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Isaiah 16

Isaiah places Moab’s pride and coming ruin beside an appeal for refuge and the promise of a righteous Davidic throne.

Moab’s daughters stand at the Arnon’s fords like birds scattered from a nest, while an opening command directs lambs toward Zion. Isaiah’s oracle calls for shelter for fugitives and describes a just ruler on David’s throne. The speakers and recipients of the shelter appeals are difficult to identify with certainty. The oracle then exposes Moab’s pride and mourns its ruined vineyards. It closes with YHWH’s fixed deadline: within three years, Moab’s glory will collapse, leaving a small, weak remnant.

injustice and angergrieffear for the future
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1Send the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
2For it will be that as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.
3Give counsel! Execute justice! Make your shade like the night in the middle of the noonday! Hide the outcasts! Don’t betray the fugitive!
4Let my outcasts dwell with you! As for Moab, be a hiding place for him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortionist is brought to nothing. Destruction ceases. The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
5A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
6We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.
7Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken.
8For the fields of Heshbon languish with 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.
9Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
10Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop.
11Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.
12It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail.
14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 16:5The promised Davidic throne joins loving kindness with justice, setting righteous rule against the surrounding oppression and collapse.
Isaiah 16:6Moab’s empty boasting marks the turn from appeals for shelter to the announcement of national mourning.
Isaiah 16:9Tears over ruined vineyards show that the announcement of judgment carries grief for the people and their lost harvest.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah shares Isaiah’s language about Moab’s pride, ruined vineyards, and mourning, including grief over Sibmah and the loss of harvest joy. Luke shares the promise of David’s throne, identifying Jesus as the ruler who receives that throne and whose kingdom has no end.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What do the scattered birds and silenced vineyards help you notice about the human cost of Moab’s ruin?

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How does the description of David’s throne shape your understanding of justice and refuge?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 16

Who are the outcasts in Isaiah 16:3–4?

The opening verses describe displaced Moabites and call for fugitives to receive shelter. The precise speakers and recipients are uncertain. In the supplied wording, verse 4 addresses Moab as a hiding place; the surrounding appeal also concerns Moab’s own displaced people. The demand to protect fugitives is clear despite that uncertainty.

Who is the king on David’s throne in Isaiah 16:5?

The verse describes a ruler in David’s royal line whose throne rests on loving kindness and whose rule is marked by truth and justice. It does not name a king. Its Davidic promise connects with Luke’s account of Jesus receiving David’s throne, though Isaiah 16 leaves the immediate historical identity unstated.

What does the three-year prophecy in Isaiah 16:14 mean?

YHWH sets a firm limit on Moab’s remaining glory: three years, counted with the precision of a worker’s contract. By that deadline, Moab’s great population will be reduced to a small, feeble remnant. The chapter does not name the invading force or supply a calendar date for the prediction.

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Isaiah · 66 chapters
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What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).