from Sela across the desert to the mountain of daughter Zion.[b]
2 And this shall be:
shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.
3 “Bring counsel,
make a decision;
make your shade like the night
in the middle of noonday.
Hide the outcasts;
you must not betray the fugitive.
4 Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you;
be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped,
the one who tramples has[c] disappeared from the land,
5 then a throne shall be established in steadfast love,
and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David,
judging and seeking justice
and zealous for righteousness.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—
of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; his boasting is not true.[d]
7 Therefore Moab wails;
all of it wails for Moab,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly devastated.[e]
8 For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah;
rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils,
they reached up to Jazer,
they wandered to the desert;
her shoots spread abroad,
they crossed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah.
I drench you with my tears,[f] Heshbon and Elealeh,
for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest.
10 And joy and gladness are[g] taken away from the fruitful land,
and in the vineyards no one exults,
no one shouts for joy;
no treader treads wine in the presses;
I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.
11 Therefore my heart moans[h] like a harp for Moab
and my inner parts for Kir-heres.
12 And this shall happen:
and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.
13 This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab in the past.[i] 14 But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 16:1 Possibly “rams” if a scribe accidentally omitted the Hebrew plural ending because the next word begins with that same letter
- Isaiah 16:1 Literally “the daughter of Zion”
- Isaiah 16:4 Literally “one who tramples have,” with mismatched singular and plural
- Isaiah 16:6 Literally “not so his boasting”
- Isaiah 16:7 Literally “surely destroyed”
- Isaiah 16:9 Hebrew “tear”
- Isaiah 16:10 The Hebrew is singular
- Isaiah 16:11 Literally “intestines moan,”; in Hebrew, the “intestines” are the seat of the emotions, which would correspond to the “heart” in English
- Isaiah 16:13 Literally “from then”