Isaiah 16

Send an ambassador from Sela [1] to Jerusalem.
Take a lamb as a gift, [2]
On your trip through the desert.
2Moab’s women, homeless and helpless
Flutter like birds pushed out of their nests
As they flee to the shallows,
Of Arnon River. [3]
3“Help us. Do the right thing.
Cover us and shield us
like a shadow dark as night,
protection in the heat of noon.
We’re refugees. Hide us.
Don’t turn us over to the enemy.
4We’ve lost our homes in Moab.
Let us make our homes near you.
We’re refugees needing refuge.
The killer [4] that wants us dead.”
When the violence is over
And the raiding has stopped
And invaders have been driven away,

A new king will take the throne,
A good king from David’s family. [5]
He’ll be someone to trust,
A king insisting on justice,
With equal treatment for all people.
6Pride is Moab’s reputation.
These are proud people, we’ve heard.
Beyond proud. Conceited, arrogant, mean.
What good is their bragging now?
7Everyone’s crying in Moab.
May everyone cry along.
Sob and groan for all that’s lost,
Sweet raisin cakes of comfort food
No longer found in Kir-hareseth.

Fields and farms, abandoned in Heshbon.
Vineyards, deserted in Sibmah.
Invaders are to blame.
They’ve spread destruction
All the way to Jazer,
Into the desert
And across the Dead Sea.
9I cry with those crying in Jazer.
My cheeks are drenched in tears
For people of Heshbon and Elealeh.
They’ll be no harvest of fruit and grain.
10They’ve been robbed of their harvest
And the joy it brings.
No one sings in the vineyards this fall.
No one shouts for joy.
No one stomps grapes to press out wine.
The winepress waits empty and silent.

I feel Moab’s pain
In my heart and my bones.
My soul aches for Kir-haraseth [6]

When people of Moab eventually figure out they’re wasting their time praying at the hilltop shrines, they’ll go to their temples to pray. That won’t work, either. 13All of this is what the LORD said earlier about Moab. 14Here’s what the LORD says now.