Isaiah 16
1 Send ye the lamb due to the ruler of the land, From Sela towards the desert, —Unto the mount of the daughter of Zion;
Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela through the desert, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
2 Yet shall it be that—Like wandering birds from a nest cast forth, Shall be the daughters of Moab, at the fords of Arnon.
The Moabite women at the fords of the Arnon are like birds fluttering around when their nest is destroyed.
3 Bring thou, in counsel, Execute thou judgment, Make as the night, thy shadow in the midst of high noon, —Hide thou the outcasts, The wanderer, do not thou reveal.
Think about it and make a decision. Make your shadow as invisible at midday as during the night. Hide the refugees; don't betray them as they run away.
4 Let mine own outcasts, sojourn with thee, O Moab, become thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler, —For vanished is the oppressor, At an end is extortion, They who tread down have ceased out of the land.
Let my refugees stay among you, Moab. Hide them from our enemies until the destroyer is no more, the destruction is over, and the aggressive invaders have gone.
5 So shall be established, in lovingkindness, a throne, And one shall sit thereon, in truth, in the home of David, —Judging—and seeking justice and speeding righteousness.
Then a kingdom will be set up based on trustworthy love, and on its throne will sit a faithful king from the line of David. He will judge fairly, and will be passionately committed to doing what is right.
6 We have heard of the arrogance of Moab, Proud exceedingly! His haughtiness and his arrogance and his passion, Not true, are his boastings.
We know all about the pride of the Moabites, how terribly vain and conceited they are, completely arrogant! But their boasting is false.
7 Therefore shall, Moab, howl for, Moab, All that belong to her, shall wail, —For the ruins of Kir-hareseth, shall they moan out Utterly stricken!
All the Moabites grieve for Moab. They all mourn the loss of the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, all of them destroyed.
8 For, the fields of Heshbon are withered—The vine of Sibmah, the owners of nations, have broken off ruddy branches, Unto Jazer, had they reached, They had spread abroad to the desert, —Her boughs, had stretched forth, had gone over to the sea.
Heshbon's fields have dried up, as have Sibmah's grapevines. The rulers of the nations have trampled down the vines that once branched out to Jazer and east towards the desert, and west as far as the sea.
9 For this cause, will I bewail, in the wailing of Jazer, The vine of Sibmah, I will drench thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, —For, upon thy fruit-harvest, and upon thy grain-harvest, the battle-shout, hath fallen.
So I cry with Jazer for Sibmah's vines; I soak Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Nobody shouts in celebration over your summer fruit and your harvest any more.
10 Now shall be withdrawn rejoicing and exultation out of the garden-land, And, in the vineyards, shall be neither singing nor shouting, —Wine in the winepress, the treader, shall not tread, The vintage-shout, have I made to cease.
Joy and happiness are gone. Nobody celebrates in the harvest fields or the vineyards; nobody shouts happily. Nobody treads grapes in the winepresses. I have stopped their cheering.
11 For this cause, mine inward parts—for Moab, like a lyre, shall make a plaintive sound, —Yea what is within me, for Kir-heres.
Heartbroken I cry for Moab like sad music on a harp; deep inside I weep for Kir-hareseth.
12 And it shall be—When it is seen that Moab hath laboured in vain on the high place, He shall enter into his holy place to pray, and shall not prevail,
The Moabites go and wear themselves out worshiping at their high places. They go to their shrines to pray, but it does them no good.
13 This, is the word which Yahweh spake concerning Moab in, time past;
This is the message that the Lord has already delivered about Moab.
14 But now, hath Yahweh spoken saying, In three years, —as the years of a hireling, shall the glory of Moab be diminished, with all the great multitude, —even a very small remnant, of no account.
But now the Lord speaks again, and says, In three years, just as a contract worker precisely counts years, Moab's glory will turn into something to be laughed at. Despite there being so many Moabites now, soon there will only be a few feeble people left.
