World English Bible

Isaiah 16

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

2 For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

3 Give counsel, execute justice; make your shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; don't betray the fugitive.

4 Let my outcasts dwell with you; as for Moab, be you a covert to him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing, destruction ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

5 A throne shall be established in lovingkindness; and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; even of his arrogance, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nothing.

7 Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, everyone shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken.

8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, [and] the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice branches of it, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.

9 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 is fallen.

10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: nobody shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the [vintage] shout to cease.

11 Why my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-heres.

12 It shall happen, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.

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

14 But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.