UST ISA Chapter 16

◄ ISA 16 ► ║ ═ ©

16 The leaders of Moab will say to each other,

“We must send lambs as gifts to the ruler of Judah.

We must send them from the city of Sela through the wilderness

to the city of Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

2 At that time, the women of Moab will look like fluttering birds that someone has chased from their nests

as they try to wade to safety across the shallow places of the Arnon River.

3 The leaders of Moab will say to the ruler of Judah: Decide that it is right to help us.

Protect us, just as the shadow of a large rock

provides a dark, cool shelter from the heat of the sun at midday.

Hide us who are fleeing from our enemies,

and do not tell them where we are.

4 Allow us who are fleeing from Moab to live among you.

Please protect us from those who want to destroy us!

We do not need to settle among you permanently, because

someday no one will be oppressing us or destroying our land anymore.

Those who have been doing that will be gone from our land.

5 If you help us, your reign will become more secure

because you will be acting mercifully toward people in need.

You will be a genuine successor of David as king,

making fair decisions and quickly doing what is right.”

6 We people of Judah have heard how very proud the Moabites are.

We have heard that they very arrogantly make great claims about themselves.

But their boasts are not true.

7 As a result, people throughout Moab will wail about what is happening to them.

They will feel very badly and moan

that they can no longer have raisin cakes from the city of Kir Hareseth.

8 The crops in the fields of the city of Heshbon

and the grapevines at the town of Sibmah have withered.

Armies that rulers of other nations command

have destroyed Sibmah’s finest vines.

Moab is no longer prosperous as it was when it was like a vine

whose shoots spread out north to the city of Jazer,

extended east into the wilderness,

and went all the way to the sea in the west.

9 So I will weep as the people of Jazer are weeping

for the grapevines of Sibmah.

If I could, I would water the fields and vineyards

around the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears.

I am sad because no one is shouting joyfully anymore

about collecting summer fruit or harvesting grain.

10 No one is celebrating happily anymore

in the fields they have cultivated.

No one is singing or shouting joyfully in the vineyards.

No one is crushing grapes in the winepresses to make wine.

Yahweh says, “I have stopped people from shouting joyfully.”

11 So I grieve deeply for Moab.

My moaning is like the mournful sound of a harp.

I am very sad for Kir Heres.

12 When it becomes evident that the Moabites have worn themselves out

praying at their hilltop shrines,

they will go to their temples to pray,

but they will accomplish nothing by praying.

13 That was the message that Yahweh spoke about Moab previously. 14 However, Yahweh now says, “In no more than three years, counted as precisely as a hired worker counts the years of his contract, people will consider Moab insignificant, even though it was once glorious. Even though there are now a large number of Moabites, only very few of them will remain, and they will be weak.”