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16. Prophecy Against Moab

¹ Send lambs as tribute
   to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
   to the mount of Daughter Zion.
² Like fluttering birds
   pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
   at the fords of the Arnon.

    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.
⁴ Let 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.
⁵ In love a throne will be established;
   in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
   one from the house Hebrew tent of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
   and speeds the cause of righteousness.

    ⁶ We have heard of Moab’s pride—
   how great is her arrogance!—
of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;
   but her boasts are empty.
⁷ Therefore the Moabites wail,
   they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
   for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.
⁸ The 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. Probably the Dead Sea
⁹ So 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.
¹⁰ Joy 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.
¹¹ My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
   my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.
¹² When Moab appears at her high place,
   she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
   it is to no avail.

¹³ This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab. ¹⁴ But 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.”

9. Therefore I will bewail. The Prophet here takes upon him the character of another person, as we have formerly remarked; for in the name of the Moabites he laments and groans. It is undoubtedly true that believers always shudder at the judgments of God, and cannot lay aside the feelings of human nature, so as not to commiserate the destruction of the wicked. Yet he does not describe his own feelings; but his intention is to give additional weight to his instruction, that no one may entertain a doubt as to the accomplishment. He therefore represents in the person of a Moabite, as on a stage, the mourning and grief which shall be felt by all after that calamity, in order to hold out to the Jews a confirmation of this promise, which otherwise might have been thought to be incredible.

Because on thy summer-fruits and on thy harvest a shouting shall break forth, or shall fall. ²⁶⁷²⁶⁷ {Bogus footnote} This last clause of the verse is variously explained by commentators. נפל, (naphal,) signifies to fall, or to burst forth. Those who translate it, to burst forth, consider the word הידד, (hedad,) shouting, to refer to the enemies themselves; as if he had said, “The shouting of enemies bursts forth on thy harvest;” so that there is an implied contrast between this shouting and the joy of which he will afterwards speak. Others explain it to mean, that the shoutings will be laid; that is, “there shall be no more shouting, and no longer shall the glad and merry voices of the reapers be heard, cheering themselves after the harvest.” But I would rather refer it to the shouting of enemies; and on this point I follow a most faithful interpreter of this passage, the Prophet Jeremiah, who says that the spoiler bursts forth, (Jeremiah 48:32,) where Isaiah speaks of the shouting of the enemy; as if he had said, “When thou shalt make preparations for gathering in thy harvest and thy vintage, the enemies will rush in, and, instead of joy and cheerful song, their shouting shall be heard, which shall drive thee far away.”