Isaiah 16-18

Common English Bible

16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land,^[a]
    from Sela through the desert
    to the mountain of Daughter Zion.
²The daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon are like orphaned birds pushed from the nest.
³Consider carefully, act justly;
    at high noon provide your shade like night.
Hide the outcasts;
    keep the fugitives hidden.
⁴Let the outcasts of Moab live among you.
    Be a hiding place for them from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
    when destruction has ceased,
    when the trampler has vanished from the land,
⁵    a throne will be established based on goodness,
        and someone will sit faithfully on it in David’s dwelling^[b]—
    a judge who seeks justice and timely righteousness.

⁶We have heard of Moab’s pride,
    his great pride,
    his outrageous pride and arrogance,
    his empty boasting.
⁷Therefore, let Moab wail;
    let everyone wail for Moab.
    Let them moan, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.
⁸The fields of Heshbon languish.
    The vines of Sibmah,
        whose honored grapes overpowered masters of nations,
    had reached as far as Jazer and strayed to the desert.
    Their tendrils spread out and crossed the sea.
⁹Therefore, I will weep with Jazer’s weeping for the vines of Sibmah.
    I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh.
Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.
¹⁰Joy and happiness have been harvested from the farmland,
    and in the vineyards no one sings, no one shouts.
No treader crushes grapes in the wine vats;
    I have brought the cheers to an end.
¹¹Therefore, my heart plays sadly like a harp for Moab,
    my inner being for Kir-heres.
¹²Even if Moab presents himself,
    and Moab wears himself out going to the shrine,
    and comes to his sanctuary to pray,
        he won’t prevail.

¹³This is the word that the Lord had spoken concerning Moab long ago. ¹⁴But now the Lord has said: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab, with all its great multitude, will dwindle. The small remnant will be few and feeble.

Concerning Damascus and Ephraim

17 An oracle about Damascus.

Look! Damascus is finished as a city;
    it will become a fallen ruin.
²The villages of Aroer are abandoned forever.^[c]
    They will be pastures for flocks,^[d]
    which will lie down undisturbed.
³Ephraim’s security will cease,
    as will Damascus’ rule.
    What’s left of Aram will resemble the glory of the Israelites,
    says the Lord of heavenly forces.

⁴On that day, Jacob’s glory will dwindle;
    his sleek body will waste away.
⁵It will be as when harvesters gather grain.
    God will harvest armfuls at a time,
    like one who gathers grain
    in the Rephaim Valley.
⁶Only remaining bits are left,
        like an olive tree that has been shaken:
    two or three olives on the highest branch;
        four or five on a fruitful twig,
        says the Lord God of Israel.

⁷On that day, people will have regard for their maker,
    and their eyes will look to the holy one of Israel.
⁸They will have no regard for altars,
    the work of their hands,
    or look to what their fingers made:
    sacred poles^[e] and incense stands.

⁹On that day, their strong cities will be like those abandoned by the Hivites and the Amorites;^[f] abandoned because of the Israelites. They will be a wasteland,

¹⁰because you forgot the God who saves you,
    and didn’t remember the rock who shelters you.
Therefore, plant your pleasant plants,
    and set out exotic sprouts;
¹¹    make them grow the day you plant them,
    and make them bloom the morning you start them.
But the harvest will disappear on a day of sickness and incurable pain.

¹²Doom to the raging of many peoples;
    like the thundering seas they thunder.
    Doom to the roar of nations,
        like the roaring of mighty waters.
¹³    Nations roar like the roaring of rushing waters.
But God will rebuke them,
    and they will flee far away,
    pursued like chaff by wind in the mountains,
    like tumbleweeds before a storm.
¹⁴In the evening, there is terror;
    but before morning it is gone.
This is the fate of those who loot us,
    the destiny of those who rob us.

Concerning Cush

18 Doom to the land of winged ships,
        beyond the rivers of Cush
²    that sends messengers by sea,
        reed vessels on the water.
Go, swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and clean-shaven,
    to a people feared near and far,
    a nation barbaric and oppressive,
    whose land the rivers divide.

³All you who inhabit the world,
        who live on earth,
    when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see!
        When the trumpet blasts, you will hear!
⁴The Lord said to me:
    I will quietly watch from my own place,
    like the shimmering heat of sunshine,
    like a cloud’s shade in the harvest heat.
⁵Before the harvest, when the bloom is finished, when the blossom is becoming
a ripening fruit,
    God will cut the shoots with a pruning knife,
    and lop off the spreading branches.
⁶    They will all be left to the mountain birds
        and to the beasts of the land.
    The birds will eat them in summer,
    all the beasts of the land in winter.

⁷At that time, gifts will be brought to the Lord of heavenly forces
    from a tall and clean-shaven people
    and from a people feared near and far,
    a nation barbaric and oppressive,
    whose land the rivers divide,
        to the place of the name of the Lord of heavenly forces,
        to Mount Zion.