Isaiah 16: Continued warnings to Moab

• v.1-5 You will need Judah’s help with your refugees
• v.6-10 Their pride will be the cause of their anguish, that the prophet feels
• v.11-14 The prophet anguishes for Moab who trusts in idols

[Preliminary Comment: The word against Moab continues, turning more away from places to what will happen. The coming destruction will cause a refugee crisis and they would be wise to get help from Judah, but it’s their pride that is the cause of their censure and the destruction will spread through the land.]

v.1-5 You will need Judah’s help with your refugees

v.1  Send lambs as tribute
    to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
    to the mount of Daughter Zion.

2  Like fluttering birds
    pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
    at the fords of the Arnon.

v.3  ‘Make up your mind,’ Moab says.
    ‘Render a decision.
Make your shadow like night –
    at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
    do not betray the refugees.

v.4 Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
    be their shelter from the destroyer.’

The oppressor will come to an end,
    and destruction will cease;
    the aggressor will vanish from the land.

v.5 In love a throne will be established;
    in faithfulness a man will sit on it –
    one from the house of David –
one who in judging seeks justice
    and speeds the cause of righteousness.

[Notes: Continuing to warn Moab, you will send tribute to Judah, your women will flee as refugees, decide how you will save them. Look after them for the upheaval has an end when Judah will be established as the place of security.]

v.6-10 Their pride will be the cause of their anguish, that the prophet feels

v.6  We have heard of Moab’s pride –
    how great is her arrogance! –
of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;
    but her boasts are empty.

v.7 Therefore the Moabites wail,
    they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
    for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

v.8  The fields of Heshbon wither,
    the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
    have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
    and spread towards the desert.
Their shoots spread out
    and went as far as the sea.

v.9  So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
    for the vines of Sibmah.
Heshbon and Elealeh,
    I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
    and over your harvests have been stilled.

v.10 Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
    no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
    for I have put an end to the shouting.

[Notes: Moab’s boastful pride is empty for they will anguish for the fall of their cities and the decimation of their land. The prophet feels their anguish when all joy will be gone.]

v.11-14 The prophet anguishes for Moab who trusts in idols

v.11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
    my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

v.12 When Moab appears at her high place,
    she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
    it is to no avail.

v.13 This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab.

v.14 But now the Lord says: ‘Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.’

[Notes: The prophet empathizes: so I anguish for you, Moab, but trusting in your idols is pointless. This IS God’s word for you. It will come within three years.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: