Scripture reading: Isaiah 15-16:5

An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone;
because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
    Moab is undone.
² He has gone up to the temple,^[a] and to Dibon,
    to the high places^[b] to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
    Moab wails.
On every head is baldness;
    every beard is shorn;
³ in the streets they wear sackcloth;
    on the housetops and in the squares
    everyone wails and melts in tears.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
    their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
    his soul trembles.
⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;
    her fugitives flee to Zoar,
    to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
    they raise a cry of destruction;
⁶ the waters of Nimrim
    are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
    the greenery is no more.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained
    and what they have laid up
they carry away
    over the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For a cry has gone
    around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
    her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dibon^[c] are full of blood;
    for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
    for the remnant of the land.
16 Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
    to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
² Like fleeing birds,
    like a scattered nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
    at the fords of the Arnon.

³ “Give counsel;
    grant justice;
make your shade like night
    at the height of noon;
shelter the outcasts;
    do not reveal the fugitive;
⁴ let the outcasts of Moab
    sojourn among you;
be a shelter to them^[d]
    from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
    and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
⁵ then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
    and on it will sit in faithfulness
    in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
    and is swift to do righteousness.”

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.