Isaiah 16

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

¹Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,

From Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

²Then, like fluttering birds or scattered nestlings,

The daughters of Moab will be at the crossing places of the Arnon.

³“Give us advice, make a decision;[#16:3 Lit Bring]

Cast your shadow like night at high noon;

Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

⁴“Let the outcasts of Moab stay with you;[#16:4 As in most ancient versions; MT My outcasts, as for Moab]

Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”

For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased,

Oppressors have been removed from the land.

⁵A throne will be established in faithfulness,

And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of David;

Moreover, he will seek justice,

And be prompt in righteousness.

⁶¶We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;

Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;

His idle boasts are false.

⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.

You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth

As those who are utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;[#16:8 Or dried out]

The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters

Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;

Its tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;

I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh;

For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

¹⁰Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;

In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,

No treader treads out wine in the presses,

For I have made the shouting to cease.

¹¹Therefore my inner being sounds like a harp for Moab.[#16:11 Lit entrails murmur]

And my heart for Kir-hareseth.

¹²So it will come about when Moab presents himself,

When he tires himself upon his high place

And comes to his sanctuary to pray,

That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab.

¹⁴But now the Lord has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a hired worker would count them, the glory of Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and impotent.”[#16:14 Lit the years of a hired; #16:14 Lit not mighty]