Isaiah 16

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.
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.
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.
5 In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house[a] of David— one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.
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.
7 Therefore the Moabites wail, they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
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 toward the desert. Their shoots spread out and went as far as the sea.[b]
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.
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.
11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
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.
13 This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab.
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.”

Cross References 48

  • 1. S 2 Kings 3:4
  • 2. S 2 Chronicles 32:23
  • 3. S Judges 1:36; Ob 3 "fn"; 2 Kings 14:7
  • 4. S Isaiah 10:32
  • 5. Proverbs 27:8
  • 6. Numbers 21:29
  • 7. Judges 12:5
  • 8. Numbers 21:13-14; Jeremiah 48:20
  • 9. S 1 Kings 18:4
  • 10. Isaiah 58:7
  • 11. S Isaiah 9:4
  • 12. Isaiah 2:2-4
  • 13. S 1 Samuel 13:14; Daniel 7:14; Micah 4:7
  • 14. S Proverbs 20:28
  • 15. S Isaiah 7:2; Luke 1:32
  • 16. S Isaiah 9:7
  • 17. Jeremiah 25:21; Ezekiel 25:8; Amos 2:1; Zephaniah 2:8
  • 18. S Leviticus 26:19; S Job 20:6; Jeremiah 49:16; Obadiah 1:3; Zephaniah 2:10
  • 19. S Isaiah 13:6; Jeremiah 48:20; Jeremiah 49:3
  • 20. S 1 Chronicles 16:3
  • 21. S 2 Kings 3:25
  • 22. S Numbers 21:25
  • 23. S Isaiah 15:6
  • 24. S Numbers 32:3
  • 25. S Isaiah 5:2
  • 26. S Numbers 21:32
  • 27. S Job 8:16
  • 28. Psalms 80:11
  • 29. S Isaiah 15:3; Ezekiel 27:31
  • 30. S Numbers 32:3
  • 31. S Job 7:3
  • 32. S Ezra 3:13
  • 33. Jeremiah 40:12
  • 34. Isaiah 24:7-8
  • 35. Jeremiah 25:30
  • 36. S Judges 9:27
  • 37. S Job 24:11; S Isaiah 5:2
  • 38. S Isaiah 15:5
  • 39. S Job 30:31
  • 40. Isaiah 63:15; Hosea 11:8; Philippians 2:1
  • 41. 1 Kings 11:7
  • 42. S Isaiah 15:2
  • 43. S 1 Kings 18:29; Psalms 115:4-7; Isaiah 44:17-18; 1 Corinthians 8:4
  • 44. Isaiah 20:3; Isaiah 37:30
  • 45. S Leviticus 25:50
  • 46. S Leviticus 19:13
  • 47. Isaiah 25:10; Jeremiah 48:42
  • 48. Isaiah 21:17

Footnotes 2

Isaiah 16 Commentaries

Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.