Isaiah · 14 verses
Isaiah 16
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
Moab climbs to its sanctuary, wears itself out in prayer, and receives the chapter’s most magnificently flat reply: “it will do him no good.”
Lambs, fugitives, and a thronevv. 1–5
Tribute lambs travel from Sela in the desert towards the mount of Daughter Zion, while Moab’s daughters flutter like birds driven from a nest at the fords of the Arnon. They ask for counsel, shade, concealment, and refuge for the fugitives. The request is made in the shadow of a destroyer, but beyond that shadow a throne is established in David’s tent, occupied by a judge who seeks justice and hastens righteousness.
The vineyards fall silentvv. 6–12
Moab’s pride is announced, inspected, and found to be empty. Then comes the curious mourning for raisin cakes at Kir-hareseth, followed by a catalogue of ruined vines: Heshbon, Sibmah, Jazer, and Elealeh lose their harvest songs, their trampling feet, and their cheerful winepresses. The speaker weeps with the vineyards and laments for Moab like a harp. Moab may climb the high place, tire itself out, and enter its sanctuary to pray; the answer remains admirably brief.
Three years, counted plainlyvv. 13–14
The earlier word concerning Moab is brought forward once more, now with a deadline. In three years, measured as a hired worker counts years, Moab’s splendour will be contemptible, and the survivors few and feeble.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Isa 16:1Send the tribute lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the mount of Daughter Zion.
Isa 16:2Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:
Isa 16:3“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.
Isa 16:4Let 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,
Isa 16:5in 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.
Isa 16:6We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his overflowing arrogance. But his boasting is empty.
Isa 16:7Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken.
Isa 16:8For 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.
Isa 16:9So 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.
Isa 16:10Joy 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.
Isa 16:11Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.
Isa 16:12When Moab appears on the high place, when he wearies himself and enters his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good.
Isa 16:13This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.
Isa 16:14And 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.”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 166 passages were voted onto 14 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 5Daniel 7:14And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
- 5Micah 4:7And I will make the lame into a remnant, the outcast into a strong nation. Then the LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.
- 12 Kings 3:4Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder, and he would render to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams.
- 1Isaiah 10:32Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
- 5Isaiah 9:6–7For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- 12 Kings 14:7Amaziah struck down 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. He took Sela in battle and called it Joktheel, which is its name to this very day.
- 5Daniel 7:27Then the sovereignty, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey Him.’
- 6Amos 2:1This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Moab, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he burned to lime the bones of Edom’s king.
- 11Isaiah 15:5My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- 12Isaiah 15:2Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- 2Proverbs 27:8Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who wanders from his home.
- 4Isaiah 14:4you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!
- 5Luke 1:31–33Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.
- 5Zechariah 9:9Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
- 6Jeremiah 48:29–30We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his proud arrogance and haughtiness of heart.
- 6Obadiah 1:3–4The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
Onward