16:1 Send the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,
From ①Sela by way of the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
▷ ①I.e., Petra in Edom
16:2 Then, like fluttering birds or scattered nestlings,
The daughters of Moab will be at the crossing places of the Arnon.
16:3 “ ①Give us advice, make a decision;
②Cast your shadow like night ③at high noon;
Hide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.
▷ ①Lit Bring ②Lit Set ③Lit in the midst of the noon
16:4 Let the ①outcasts of Moab stay with you;
Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”
For the oppressor has come to an end, destruction has ceased,
Oppressors have been removed from the land.
▷ ①As in most ancient versions; MT My outcasts, as for Moab
16:5 A throne will be established in faithfulness,
And a judge will sit on it in trustworthiness in the tent of David;
Moreover, he will seek justice,
And be prompt in righteousness.
16:6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;
Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;
His idle boasts are ①false.
▷ ①Lit not so
16:7 Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.
You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth
As those who are utterly stricken.
16:8 For the fields of Heshbon have ①withered, the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;
Its ②tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.
▷ ①Or dried out ②I.e., parts of a climbing plant that attach to its support
16:9 Therefore I will weep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;
I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh;
For the shouting over your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.
16:10 Gladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;
In the vineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,
No treader treads out wine in the presses,
For I have made the shouting to cease.
16:11 Therefore my ①inner being sounds like a harp for Moab.
And my ②heart for Kir-hareseth.
▷ ①Lit entrails murmur ②Lit inward parts
16:12 So it will come about when Moab presents himself,
When he tires himself upon his high place
And comes to his sanctuary to pray,
That he will not prevail.
16:13 This is the word which the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.
16:14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as ①a hired worker would count them, the glory of Moab will become contemptible along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and ②impotent.”
▷ ①Lit the years of a hired ②Lit not mighty