Isaiah 16

Living Bible

16 Moab’s refugees at Sela send lambs as a token of alliance with the king of Judah. ² The women of Moab are left at the fords of the Arnon River like homeless birds. ³ The ambassadors, who accompany the gift to Jerusalem^[a] plead for advice and help. “Give us sanctuary. Protect us. Do not turn us over to our foes. ^4-5 Let our outcasts stay among you; hide them from our enemies! God will reward you for your kindness to us. If you let Moab’s fugitives settle among you, then when the terror is past, God will establish David’s throne forever, and on that throne he will place a just and righteous King.”

⁶ Is this proud Moab, concerning which we heard so much? His arrogance and insolence are all gone now! ⁷ Therefore all Moab weeps. Yes, Moab, you will mourn for stricken Kir-hareseth, ⁸ and for the abandoned farms of Heshbon and the vineyards at Sibmah. The enemy warlords have cut down the best of the grapevines; their armies spread out as far as Jazer in the deserts, and even down to the sea. ⁹ So I wail and lament for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah. My tears shall flow for Heshbon and Elealeh, for destruction has come upon their summer fruits and harvests. ¹⁰ Gone now is the gladness, gone the joy of harvest. The happy singing in the vineyards will be heard no more; the treading out of the grapes in the winepresses has ceased forever. I have ended all their harvest joys.

¹¹ I will weep, weep, weep, for Moab; and my sorrow for Kir-hareseth will be very great. ¹² The people of Moab will pray in anguish to their idols at the tops of the hills, but it will do no good; they will cry to their gods in their idol temples, but none will come to save them. ^13-14 All this concerning Moab has been said before; but now the Lord says that within three years, without fail, the glory of Moab shall be ended, and few of all its people will be left alive.