Isaiah 16

1. Send the lambs to the ruler of the land from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Zion,

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

3. “Take counsel, do judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; do not betray the fugitive.

4. Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be a shelter to them from the face of the destroyer; for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

5. And in mercy the throne shall be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice, and speeding the cause of righteousness.”

6. We have heard of the pride of Moab; very proud; even of his vanity, and his pride, and his rage; but his boasts shall not be so.

7. Therefore Moab shall howl; everyone of Moab shall howl. All of it shall howl for the sweet cakes of Kir Hareseth; surely they are stricken,

8. For Heshbon’s fields and the vine of Sibmah waste away. The lords of the nations have crushed its choice plants, they have come to Jazer, they wander in the wilderness; her branches are stretched out, they have crossed over the sea.

9. On account of this I will weep with the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for the battle shout has fallen on your fruit and on your harvest.

10. And gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing and no shouting. No one treads out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting to cease.

11. Therefore my heart shall mourn like a lyre for Moab, and my bowels for Kir Hareseth.

12. And it shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sacred place to pray; but he shall not prevail.

13. This is the word that the LORD has spoken earlier concerning Moab.

14. But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be abased with all her great host and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.”