The Lantern

Isaiah16

Moab’s Destruction

Send a ram to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

And it will be, like a fluttering bird driven from a nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

Bring counsel, do the deciding; make your shade like the night in the midst of noon. Hide the banished, do not expose the fugitive.

Let my banished ones sojourn among you, Moab; be a hiding place for them from the face of the devastator. For the extortioner is at an end, devastation has ceased, the tramplers have vanished from the land.

And a throne will be established in loyal love, and one will sit on it in truth in the tent of David — judging and seeking justice and swift in righteousness.

We have heard of the pride of Moab — very proud — his haughtiness and his pride and his fury; his empty boasts are not so.

Therefore Moab wails for Moab, all of it wails. For the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly stricken.

For the fields of Heshbon languish, the vine of Sibmah. The lords of nations have beaten down its choice branches; they reached as far as Jazer, they strayed to the wilderness; its shoots spread out, they crossed the sea.

Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh — for over your summer fruit and over your harvest the shout has fallen.

And gladness and rejoicing are gathered away from the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing, no shouting. The treader treads out no wine in the presses; I have made the shout to cease.

Therefore my insides moan for Moab like a lyre, and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

And it will be, when it is seen that Moab has worn himself out on the high place, that he will come to his sanctuary to pray — and he will not be able.

This is the word that the LORD spoke to Moab in time past.

And now the LORD has spoken, saying: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be dishonored, with all the great multitude; and the remnant will be very few, small, not mighty.