Isaiah 16

1 [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.

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

2 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.

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 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).

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

4 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].

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 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.”

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 [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.

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 [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].

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

8 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.

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 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.

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 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].

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 I cry inwardly for Moab; my groaning is like [SIM] [a sad song played on] a harp. I am sad about Kir-Hareseth.

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

12 [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.

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 Yahweh has already spoken those things about Moab.

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

14 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.

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.