World English Bible
- Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
- For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.
- Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!
- Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
- A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
- We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.
- Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.
- For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea.
- Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
- Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.
- Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.
- It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.
- This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in time past.
- But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”
Isaiah 16
Moab’s people gather at the fords of the Arnon like birds scattered from a nest. A river crossing is a dangerous place for fugitives: they must leave cover, and everyone can see where they are going. Isaiah’s answer is not merely to wish them safety. “Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday” (Isaiah 16:3, World English Bible). In that fierce light, shelter must be made. Someone must stand between the exposed and those hunting them.
The voices in verses 3–4 are difficult to untangle. Is Moab being asked to hide Judean outcasts, or Judah to receive Moab’s refugees? Perhaps the uncertainty makes the appeal harder for us to evade. Whichever side we imagine ourselves on, we hear the command not to betray a person seeking refuge.
Then comes a surprising turn: from fugitives at a river to a ruler on David’s throne. His rule will rest on hesed—steadfast, loyal love—and he will be quick to do justice. Isaiah will not let us separate good government from the treatment of people who have no power. A throne may claim to be secure; the question is whether anyone can find shade beneath it.
David’s own story gives this promise a tender edge. When he was fleeing Saul, he entrusted his parents to the king of Moab (1 Samuel 22:3–4). Ruth, a Moabite woman, also stands in David’s family line. The Messiah would inherit that history. Moab is not simply “the other side” of the story; its name belongs in the memory of David’s house.
Yet Isaiah does not excuse Moab’s pride. Nor does he enjoy its downfall. Its vineyards fall silent; the sounds of harvest give way to the sounds of war. The prophet says his inward being sounds like a harp for Moab. His grief is not a retreat from judgment. It is what keeps judgment from becoming cruelty. We may name arrogance truthfully and still mourn the people and ordinary joys it destroys.
Who is standing in the open at our own river crossing? We may not be able to stop every destroyer. We can refuse to point out the hiding place. We can offer shade. And we can ask Christ, David’s true heir, to make our justice as steadfast and tender as his own.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, give us clear eyes for pride, a grieving heart for those it harms, and courage to make room for the exposed. Teach us to offer the shelter we have received from you. Amen.
For further reading: Ruth 2:12; 1 Samuel 22:3–4; Isaiah 25:4; Matthew 1:5–6.