Isaiah 16

1 And they will send ... to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

Send rams to the ruler of the land from Selah in the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

2 For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds, like a place from which the young birds have gone in flight, at the ways across the Arnon.

As wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so the women of Moab are at the fords of the Arnon River.

3 Give wise directions, make a decision; let your shade be as night in full day: keep safe those who are in flight; do not give up the wandering ones.

“Give instruction, execute justice; provide some shade like night in the middle of the day; hide the fugitives; do not betray the fugitives.

4 Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a resting-place with you; be a cover to them from him who is making waste their land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and wasting has come to an end, and those who take pleasure in crushing the poor are gone from the land.

Let them live among you, the refugees from Moab; be a hiding place for them from the destroyer.” For the oppression will stop, and destruction will cease, those who trample will disappear from the land.

5 Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will be seated on it in the tent of David for ever; judging uprightly, and quick to do righteousness.

A throne will be established in covenant faithfulness; and one from David's tent will faithfully sit there. He will judge as he seeks justice and does righteousness.

6 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride and passion: his high words about himself are false.

We have heard of Moab's pride, his arrogance, his boasting, and his anger. But his boastings are empty words.

7 For this cause everyone in Moab will give cries of grief for Moab: crushed to the earth, they will be weeping for the men of Kir-hareseth.

So Moab wails for Moab—they all wail! Mourn, you who are utterly destroyed, for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

8 For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah is dead; the lords of nations were overcome by the produce of her vines; her vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even to the waste land; her branches were stretched out to the sea.

The fields of Heshbon have dried up as well as the vines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled the choice vines that reached to Jazer and spread into the desert. Its shoots spread abroad; they went over to the sea.

9 For this cause my sorrow for the vine of Sibmah will be like the weeping for Jazer: my eyes are dropping water on you, O Heshbon and Elealeh! For they are sounding the war-cry over your summer fruits and the getting in of your grain;

Indeed I will weep along with Jazer for the vineyard of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh. For on your fields of summer fruits and harvest I have ended the shouts of joy.

10 And all joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile field; and in the vine-gardens there are no songs or sounds of joy: the crushing of grapes has come to an end, and its glad cry has been stopped.

Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruit tree groves; and there is no singing, or shouts in the vineyards. No one treads out wine in the presses, for I have put an end to the shouts of the one who treads.

11 For this cause the cords of my heart are sounding for Moab, and I am full of sorrow for Kir-heres.

So my heart sighs like a harp for Moab, and my inward being for Kir Hareseth.

12 And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes prayer in the house of his god, it will have no effect.

When Moab wears himself out on the high place and enters his temple to pray, his prayers will accomplish nothing.

13 This is the word which the Lord said about Moab in the past.

This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab previously.

14 But now the Lord has said, In three years, the years of a servant working for payment, the glory of Moab, all that great people, will be turned to shame, and the rest of Moab will be very small and without honour.

Again Yahweh speaks, “Within three years, the glory of Moab will disappear; in spite of his many people, the remnant will be very few and insignificant.”