Isaiah 16:3

3 Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.

Isaiah 16:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 16:3

Take counsel, execute judgment
This refers either to what goes before, that they would take the counsel given, and do that which was just and right, by paying tribute to the king of Judah; or to what follows, that they would enter into a consultation, the king of Moab with his nobles, and resolve upon what was right, and do it, by protecting and harbouring the distressed Jews, who would flee unto them from the enemy: make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday;
a time of the greatest heat, to which the Assyrian army, for its force and fury, and the mischief done by it, is compared: and the Moabites they are advised to make a shadow, as large and as strong as the dark night, that is, to protect the Jews in their distress, and to refresh and comfort them under it; see ( Isaiah 4:6 ) ( Isaiah 25:4 Isaiah 25:5 ) : hide the outcasts;
such as were driven out of their land through the fury and persecution of the enemy, receive and conceal, as Rahab did the spies: bewray not him that wandereth;
from his native place, as a bird from its nest, being forced to it; such an one, or as many as may be, in such a case, do not discover them where they are, or betray them, and deliver them up into the hands of their enemy.

Isaiah 16:3 In-Context

1 Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.

2 And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon.

3 Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.

4 My fugitives shall dwell with thee: O Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed: he hath failed, that trod the earth under foot.

5 And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and quickly rendering that which is just.