Isaiah 16–18

16Send the king of the land

the payment he demands.

Send a lamb from Sela through the desert

to the mountain of Jerusalem.

²The women of Moab

try to cross the river Arnon

like little birds

that have fallen from their nest.

³They say: “Help us.

Tell us what to do.

Protect us from our enemies

as shade protects us from the noon sun.

Hide us, because we are running for safety!

Don’t give us to our enemies.

⁴Let those of us who were forced out of Moab live in your land.

Hide us from our enemies.”

The robbing of Moab will stop.

The enemy will be defeated;

those who hurt others will disappear from the land.

⁵Then a new loyal king will come;

this faithful king will be from the family of David.

He will judge fairly

and do what is right.

⁶We have heard that the people of Moab are proud

and very conceited.

They are very proud and angry,

but their bragging means nothing.

⁷So the people of Moab will cry;

they will all be sad.

They will moan and groan

for the raisin cakes they had in Kir Hareseth.

⁸But the fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah cannot grow grapes;

foreign rulers have destroyed the grapevines.

The grapevines once spread as far as the city of Jazer and into the desert;

they had spread as far as the sea.

⁹I cry with the people of Jazer

for the grapevines of Sibmah.

I will cry with the people of Heshbon and Elealeh.

There will be no shouts of joy,

because there will be no harvest or ripe fruit.

¹⁰There will be no joy and happiness in the orchards

and no songs or shouts of joy in the vineyards.

No one makes wine in the winepresses,

because I have put an end to shouts of joy.

¹¹My heart cries for Moab like a harp playing a funeral song;

I am very sad for Kir Hareseth.

¹²The people of Moab will go to their places of worship

and will try to pray.

But when they go to their temple to pray,

they will not be able.

¹³Earlier the Lord said these things about Moab. ¹⁴Now the Lord says, “In three years all those people and what they take pride in will be hated. (This is three years as a hired helper would count time.) There will be a few people left, but they will be weak.”

God’s Message to Aram

17This is a message about Damascus:

“The city of Damascus will be destroyed;

only ruins will remain.

²People will leave the cities of Aroer.

Flocks will wander freely in those empty towns,

and there will be no one to bother them.

³The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed.

The government in Damascus will end.

Those left alive of Aram will be

like the glory of Israel,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

⁴“At that time Israel’s wealth will all be gone.

Israel will be like someone who has lost much weight from sickness.

⁵That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim.

The workers cut the wheat.

Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants

and collect the grain.

⁶That time will also be like the olive harvest,

when a few olives are left.

Two or three olives are left in the top branches.

Four or five olives are left on full branches,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷At that time people will look to God, their Maker;

their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will not trust the altars they have made,

nor will they trust what their hands have made,

not even the Asherah idols and altars.

⁹In that day all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities the Hivites and the Amorites left when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.

¹⁰You have forgotten the God who saves you;

you have not remembered that God is your place of safety.

You plant the finest grapevines

and grapevines from faraway places.

¹¹You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow,

and the next day you make them blossom.

But at harvest time everything will be dead;

a sickness will kill all the plants.

¹²Listen to the many people!

Their crying is like the noise from the sea.

Listen to the nations!

Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.

¹³The people roar like the waves,

but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away.

They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind,

or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.

¹⁴At night the people will be very frightened.

Before morning, no one will be left.

So our enemies will come to our land,

but they will become nothing.

God’s Message to Cush

18How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush.

It is filled with the sound of wings.

²That land sends messengers across the sea;

they go on the water in boats made of reeds.

Go, quick messengers,

to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned,

who are feared everywhere.

They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.

Their land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world, look!

Everyone who lives in the world, look!

You will see a banner raised on a mountain.

You will hear a trumpet sound.

⁴The Lord said to me,

“I will quietly watch from where I live,

like heat in the sunshine,

like the dew in the heat of harvest time.”

⁵The time will come, after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest,

when new grapes will be budding and growing.

The enemy will cut the plants with knives;

he will cut down the vines and take them away.

⁶They will be left for the birds of the mountains

and for the wild animals.

Birds will feed on them all summer,

and wild animals will eat them that winter.”

⁷At that time a gift will be brought to the Lord All-Powerful

from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned,

who are feared everywhere.

They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.

Their land is divided by rivers.

These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord All-Powerful,

to Mount Zion.