Isaiah 16–18

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.

Oracle of Judgment on Damascus

17An oracle of Damascus:

“Look! Damascus will cease being a city

and will become a heap of ruins.

²The 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.

³And 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.

⁴“And this shall happen:

On that day, the glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and the fat of his flesh will become lean.

⁵And 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.

⁶And 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.

⁷On that day, mankind will look to its maker,

and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel;

⁸it 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.

⁹On 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.

¹⁰For 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 plantⁱ a vine of a foreigner.

¹¹On your planting day you make them grow,

and in the morning of your sowing you bring them into bloom,

yet the harvest will flee^j in a day of sickness and incurable pain.

The Roar of the Peoples

¹²Ah! 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!

¹³The 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.

¹⁴At 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.

Oracle of Judgment on Cush

18Ah! land of the whirring of wings,

which is beyond the rivers of Cush,

²that sends messengers by the sea

and in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters!

Go, swift messengers, to a tall^a and smooth^b nation,

to a people feared near and far,^c

a mighty, mighty^d and trampling^e nation,

whose land rivers divide.

³All you inhabitants of the world

and dwellers of the earth,

when a signal is raised on the^f mountains, you must look,

and when a trumpet is blown,^g you must listen!

⁴For Yahweh said this to me:

“I will be quiet,

and I will look from my dwelling place

like clear heat because of light,^h

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is completeⁱ

and a blossom becomes ripening fruit,

and one cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,

and one removes, tears away the tendrils.

⁶They shall all be left^j for birds^k of prey of the mountains

and for the animals^l of the earth.

And the birds^m of prey will pass the summer on it,

and every animal of the earth will winter on it.

⁷At that time, a giftⁿ will be brought to Yahweh of hosts

from a tall^o and smooth^p people,

and from a people feared near and far,

a mighty, mighty and trampling nation,

whose land the rivers divide,

to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts,

the mountain of Zion.