Isaiah 16
About IsaiahWritten by AI
Isaiah is the first of the major prophets and one of the books the New Testament quotes most often. Isaiah son of Amoz preached in Jerusalem from about 740 to 700 BC, during the reigns of four kings of Judah, while the Assyrian empire threatened the land. Many scholars think chapters 40 to 66 come from later writers in the time of the exile and return. Many Christians hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, noting that the New Testament quotes both halves under his name.
The book moves from judgment to comfort. Chapters 1 to 39 confront Judah's sin and the proud nations, with the history of King Hezekiah at the center. From chapter 40 the tone changes: “Comfort, comfort My people.” God promises to bring His people home, and the book ends with new heavens and a new earth.
Watch for God's title, the Holy One of Israel, and for the promised King from David's line and the Servant of the LORD who suffers for others. Christians see both fulfilled in Jesus, though some prophecies are read differently among believers.
Before you read Isaiah 16Written by AI
Moab's refugees are urged to seek shelter in Judah. In the middle is a promise that a throne will be established in loving devotion in the tent of David, with a faithful judge on it. The prophet weeps again over Moab's vineyards. The chapter ends with a time limit: within three years Moab's glory will fade.
Moab’s Destruction
Send the tribute lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela in the desert
to the mount of Daughter Zion.
Like fluttering birds
pushed out of the nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon:
“Give us counsel;
render a decision.
Shelter us at noonday
with shade as dark as night.
Hide the refugees;
do not betray the one who flees.
Let my fugitives stay with you;
be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.”
When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased,
and the oppressors have vanished from the land,
in loving devotion a throne will be established
in the tent of David.
A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness
will sit on it in faithfulness.
We have heard of Moab’s pomposity,
his exceeding pride and conceit,
his overflowing arrogance.
But his boasting is empty.
Therefore let Moab wail;
let them wail together for Moab.
Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth,
you who are utterly stricken.
For the fields of Heshbon have withered,
along with the grapevines of Sibmah.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled its choicest vines,
which had reached as far as Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots had spread out
and passed over the sea.
So I weep with Jazer
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench Heshbon and Elealeh
with my tears.
Triumphant shouts have fallen silent
over your summer fruit and your harvest.
Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards.
No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses;
I have put an end to the cheering.
Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir-heres.
When Moab appears on the high place,
when he wearies himself
and enters his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.
This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”