Esias 16

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

Send ye the lambs for the ruler of the land from the crags that are toward the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.

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

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

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

'Give counsel, execute justice; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive.

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

Let mine outcasts dwell with thee; as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the spoiler.' For the extortion is at an end, spoiling ceaseth, they that trampled down are consumed out of the land;

5 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 judgements, and hasting righteousness.

And a throne is established through mercy, and there sitteth thereon in truth, in the tent of David, one that judgeth, and seeketh justice, and is ready in righteousness.

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

We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud; even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his arrogancy, his ill-founded boastings.

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

Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, every one shall wail; for the sweet cakes of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn, sorely stricken.

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

For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah, whose choice plants did overcome the lords of nations; they reached even unto Jazer, they wandered into the wilderness; her branches were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.

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

Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh; for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen.

10 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.

And gladness and joy are taken away out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting; no treader shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the vintage shout to cease.

11 Therefore my belly shall sound as a harp for Moab, and you have repaired my inward parts as a wall.

Wherefore my heart moaneth like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-heres.

12 And it shall be to your 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.

And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab hath wearied himself upon the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail

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

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

14 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.

But now the LORD hath spoken, saying: 'Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall wax contemptible for all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and without strength.'