Isaiah 16–18

Chapter 16

¹Send lambs from Sela as tribute

to the ruler of the land.

Send them through the desert

to the mountain of beautiful Zion.

²The women of Moab are left like homeless birds

at the shallow crossings of the Arnon River.

³“Help us,” they cry.

“Defend us against our enemies.

Protect us from their relentless attack.

Do not betray us now that we have escaped.

⁴Let our refugees stay among you.

Hide them from our enemies until the terror is past.”

When oppression and destruction have ended

and enemy raiders have disappeared,

⁵then God will establish one of David’s descendants as king.

He will rule with mercy and truth.

He will always do what is just

and be eager to do what is right.

⁶We have heard about proud Moab—

about its pride and arrogance and rage.

But all that boasting has disappeared.

⁷The entire land of Moab weeps.

Yes, everyone in Moab mourns

for the cakes of raisins from Kir-hareseth.

They are all gone now.

⁸The farms of Heshbon are abandoned;

the vineyards at Sibmah are deserted.

The rulers of the nations have broken down Moab—

that beautiful grapevine.

Its tendrils spread north as far as the town of Jazer

and trailed eastward into the wilderness.

Its shoots reached so far west

that they crossed over the Dead Sea.

⁹So now I weep for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah;

my tears will flow for Heshbon and Elealeh.

There are no more shouts of joy

over your summer fruits and harvest.

¹⁰Gone now is the gladness,

gone the joy of harvest.

There will be no singing in the vineyards,

no more happy shouts,

no treading of grapes in the winepresses.

I have ended all their harvest joys.

¹¹My heart’s cry for Moab is like a lament on a harp.

I am filled with anguish for Kir-hareseth.

¹²The people of Moab will worship at their pagan shrines,

but it will do them no good.

They will cry to the gods in their temples,

but no one will be able to save them.

¹³The Lord has already said these things about Moab in the past. ¹⁴But now the Lord says, “Within three years, counting each day, the glory of Moab will be ended. From its great population, only a feeble few will be left alive.”

Chapter 17

A Message about Damascus and Israel

This message came to me concerning Damascus:

“Look, the city of Damascus will disappear!

It will become a heap of ruins.

²The towns of Aroer will be deserted.

Flocks will graze in the streets and lie down undisturbed,

with no one to chase them away.

³The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed,

and the royal power of Damascus will end.

All that remains of Syria

will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,”

declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

⁴“In that day Israel’s glory will grow dim;

its robust body will waste away.

⁵The whole land will look like a grainfield

after the harvesters have gathered the grain.

It will be desolate,

like the fields in the valley of Rephaim after the harvest.

⁶Only a few of its people will be left,

like stray olives left on a tree after the harvest.

Only two or three remain in the highest branches,

four or five scattered here and there on the limbs,”

declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷Then at last the people will look to their Creator

and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will no longer look to their idols for help

or worship what their own hands have made.

They will never again bow down to their Asherah poles

or worship at the pagan shrines they have built.

⁹Their largest cities will be like a deserted forest,

like the land the Hivites and Amorites abandoned

when the Israelites came here so long ago.

It will be utterly desolate.

¹⁰Why? Because you have turned from the God who can save you.

You have forgotten the Rock who can hide you.

So you may plant the finest grapevines

and import the most expensive seedlings.

¹¹They may sprout on the day you set them out;

yes, they may blossom on the very morning you plant them,

but you will never pick any grapes from them.

Your only harvest will be a load of grief and unrelieved pain.

¹²Listen! The armies of many nations

roar like the roaring of the sea.

Hear the thunder of the mighty forces

as they rush forward like thundering waves.

¹³But though they thunder like breakers on a beach,

God will silence them, and they will run away.

They will flee like chaff scattered by the wind,

like a tumbleweed whirling before a storm.

¹⁴In the evening Israel waits in terror,

but by dawn its enemies are dead.

This is the just reward of those who plunder us,

a fitting end for those who destroy us.

Chapter 18

A Message about Ethiopia

¹Listen, Ethiopia—land of fluttering sails

that lies at the headwaters of the Nile,

²that sends ambassadors

in swift boats down the river.

Go, swift messengers!

Take a message to a tall, smooth-skinned people,

who are feared far and wide

for their conquests and destruction,

and whose land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world,

everyone who lives on the earth—

when I raise my battle flag on the mountain, look!

When I blow the ram’s horn, listen!

⁴For the Lord has told me this:

“I will watch quietly from my dwelling place—

as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,

or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”

⁵Even before you begin your attack,

while your plans are ripening like grapes,

the Lord will cut off your new growth with pruning shears.

He will snip off and discard your spreading branches.

⁶Your mighty army will be left dead in the fields

for the mountain vultures and wild animals.

The vultures will tear at the corpses all summer.

The wild animals will gnaw at the bones all winter.

⁷At that time the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will receive gifts

from this land divided by rivers,

from this tall, smooth-skinned people,

who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction.

They will bring the gifts to Jerusalem,

where the Lord of Heaven’s Armies dwells.