Isaiah 16

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16 <1> You people should send a gift to the king of the land. You should send a lamb from Sela, through the desert, to the mountain of Daughter Zion.[163]

<2> The women of Moab try to cross

the river Arnon.

They run from one place to another

looking for help.

They are like little birds lost on the ground

after their nest has fallen from a tree.

<3> They say, "Help us!

Tell us what to do.

Protect us from our enemies

like shade protects us from the noon sun.

We are running from our enemies.

Hide us!

Don't give us to our enemies."

<4> The people from Moab were forced

to leave their homes.

So let them live in your land.

Hide them from their enemies.

The robbing will stop.

The enemy will be defeated.

The men who hurt the people

will be gone from the land.

<5> Then a new king will come.

He will be from David's family.[164]

He will be loyal, loving and kind.

He will be a king who judges fairly.

He will do what is right and good.

<6> We have heard that the people of Moab

are very proud and conceited.

They are hot-tempered braggers,

but their boasts are only empty words.

<7> Because of their pride,

everyone in Moab will mourn for each other.

They will wish for the way things used to be

and for the fig-cakes from Kir Hareseth.[165]

<8> They will mourn because

the fields of Heshbon and the vines of Sibmah no longer grow grapes.

Foreign rulers have cut down the grapevines.

The enemy spread as far as the city of Jazer and into the desert,

and they spread down to the sea.[166]

<9> I will cry with the people of Jazer and Sibmah,

because the grapes have been destroyed.

I will cry with the people of Heshbon and Elealeh

because there will be no harvest.

There will be no summer fruit,

and there will be no shouts of joy for the harvest.

<10> There will be no joy and happiness

in the orchard.

I will end the happy singing and shouting in the vineyard.[167]

The grapes are ready to make wine,

but they will all be ruined.

<11> So I will hum a sad song for Moab and Kir Heres,[168]

like a harp playing a funeral song.

<12> The people of Moab will go to

their high places to worship.

They will go to their temple to pray,

but it will not help them.

<13> The Lord said these things about Moab many times. <14> And now the Lord says, "In three years (the way a hired helper counts time) all those people and the things they are proud of will be gone. There will be a few people left, but there will not be many."