Isaiah 15–16

Chapter 15

¹An oracle concerning Moab. Because Ar is laid waste in a night

Moab is undone;

because Kir is laid waste in a night Moab is undone.

²The daughter of Dibon has gone up

to the high places to weep;

over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails.

On every head is baldness,

every beard is shorn;

³in the streets they gird on sackcloth;

on the housetops and in the squares

every one wails and melts in tears.

⁴Heshbon and Ele-aleh cry out,

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;

his soul trembles.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;

his fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction;

⁶the waters of Nimrim are a desolation;

the grass is withered, the new growth fails,

the verdure is no more.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained

and what they have laid up

they carry away

over the Brook of the Willows.

⁸For a cry has gone

round the land of Moab;

the wailing reaches to Eglaim,

the wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

yet I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

¹They have sent lambs to the ruler of the land,

from Sela, by way of the desert,

to the mount of the daughter of Zion.

²Like fluttering birds,

like scattered nestlings,

so are the daughters of Moab

at the fords of the Arnon.

³“Give counsel,

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

hide the outcasts,

betray not the fugitive;

⁴let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a refuge to them

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples under foot

has vanished from the land,

⁵then a throne will be established in steadfast love

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab,

how proud he was;

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence—

his boasts are false.

⁷Therefore let Moab wail,

let every one wail for Moab.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish,

and the vine of Sibmah;

the lords of the nations

have struck down its branches,

which reached to Jazer

and strayed to the desert;

its shoots spread abroad

and passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Ele-aleh;

for upon your fruit and your harvest

the battle shout has fallen.

¹⁰And joy and gladness are taken away

from the fruitful field;

and in the vineyards no songs are sung,

no shouts are raised;

no treader treads out wine in the presses;

the vintage shout is hushed.

¹¹Therefore my soul moans like a lyre for Moab,

and my heart for Kir-heres.

¹²And when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which the Lord spoke concerning Moab in the past. ¹⁴But now the Lord says, “In three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, in spite of all his great multitude, and those who survive will be very few and feeble.”