16:1  YOU [Moabites, now fugitives in Edom, which is ruled by the king of Judah] send lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela {or} Petra through the desert {and} wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion [Jerusalem].

16:2  For like wandering birds, like a brood cast out {and} a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the [river] Arnon.

16:3  [Say to the ruler] Give counsel, execute justice [for Moab, O king of Judah]; make your shade [over us] like night in the midst of noonday; hide the outcasts, betray not the fugitive to his pursuer.

16:4  Let our outcasts of Moab dwell among you; be a sheltered hiding place to them from the destroyer. When the extortion {and} the extortioner have been brought to nought, and destruction has ceased, and the oppressors {and} they who trample men are consumed {and} have vanished out of the land,

16:5  Then in mercy {and} loving-kindness shall a throne be established, and One shall sit upon it in truth {and} faithfulness in the tent of David, judging and seeking justice and being swift to do righteousness.

16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud--even of his arrogance, his conceit, his wrath, his untruthful boasting.

16:7  Moab therefore shall wail for Moab; everyone shall wail. For the ruins, flagons of wine, {and} the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you shall sigh and mourn, utterly stricken {and} discouraged.

16:8  For the fields of Heshbon languish {and} wither, and the vines of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down [Moab's] choice vine branches, which reached even to Jazer, wandering into the wilderness; its shoots stretched out abroad, they passed over [the shores of] the [Dead] Sea.

16:9  Therefore I [Isaiah] will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for upon your summer fruits and your harvest the shout [of alarm and the cry of the enemy] has fallen.

16:10  And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing, nor is there joyful sound; the treaders tread out no wine in the presses, for the shout of joy has been made to cease.

16:11  Wherefore my heart sounds like a harp [in mournful compassion] for Moab, and my inner being [goes out] for Kir-hareseth [for those brick-walled citadels of his].

16:12  It shall be that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself [worshiping] on the high place [of idolatry], he will come to his sanctuary [of Chemosh, god of Moab], but he will not prevail. [Then will he be ashamed of his god.]

16:13  This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time [when Moab's pride and resistance to God were first known].

16:14  But now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling [who will not serve longer than the allotted time], the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, in spite of all his mighty multitudes of people; and the remnant that survives will be very small, feeble, {and} of no account.