Isaiah 16

1Send the ruler of the land his lamb, from Sela through the wilderness to the mountain of Daughter Zion. 2Like birds darting here and there, like nestlings thrown out, the daughters of Moab will be at the crossings of the Arnon. 3Offer counsel; give a ruling. Let your shade at midday be as dark as night. Shelter the outcasts; do not give away the one who flees. 4Let my outcasts from Moab stay among you as guests; be a shelter for them from the destroyer. For the oppressor will be gone, the ruin will stop, and those who trample others will vanish from the land. 5A throne will be made secure by loyal love, and a ruler will take his seat on it faithfully, in David’s tent. He will judge, he will search out justice, and he will be quick to act in righteousness. 6We have heard of Moab’s pride, proud beyond measure: its haughty airs, its pride, its overbearing fury. Its big talk comes to nothing.

7So Moab will wail, Moab for itself, all of it wailing; you will moan, crushed and broken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth. 8The terraces of Heshbon wilt, and the vine of Sibmah with them; the masters of the nations have beaten down its choicest stems, stems that once stretched to Jazer and wandered into the wilderness, whose runners spread out and crossed the sea. 9That is why I weep along with Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; my tears pour over you, Heshbon and Elealeh, for the glad shout over your ripe fruit and your harvest has died away. 10Gladness and delight are gathered up and gone from the garden land. In the vineyards there is no singing and no cheering; the treader treads no wine in the winepresses. I have silenced the harvest shout. 11So deep within me I moan for Moab like a plucked lyre, and my inmost being moans for Kir-heres. 12Moab will come before its god and tire itself out at the high place; it will go into its sanctuary to pray, and it will accomplish nothing. 13Such was the word the LORD spoke about Moab in earlier days. 14But now the LORD has spoken: Within three years, counted as a hired worker counts them, the glory of Moab with all its great throng will be treated as nothing, and those left over will be a handful, without strength.