Isaiah 15:1–17:14
15 An oracle of Moab:
Because Ar is devastated in a night, Moab is destroyed;
because Kir of Moab is devastated in a night, it is destroyed.
2 It has gone up to the house,a
and Dibon to the high places
for weeping over Nebo,
and Moab wails over Medeba.
⌊Every head is bald⌋,b
every beard is shaved.
3 They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets;
on its roofs and public squares everyone wails,
going down in weeping.
4 And Heshbon and Elealeh cryc out,
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out;
its soul quiversd for him.
5 My heart cries out for Moab;
its fugitives flee up to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping;
for on the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nimrim are wastelands;
for the grass has withered,
the vegetation has vanished,
there is no greenness.
7 Therefore they carry the abundance it has made
and their store of goods over the river of the poplars.
8 For a cry for help has encircled the territory of Moab,
her wailing is heard as far as Eglaim,
and her wailing as far as Beer Elim.
9 For the waters of Dimone are full of blood;
but I will place added things upon Dimon:
a lion for the survivorsf of Moab
and for the remnant of the land.
16 Send a rama to the ruler of the land,
from Sela across the desert to the mountain of ⌊daughter Zion⌋.b
like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest
shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.
make a decision;
make your shade like the night
in the middle of noonday.
Hide the outcasts;
you must not betray the fugitive.
4 Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you;
be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.”
When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped,
the ⌊one who tramples has⌋c disappeared from the land,
5 then a throne shall be established in steadfast love,
and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David,
judging and seeking justice
and zealous for righteousness.
6 We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—
of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; ⌊his boasting is not true⌋.d
all of it wails for Moab,
for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, ⌊utterly devastated⌋.e
8 For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah;
rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils,
they reached up to Jazer,
they wandered to the desert;
her shoots spread abroad,
they crossed over the sea.
9 Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah.
I drench you with my tears,f Heshbon and Elealeh,
for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest.
10 And joy and gladness areg taken away from the fruitful land,
and in the vineyards no one exults,
no one shouts for joy;
no treader treads wine in the presses;
I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.
11 Therefore my ⌊heart moans⌋h like a harp for Moab
and my inner parts for Kir-heres.
when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place
and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.
13 This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab ⌊in the past⌋.i 14 But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.
Oracle of Judgment on Damascus
17 An oracle of Damascus:
“Look! Damascus will cease being a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted;a
they will be for the flocks,
and they will lie down and ⌊no one will frighten⌋b them.
3 And the fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and the kingdom from Damascus;
and the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the children of Israel,”
⌊declares⌋c Yahweh of hosts.
On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will become lean.
5 And it shall be as ⌊when a reaper gathers⌋d standing grain
and he reaps grain with his arm,
and it shall be like one who gathers ears of grain
in the valley of Rephaim.
6 And gleanings will be left over in it, as ⌊when an olive tree is beaten⌋,e
two or three ripe olive berries in the top of a branch,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
⌊declares⌋f Yahweh, the God of Israel.
7 On that day, mankind will look to its maker,
and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel;
8 it will not look to the altars,
the work of its hands,
and it will not see what its fingers made
and the poles of Asherah worship and the incense altars.
9 On that day, ⌊its fortified cities⌋g will be like the ⌊abandonment of the wooded place and the summit⌋,h which they deserted because of the children of Israel; and there will be desolation.
10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,
and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge;
therefore you plant plants of pleasantness,
and you ⌊plant⌋i a vine of a foreigner.
11 On your planting day you make them grow,
and in the morning of your sowing you bring them into bloom,
yet the harvest will fleej in a day of sickness and incurable pain.
12 Ah! The noise of many peoples, they make a noise like the noise of the seas!
And the roar of nations, they roar like the roar of mighty waters!
13 The nations roar like the roar of many waters,
but he will rebuke him, and he will flee far away.
And they are chased like chaff of the mountains before the wind
and like tumbleweed before the storm.
14 At the time of evening, and look, terror!
Before morning he is no more.
This is the fate of those who plunder us
and the lot of those who plunder us.