Isaiah 16 :: New International Version (NIV)

Isa 16:1Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of Daughter Zion.

Isa 16:2Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

Isa 16:3“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.

Isa 16:4

Isa 16:4Let 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.

Isa 16:5

Isa 16:5In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it— one from the house[fn] of David— one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.

Isa 16:6

Isa 16:6We have heard of Moab’s pride— how great is her arrogance!— of her conceit, her pride and her insolence; but her boasts are empty.

Isa 16:7

Isa 16:7Therefore the Moabites wail, they wail together for Moab. Lament and grieve for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

Isa 16:8

Isa 16:8The 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.[fn]

Isa 16:9

Isa 16:9So 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.

Isa 16:10

Isa 16:10Joy 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.

Isa 16:11

Isa 16:11My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

Isa 16:12

Isa 16:12When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.

Isa 16:13

Isa 16:13This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab.

Isa 16:14

Isa 16:14But 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.”

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(16:5)

Hebrew tent

(16:8)

Probably the Dead Sea

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