Isaiah 16–18

16TH CHAPTER

¹Send lambs to the ruler of the land.^a

Send lambs from Sela through the desert to my people at Mount Zion. 

²Moab’s daughters are like fluttering birds, 

like scattered nestlings, 

at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River. 

³Give us advice. 

Make a decision. 

At high noon make your shadow as dark as night. 

Hide the fugitives. 

Don’t betray the refugees. 

⁴Let the fugitives from Moab stay with you a while. 

Be their refuge from the destroyer. 

Ruthless people will come to an end. 

The destruction will end. 

The one who tramples others will be gone. 

⁵Then the Lord will set up a trusted king. 

He will rule faithfully. 

He is from the tent of David. 

He judges and searches for justice. 

He is quick to do what is right. 

⁶We’ve heard of the arrogance of Moab’s people. 

They are very arrogant. 

We’ve heard of their boasting, arrogance, and conceit, 

but their boasts aren’t true. 

⁷That is why Moab will wail. 

Everyone will wail for Moab. 

Mourn and grieve over the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. 

⁸The fields of Heshbon and the vineyards of Sibmah wither. 

Rulers of the nations have cut off their grapes. 

The grapevines ⸤once⸥ reached as far as Jazer 

and strayed out into the desert. 

Their shoots had spread out over the sea. 

⁹I will cry for the grapevines of Sibmah 

as Jazer cries for them. 

I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. 

The shouts of joy for your ripened fruits 

and your harvest will be silenced. 

¹⁰Joy and delight have vanished from the orchards. 

No songs are sung. 

No shouts are raised. 

No one stomps on grapes in the winepresses, 

because I have put an end to the shouts of joy. 

¹¹That is why my heart mourns for Moab like a harp. 

My soul mourns for Kir Hareseth. 

¹²When the people of Moab appear at the worship site, 

they will only wear themselves out. 

They will come into the holy place to pray, 

but they won’t be able to. 

¹³This is the message that the Lord spoke about Moab in the past. ¹⁴But now the Lord says, “Moab’s honor will be despised within three years. I will count them like workers count the years left of their contracts.In spite of their great number, the survivors will be very few and powerless.” 

17TH CHAPTER

Damascus and Israel Will Be Punished

¹This is the divine revelation about Damascus. 

“Damascus will no longer be a city. 

It will become a pile of rubble. 

²The cities of Aroer will be deserted. 

These cities will be used for sheep, which will lie down in them. 

There will be no one to disturb those sheep. 

³Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, 

and the kingdom will disappear from Damascus. 

The remaining few from Aram will share Israel’s honor,” 

declares the Lord of Armies. 

⁴“When that day comes, the honor of Jacob’s people will fade away, 

and they will become skin and bones. 

⁵That time will be like harvesting bundles of grain by the armful. 

It will be like gathering grain in the Rephaim Valley. 

⁶Only a few people will survive. 

They will be like an olive tree that has been beaten. 

Only two or three olives are left 

at the top of the highest branch, 

four or five olives on the rest of the branches,” 

declares the Lord God of Israel. 

⁷When that day comes, they will look to their maker, 

and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. 

⁸They won’t look to the altars made by their hands 

or to the Asherah poles or incense altars 

which their fingers molded. 

⁹When that day comes, the fortified cities 

which other people abandoned because of the Israelites 

will be like abandoned woods and undergrowth. 

So it will become a wasteland. 

¹⁰You have forgotten the God of your salvation. 

You haven’t remembered the rock, your stronghold. 

Instead, you have planted the best plants 

and have set out the imported grapevines. 

¹¹On the day you plant, you will make it grow. 

On the morning you set out the seedling, you will make it sprout. 

But the harvest will become a ⸤rotting⸥ pile^b

on a day of grief and incurable pain. 

¹²How horrible it will be for many people! 

They will roar like the roaring sea. 

The noise that the people make 

will be like the noise from rushing water. 

¹³The people will make noise like raging water. 

But the Lord will yell at them, and they will run far away. 

They will be chased away 

like husks on the mountains being blown by the wind, 

like whirling dust being blown by a storm. 

¹⁴In the evening there will be sudden terror. 

Before morning they will be gone. 

This will be the fate of those who looted us, 

the destiny of those who robbed us. 

18TH CHAPTER

Sudan Will Be Punished

¹How horrible it will be for the land of whirring wings 

which lies beyond the rivers of Sudan. 

²It sends messengers by sea 

in boats made of reeds 

⸤skimming⸥ over the surface of the water. 

Go, swift messengers, to a tall and smooth-skinned people, 

a people ⸤who are⸥ feared far and near, 

a strong and aggressive nation, 

whose land is divided by rivers. 

³Look when someone raises a flag on the mountains. 

Listen when someone blows a ram’s horn, 

all you inhabitants of the world who live on the earth. 

⁴This is what the Lord says to me: 

I will keep quiet and watch from my dwelling place. 

My presence will be like scorching heat in the sunshine, 

like heavy dew in the heat of the harvest. 

⁵Before the harvest, when blossoms are gone 

and grapes are ripening from blossoms, 

he will cut off the shoots with pruning shears 

and chop off the spreading branches. 

⁶They will be left for the birds of prey on the mountains 

and the wild animals. 

The birds of prey will feed on them in the summer, 

and all the wild animals on earth 

will feed on them in the winter. 

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of Armies 

from a tall and smooth-skinned people, 

a people ⸤who are⸥ feared far and near, 

a strong and aggressive nation, 

whose land is divided by rivers. 

They will be brought to Mount Zion, 

the place where the name of the Lord of Armies is.