ישעיהו טז

Dispatch as messenger
The ruler of the land,
From Sela in the wilderness
To the mount of Fair Zion:

“Like fugitive birds,
Like nestlings driven away,
Moab’s villagers linger
By the fords of the Arnon.

Give advice,
Offer counsel.
At high noon make
Your shadow like night:
Conceal the outcasts,
Betray not the fugitives.

Let Moab’s outcasts
Find asylum in you;
Be a shelter for them
Against the despoiler.”
For violence has vanished,
Rapine is ended,
And marauders have perished from this land.

And a throne shall be established in goodness
In the tent of David,
And on it shall sit in faithfulness
A ruler devoted to justice
And zealous for equity.

“We have heard of Moab’s pride—
Most haughty is he—
Of his pride and haughtiness and arrogance,
And of the iniquity in him.” is a suffixed form of the preposition bede: Nah. 2.13; Hab. 2.13; Job 39.25; with suffixes, Job 11.3; 41.4.

Ah, let Moab howl;
Let all in Moab howl!
For the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth
You shall moan most pitifully.

The vineyards of Heshbon are withered,
And the vines of Sibmah;
Their tendrils spread
To Baale-goiim,
And reached to Jazer,
And strayed to the desert;
Their shoots spread out
And crossed the sea.

Therefore,
As I weep for Jazer,
So I weep for Sibmah’s vines;
O Heshbon and Elealeh,
I drench you with my tears.
Ended are the shouts
Over your fig and grain harvests.

Rejoicing and gladness
Are gone from the farmland;
In the vineyards no shouting
Or cheering is heard.
No more does the treader
Tread wine in the presses—
The shouts have been silenced.

Therefore,
Like a lyre my heart moans for Moab,
And my very soul for Kir-heres.

And when it has become apparent that Moab has gained nothing in the outdoor shrine, he shall come to pray in his temple—but to no avail.

That is the word that GOD spoke concerning Moab long ago.

And now GOD has spoken: In three years, fixed like the years of a hired laborer, Moab’s population, with all its huge multitude, shall shrink. Only a remnant shall be left, of no consequence.