Isaiah / Lament for Moab

Lament for Moab

Isaiah 15:1-16:14

Chapter 15

¹ The burden of Moab: for in a night Ar was plundered, Moab was silenced; for in a night Kir-Moab was plundered, it was silenced. ² He has gone up to the house and Dibon, to the high places, for weeping. Over Nebo and over Medeba Moab will wail. On all its heads baldness, every beard shaved. ³ In its streets they have girded on mourning sackcloth; on its roofs and in its plazas everyone will howl—everyone going down in weeping. ⁴ And Heshbon cries out and Elealeh as far as Jahaz; their voice is heard. Therefore the might of Moab will cry out; his nephesh will be evil for him. ⁵ My heart cries out for Moab. A fugitive until Zoar, a heifer of the third—for the ascent of Luhith they go up in weeping. He will go up in it. For on the way to Horonaim they will howl a cry of breaking. ⁶ For the waters of Nimrim will be desolations; the hay has dried up, has come to an end—the fresh grass, the green plants. There was none. ⁷ Therefore he will cause Make Violence to remain, and they will visit upon the Wadi of the Arabians; he will bear them. ⁸ For the cry has surrounded the border of Moab; as far as the Pools it has wailed, and at the Well of the Pillars it has wailed. ⁹ For the waters of Dimon are filled with blood; for I will bring upon Dimon additions for the escape of Moab—a lion for the remnant of land.

Chapter 16

¹ Send forth a lamb of the one ruling the land, from the rock of the wilderness to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion. ² And it will be like a fluttering bird, a nest sent forth—the daughters of Moab will be at the fords of the Arnon. ³ Bring counsel, do justice; make your shadow like night in the midst of noon; hide the driven ones, the wanderer—do not reveal. ⁴ Let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you. Be a hiding place for them from the face of the destroyer. For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased, and tramplers have ended from the land. ⁵ And it will be prepared in steadfast love—a throne, and one will sit upon it in truth, in the tent of David—a judge and one inquiring justice, and hastening righteousness. ⁶ We have heard of the pride of Moab—he is exceedingly proud—his pride and his haughtiness and his outburst are not so; his sufficiency. ⁷ Therefore Moab will wail for Moab; everyone will wail. For the nobles of the clay wall you will moan—only in the beaten ones. ⁸ For the vineyards of Heshbon languish—the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations hammered its tendrils; they reached as far as Jazer, they wandered; they forsook her streams, they crossed the Sea. ⁹ Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jaazer, vine of Sibmah. I lengthen my tears over Heshbon and over Elealeh, for on your end and on your harvest a howling has fallen. ¹⁰ And joy and exultation are gathered from the vineyard, and in the vineyards it will not shout, it will not shout wine in the winepresses; the way of jubilation will not be trodden—I have caused it to cease. ¹¹ Therefore my bowels for Moab hum like a harp, and my inward parts for a wall of a potter. ¹² And it will be that when Moab is seen to be wearied on the high place, and he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not be able. ¹³ This is the word which he spoke, the LORD, to Moab from then. ¹⁴ And now the Word of the LORD says: In three years, as the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be despised—in all the great multitude, and a remnant little, very little; not mighty.