[#Literally “from then”]

¹⁴But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.