1 Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. 2 For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. 3 Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like 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 a hiding place for 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 will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, 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, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing. 7 Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken. 8 For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, 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 has fallen. 10 Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop. 11 Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres. 12 It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will 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 a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble."
This chapter Isaiah 16:1-14 is a continuance of the former, and the scope of it is, to give advice to the Moabites, and to threaten them with punishment in case, as the prophet foresaw, they should neglect or refuse to follow it. The advice was Isaiah 16:1-5, to send the customary tribute to the king of Judah; to seek his protection, and to submit themselves to him. But the prophet foresaw that, through the pride of Moab Isaiah 16:6, they would refuse to recognize their subjection to Judah, and that, as a consequence, they would be doomed to severe punishment Isaiah 16:7-11, and to a certain overthrow within a specified time Isaiah 16:12-14. See the "Analysis" prefixed to Isaiah 15:1-9.
The distress of Moab pathetically described by the son of the prince, or ruler of the land, being forced to flee for his life through the desert, that he may escape to Judea; and the young women, like young birds scared from their nest, wade helpless through the fords of Arnon, the boundary of their country, to seek protection in some foreign land, Isaiah 16:1, Isaiah 16:2. The prophet addresses Sion, exhorting her to show mercy to her enemies in their distress, that her throne may be established in righteousness, Isaiah 16:3-5. Exceeding great pride of Moab, Isaiah 16:6. The terrible calamities about to fall upon Moab farther described by the languishing of the vine, the ceasing of the vintage, the sound of the prophet's bowels quivering like a harp, etc., Isaiah 16:7-13. Awful nearness of the full accomplishment of the prophecy, Isaiah 16:14.
INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 16
This chapter is a continuation of the prophecy against Moab; in which the prophet gives good advice, but in case of a haughty neglect of it, which he foresaw, threatens with ruin, and fixes a time for it. He advises the Moabites to pay their tribute to the king of Judah, or otherwise they should be turned out of their land, as a bird out of its nest, Isaiah 16:1 to protect, and not betray the people of the Jews that should flee to them, because of the Assyrian army, Isaiah 16:3 and for this end gives a great character of the king of Judah, and assures them of the stability of his kingdom, Isaiah 16:5 but for their pride, wrath, and lying, they are threatened with destruction, and are represented as howling under it, Isaiah 16:6 because of the spoil of their cities, vineyards, and fields, so that they have no harvest, nor vintage, nor gathering of summer fruits, or joy on these accounts, Isaiah 16:8 for which even the prophet expresses a concern, Isaiah 16:11 and after having observed the application of the Moabites to their gods without success, Isaiah 16:12 the chapter is closed with an assurance of the certain ruin of Moab, and of the time when it should be, Isaiah 16:13.
(Isaiah 16:1-5) Moab is exhorted to yield obedience.
(Isaiah 16:6-14) The pride and the judgments of Moab.
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