16:1 Send+ the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
16:2 For it will be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.
16:3 Give counsel, execute justice; make your shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; don't betray the fugitive.
16:4 Let my outcasts dwell with you; as for Moab, be a covert to him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing, destruction ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
16:5 And a throne will be established in loving-kindness; and one will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
16:6 We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; even of his arrogance, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nothing.
16:7 Therefore Moab will wail for Moab, everyone will wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth you+ will mourn, completely stricken.
16:8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, [and] the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.
16:9 Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will soak you with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the [battle] shout is fallen.
16:10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise: no treader will tread out wine in the presses; I have made the [vintage] shout to cease.
16:11 Therefore my insides sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-heres.
16:12 And it will come to pass, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and will come to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.
16:13 This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past.
16:14 But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and of no account.