Isaiah 15-16

Common English Bible

Concerning Moab

15 An oracle about Moab.

Ar was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!
    Kir was devastated in a night; Moab is ruined!
²Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the shrines to weep.^[a]
Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba.
    Every head is shaved,
    every beard cut off.
³In its streets they wear mourning clothes;
    on its rooftops and in its plazas, everyone wails and falls down weeping.
⁴Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
    as far as Jahaz their voice is heard.
The armed men of Moab shout,
    spirits trembling.
⁵My heart cries out for Moab.
    Its fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah.^[b]
At the ascent of Luhith,
    each will go up with weeping.
On the road to Horonaim,
    they will raise a piercing cry.
⁶The waters of Nimrim are used up.
    Grass has withered;
    vegetation is dead;
    greenery is gone.
⁷Therefore, they carry what they had stored up,
    all their provisions to the Valley of the Willows.
⁸An outcry sounds within the borders of Moab,
    as far as Eglaim, a cry of distress,
    as far as Beer-elim, a cry of distress.
⁹The waters of Dibon are full of blood.
    But I will bring still more upon Dibon:
        a lion for Moab’s survivors, for the remaining few in the land.

16 Send lambs to the ruler of the land,^[c]
    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^[d]—
    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.