Isaiah 16
1 Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
[The rulers of Moab will say to each other, ] “We must send some [lambs] from Sela [city] as a gift to the ruler of Judah [to persuade him to not allow his army to attack us any more]. We should send them through the desert to the king.
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.
The women of Moab will be left alone at the (fords of/places where people can walk across) the Arnon [River]; they will be like [SIM] birds that have been pushed out of their nests.
3 Give counsel. Execute justice. Make your shade like the night in the midst of the noonday. Hide the outcasts. Do not betray the fugitive.
They will cry out, ‘Help us! Tell us what we should do! Protect us completely [MET], we who are running away [from our enemies], and do not (betray us/tell our enemies where we are).
4 Let the outcasts of Moab dwell with you; be a hiding place to them from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is at an end, destruction has ceased, oppressors have finished from the land.
Allow [those of us] who are fleeing from Moab to stay with you; hide/protect us from [our enemies who want to] destroy us!’ [Some day] there will be no one to oppress us, and our enemies will stop destroying [our land].
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.
Then [Yahweh] will appoint someone to be king who will be [a descendant of King] David. As he rules [MTY], he will be merciful and truthful. He will always do what is fair/just and quickly do what is righteous.”
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 [people of Judah] have heard about [the people of] Moab; we have heard that they are very proud and conceited [DOU]; they are insolent, but what they proudly say about themselves is not true.
7 Ah, let not Moab wail; let everyone wail for Moab. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.
[Some day all the people in] Moab will weep. They will all mourn, because [there will be no more] raisin cakes in Kir-Hareseth [city].
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 [crops in] the fields at Heshbon [city] will wither, and the vineyards at Sibmah [town] will wither also. The armies of [other] nations will destroy Moab, which is [like] [MET] a beautiful grapevine whose branches spread [north] to Jazer [town] and [east] to the desert. Its branches spread very far [west], to the west side of the [Dead] Sea.
9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will saturate you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
So I will weep for Jazer and for the grapevines of Sibmah. I will shed tears for all of you. I will cry because people will no longer shout joyfully, like they usually do when they gather the fruit that ripens in the (summer/hot season) and the other crops that they harvest.
10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing and there will be no jubilant shouting. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.
People will no longer be glad at harvest time. No one will sing in the vineyards, no one will shout joyfully. No one will tread on grapes [to get grape juice for wine]; there will be nothing to shout about [joyfully].
11 Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.
I cry inwardly for Moab; my groaning is like [SIM] [a sad song played on] a harp. I am sad about Kir-Hareseth.
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.
[The people of] Moab will go and pray at their sacred shrines, but that will not help them. They will cry out to their gods in their temples, [but] none of them will be able to rescue the people.
13 This is the word that YHWH spoke concerning Moab in time past.
Yahweh has already spoken those things about Moab.
14 But now YHWH 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."
But now he says that exactly three years from now, he will destroy all the things that [the people of] Moab have been proud of. Even though they have a huge number of people in Moab now, only a few people will remain alive, and they will be weak/helpless.
