Isaiah 16

1 Send the tribute lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the mount of Daughter Zion.

Send ye the lambs of the ruler of the land from Sela', through the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.

2 Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:

For it shall be, that, as a fugitive bird, as a chased nest, so shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.

3 “Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.

Bring counsel, execute justice; render like the night thy shadow in the midst of the noonday; conceal the outcasts; betray not the fugitive.

4 Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land,

Let my outcasts sojourn with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the waster: till ceaseth the extortion, past be the wasting, and vanished be the oppressor out of the land.

5 in loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness.

And there shall be founded through kindness a throne; and there shall sit upon it in truthfulness in the tent of David a judge who seeketh justice, and is quick in righteousness.

6 We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his overflowing arrogance. But his boasting is empty.

We have heard of the pride of Moab; [that] he is very proud: of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath, his groundless lies.

7 Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken.

Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, every one shall wail; for the strong walls of Kir-charesseth shall ye lament, deeply stricken.

8 For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea.

For the fields of Cheshbon are withered, the vine of Sibmah —the lords of nations have beaten down its branches, they did reach as far as Ya'zer, into the wilderness did they wander; its tendrils were stretched forth, they passed over the sea.

9 So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest.

Therefore will I weep, when weeping for Ya'zer, for the vine of Sibmah: I will moisten thee richly with my tears, O Cheshbon, and El'aleh; for over [the gathering of] thy summer fruits and over thy harvest the battle-cry is fallen.

10 Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering.

And [thus] are taken away joy and gladness out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards shall be no singing, shall be no joyful shout: in the presses shall the treader not tread out wine; I have stopped the harvest-call.

11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.

Therefore my bowels shall groan for Moab like a harp, and my inward parts for Kir-charess.

12 When Moab appears on the high place, when he wearies himself and enters his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good.

And it shall come to pass, that it shall be seen that Moab is weary on the high-places; and he will come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not accomplish [aught].

13 This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.

This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning Moab in former times.

14 And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”

But now hath the Lord spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hired laborer, shall the glory of Moab be rendered mean with all this [his] great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and inconsiderable.