Isaiah 16

1 Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

I will send as it were reptiles on the land: is [not] the mount of the daughter of Sion a desolate rock?

2 For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

For thou shalt be as a young bird taken away from a bird that has flown: [even] thou shalt be [so], daughter of Moab: and then do thou, O Arnon,

3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!

take farther counsel, and continually make thou a shelter from grief: they flee in darkness at mid-day; they are amazed; be not thou led captive.

4 Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

The fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with thee; they shall be to you a shelter from the face of the pursuer: for thine alliance has been taken away, and the oppressing ruler has perished from off the earth.

5 A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

And a throne shall be established with mercy; and one shall sit upon it with truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and earnestly seeking judgments, and hasting righteousness.

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.

We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud. I have cut off his pride: thy prophecy shall not be thus, [no] not thus.

7 Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.

Moab shall howl; for all shall howl in the land of Moab: but thou shalt care for them that dwell in Seth, and thou shalt not be ashamed.

8 For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.

The plains of Esebon shall mourn, the vine of Sebama: swallowing up the nations, trample ye her vines, even to Jazer: ye shall not come together; wander ye in the desert: they that were sent are deserted, for they have gone over to the sea.

9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.

Therefore will I weep as with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sebama; Esebon and Eleale have cast down thy trees; for I will trample on thy harvest and on thy vintages, and all [thy plants] shall fall.

10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.

And gladness and rejoicing shall be taken away from the vineyards; and they shall not at all tread wine into the vats; for [the vintage] has ceased.

11 Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.

Therefore my belly shall sound as a harp for Moab, and thou hast repaired my inward parts as a wall.

12 It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.

And it shall be to thy shame, (for Moab is wearied at the altars, ) that he shall go in to the idols thereof to pray, but they shall not be at all able to deliver him.

13 This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past.

This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when he spoke.

14 But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

And now I say, in three years, of the years of an hireling, the glory of Moab shall be dishonoured [with] all his great wealth; and he shall be left few in number, and not honoured.