Isaiah 16 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, through the desert, to the mountain of daughter Zion.

Like a fluttering bird pushed from its nest, so are Moab's daughters at the crossings of the Arnon.

"Give us your counsel, make a decision! Cast your shade like night at the height of noon. Hide the outcasts — don't betray the ones who run."

"Let my outcasts find shelter among you, Moab. Be a hiding place for them from the face of the destroyer." When the oppressor is gone, when destruction has ended, when the one who tramples has vanished from the land —

Then a throne will be set up in faithful love, and on it will sit — in David's tent — a judge who seeks justice and is quick to do what is right.

We have heard of Moab's arrogance — so deep, so deep — his overblown pride, his swagger, his rage, his empty boasting that amounts to nothing.

So Moab will wail — everyone wailing for Moab. For the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth they will groan, utterly crushed.

The terraced fields of Heshbon have withered, the vines of Sibmah too. The rulers of nations trampled down her choice branches — branches that once reached to Jazer and sprawled into the desert, whose shoots spread out and crossed the sea.

So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah. I drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh, because the battle cry has fallen on your summer fruit and your harvest.

Joy and gladness are stripped from the orchards. No one sings in the vineyards, no one shouts. No one treads out wine in the presses — I have silenced the harvest shout.

So my gut churns for Moab like the strings of a lyre, my insides ache for Kir-hareseth.

When Moab shows up at the high place and wears herself out, when she comes to her shrine to pray — it will do nothing.

This is the word Yahweh spoke about Moab in the past.

But now Yahweh speaks: "Within three years — counted exactly, like a hired worker's contract — Moab's glory will be humiliated, with all her massive population. What's left will be tiny, shriveled, nothing much at all."