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 a lamb [to] the ruler of the land, From Selah in the wilderness, To the mountain 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.
And it has come to pass, As a wandering bird, cast out of a nest, Are daughters of Moab, [at] 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 in counsel, do judgment, Make your shadow as night in the midst of noon, Hide outcasts, do not reveal the wanderer.
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].
My outcasts sojourn in you, O Moab, Be a secret hiding place for them, From the face of a destroyer, For the extortioner has ceased, Devastation has been finished, The tramplers are consumed 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 the throne is established in kindness, And [One] has sat on it in truth, in the tent of David, Judging and seeking judgment, and hastening 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—very proud, His pride, and his arrogance, and his wrath—his boastings [are] not right.
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 Moab howls for Moab, all of it howls, It meditates for the grape-cakes of Kir-Hareseth, They are surely struck.
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.
Because fields of Heshbon languish, The vine of Sibmah, Lords of nations beat her choice vines, They have come to Jazer, They have wandered in a wilderness, Her plants have spread themselves, They have passed over a 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 I weep with the weeping of Jazer, The vine of Sibmah, I water you [with] my tear, O Heshbon and Elealeh, For—for your summer fruits, and for your harvest, The shouting has 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 gladness and joy have been removed from the fruitful field, And they do not sing in vineyards, nor shout, The treader does not tread wine in the presses, I have caused shouting to cease.
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 sound as a harp for Moab, And my inward parts for Kir-Haresh.
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 has come to pass, when it has been seen, That Moab has been weary on the high place, And he has come to his sanctuary to pray, And is not able.
13 Yahweh has already spoken those things about Moab.
This [is] the word that YHWH has spoken to Moab from that time,
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.
And now YHWH has spoken, saying, “In three years, as years of a hired worker, The glory of Moab is lightly esteemed, With all the great multitude, And the remnant [is] little, small, not mighty!”
