The Book of the Prophet Isaiah

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- Chapter 16 -

(Zephaniah 2:8–11)

The rulers of Moab will say to each other, “We must send some lambs from the city of Sela as a gift to the ruler of Judah to persuade him to not allow his army to attack us anymore. We should send them through the desert to the king in Jerusalem.”

The women of Moab will be left alone at the fords of the Arnon River; they will be like birds that have been pushed out of their nests.

They will cry out, “Help us! Tell us what we should do! Protect us completely, we who are running away from our enemies, and do not betray us.

Allow those of us who are fleeing from Moab to stay with you; hide 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.”

Then Yahweh will appoint someone to be king who will be a descendant of King David. As this man rules, he will be merciful and truthful. He will always do what is fair and quickly do what is righteous.

We people of Judah have heard about the people of Moab; we have heard that they are very proud and conceited; they are insolent, but what they say about themselves is not true.

Some day all the people in Moab will weep. They will all mourn, because there will be no more raisin cakes in the city of Kir Hareseth. But more than the cakes, they mourn for the people who lived there, who were all killed.

The crops in the fields of Heshbon will wither, and the vineyards of Sibmah will wither also. The armies of other nations will destroy Moab, which is like a beautiful grapevine whose branches spread north to Jazer, and east to the desert. Its branches spread very far west, to the west side of the Dead Sea.

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 and the other crops.

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.

I cry in my inner being for Moab; my groaning is like a sad song played on a harp. I am sad in my inner being for Kir Hareseth.

The people of Moab will go and pray at their high places, but that will not help them. They will cry out to their gods in their temples, but no one will be able to rescue them.

Yahweh has already spoken those things about Moab.

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.

(Zephaniah 2:8–11)

Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

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.

Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!

Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

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.

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.

Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.

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.

Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.

Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.

Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.

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.

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

But now the LORD 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.”