Isaiah 15–16

Oracle of Judgment on Moab

15An 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.

²It 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.

³They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets;

on its roofs and public squares everyone wails,

going down in weeping.

⁴And Heshbon and Elealeh cry^c out,

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out;

its soul quivers^d for him.

⁵My 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.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim are wastelands;

for the grass has withered,

the vegetation has vanished,

there is no greenness.

⁷Therefore they carry the abundance it has made

and their store of goods over the river of the poplars.

⁸For 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.

⁹For the waters of Dimon^e are full of blood;

but I will place added things upon Dimon:

a lion for the survivors^f of Moab

and for the remnant of the land.

16Send a ram^a to the ruler of the land,

from Sela across the desert to the mountain of daughter Zion.^b

²And this shall be:

like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest

shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.

³“Bring counsel,

make a decision;

make your shade like the night

in the middle of noonday.

Hide the outcasts;

you must not betray the fugitive.

⁴Let 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,

⁵then 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.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—

of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; his boasting is not true.^d

⁷Therefore Moab wails;

all of it wails for Moab,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly devastated.^e

⁸For 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.

⁹Therefore 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.

¹⁰And joy and gladness are^g 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.

¹¹Therefore my heart moans^h like a harp for Moab

and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

¹²And this shall happen:

when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place

and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.

¹³This 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.