The big picture
The warning against Moab, a nation east of the Dead Sea, continues. Isaiah speaks as God's prophet. Fleeing women are pictured as birds forced from a nest. A call for shelter stands beside hope for a merciful ruler from David, an earlier king, in Judah, the southern kingdom. Moab's pride then receives a direct answer: ruined fields and silenced harvests. Grief accompanies the judgement. The final word gives a measured limit of three years before the nation's glory is brought low.
In this chapter
- Fleeing People Need Shelter and Fair Rule Isaiah 16:1-5
A call sends a lamb from Sela, a rocky settlement, towards Zion, another name for Jerusalem, Judah's capital.
- Pride Cannot Keep the Fields Fruitful Isaiah 16:6-8
Moab's pride and anger are widely known, but its boasts will not hold.
- The Prophet Weeps Over Silent Harvests Isaiah 16:9-12
Isaiah joins the weeping for the ruined vines and fields.
- Three Years Set a Firm Limit Isaiah 16:13-14
The closing words identify the warning as a message God had already spoken about Moab.
Central truth
Moab's need for refuge contrasts with its proud claims, while God announces ruined prosperity and a small, weakened remnant within three years.
Scripture beside the summary
Isaiah · King James Version · 14Isaiah 16:1-5
Fleeing People Need Shelter and Fair Rule
A call sends a lamb from Sela, a rocky settlement, towards Zion, another name for Jerusalem, Judah's capital. The gift acknowledges a ruler while Moab's women wait at the Arnon, a river they must cross. The words urge counsel, protection, and concealment for outcasts. The exact speakers shift, but the call to shelter fugitives is clear. Moab is addressed as a place where God's outcasts should be hidden from the spoiler. Oppression will end, and a ruler in David's royal line will sit with mercy, truth, and swift justice.
In everyday life
A border hostel keeper opens a shaded room for travellers stranded at a closed crossing. She refuses to tell threatening callers which beds they occupy and brings water before asking about payment. Their exposure calls for protection. One room offers shelter, but Isaiah's promised ruler will govern with mercy and truth.
Notice
Isaiah 16:3 Shade is requested in the heat of noon. The physical image makes protection immediate: people without cover need a place where danger cannot reach them.
Isaiah 16:1-5
King James Version1Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
3Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.
4Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.
Isaiah 16:6-8
Pride Cannot Keep the Fields Fruitful
Moab's pride and anger are widely known, but its boasts will not hold. The people mourn the stricken foundations of Kir-hareseth, one of their strong towns. Fields at Heshbon and vines at Sibmah, productive places in Moab, wither under attack. Foreign rulers break the choice plants whose growth once reached towards Jazer, a nearby town, and far beyond. The spreading vine pictures former abundance. Its loss answers claims of secure greatness with damaged ground and public grief. Proud words cannot restore what the invaders have destroyed.
In everyday life
A produce wholesaler stands beside empty crates from the district he once called unbeatable. Storm damage has stripped the crop, and his confident posters still hang above a bare loading bay. The boasts cannot supply what is missing. Moab's ruined vines answer pride under divine judgement, not weather damage alone.
Notice
Isaiah 16:8 The damaged vine once spread far across the land. That wide reach makes the ruined crop more than a local loss; many places shared its wealth.
Isaiah 16:6-8
King James Version6We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.
7Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.
8For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.
Isaiah 16:9-12
The Prophet Weeps Over Silent Harvests
Isaiah joins the weeping for the ruined vines and fields. Tears reach Heshbon and Elealeh, another town in the affected country. The cries once heard at harvest have ceased. No singers fill the vineyards, and no workers tread grapes in the winepresses. God says he has ended that glad sound. The prophet's inward grief is likened to the sound of a harp for Moab and Kir-haresh, a town named in the lament. The people wear themselves out at their places of worship, then pray in their sanctuary. Their efforts do not secure rescue.
In everyday life
A winepress mechanic steps into a silent pressing shed during the week when workers normally sing over the machinery. He lays his tools down beside an unused vat and listens to the stillness. The lost crop has also taken away shared joy. Isaiah joins that grief to God's declared judgement and unanswered worship.
Notice
Isaiah 16:10 The absence of singing and treading turns loss into silence. Harvest failure removes both food and the shared sounds that once marked the community's work.
Isaiah 16:9-12
King James Version9Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.
10And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
11Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.
12And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.
Isaiah 16:13-14
Three Years Set a Firm Limit
The closing words identify the warning as a message God had already spoken about Moab. Now a sharper time limit is given. Within three years, measured like a hired worker's agreed term, the nation's glory will be despised. Its great population will no longer sustain the same strength or reputation. Only a very small and weak group will remain. The comparison with hired service makes the period definite rather than vague. Moab's present appearance does not cancel the approaching end set by God's word.
In everyday life
A seasonal foreman circles the final date on a fixed-term work agreement and counts the remaining weeks with his crew. The busy yard looks unchanged today, but the written limit governs their plans. A crowd of workers does not extend the term. Isaiah's deadline announces national judgement, not the expiry of employment.
Notice
Isaiah 16:14 The years are compared with a hired worker's term. The image stresses a counted period, so the warning has a defined limit rather than an indefinite future.
Isaiah 16:13-14
King James Version13This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time.
14But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Isaiah 16:1 begins with “Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.”
Where the chapter turns
Isaiah 16:7 forms a natural hinge: “Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.”
The final note
Isaiah 16:14 leaves the reader with “But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words Moab, shouting, Heshbon, howl, Jazer, judgment help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- bewray
- Reveal or betray someone who is seeking concealment.
- covert
- A sheltered place where a threatened person can hide.
- hireling
- A worker hired for a fixed period of service.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
