16:1 Send couriers to those who rule in the earth, from Sela in the desert to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion. 16:2 Like fluttering birds forced out of the nest, so are Moab's women at the fords of Arnon. 16:3–4 Provide a solution, they say; judge our case! Overshadow us at high noon as though it were night! Shelter those dispossessed; betray not the refugees! Let the exiles of Moab dwell with you; be a refuge to them from the aggressors! So, here are the people of Moab and the other nations looking to someone else to solve their problems, problems that they've brought upon themselves, the consequences of their own actions. Now they're reduced to the state of being refugees, or exiles, and they say, "Judge our case. Overshadow us at high noon as though it were night." We see that they're into deception; they want someone to cover their sins, as it were. Who do they send couriers, or messengers, to for help? From Sela in the desert, where they live, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion, or the nation of the daughter of Zion, or the people of Zion. "The mountain of the daughter of Zion" is your parallel with those who rule in the earth. So, those who rule in the earth are the people of Zion, at that point in time. So one group, the group that were oppressive, before, now look for help from those whom they oppressed and who are in a situation of strength. It's kind of hypocritical. 16:4–5 When oppressors are no more and violence has ceased, when tyrants are destroyed from the earth, then, in loving kindness, shall a throne be set up in the abode of David, and in faithfulness a judge sit on it who will maintain justice and expedite righteousness. So, yes, there is help. But in the Lord's way. The Moabites are seeking refuge from the aggressors, namely, the Assyrians. Isaiah continues, and calls them "the oppressors and the violent." But the people of Moab, themselves, were oppressive, violent, and tyrannical to others. Otherwise, they wouldn't be suffering these things; the Lord would have delivered them. And so they're looking forward to a Millennial kind of peace when there'll be no more aggressors or violence or tyrants of any kind—whether they're Assyrians or Moabites or anybody else. "Then in loving kindness--" Loving kindness is a covenant term. In Hebrew it's chesed, which means faithfulness to the covenant. So the Lord, being faithful to the covenant that he's made with his people, sets up a throne, in the abode of David, or the Promised land, "and in faithfulness a judge sit on it." So he will appoint a judge "who will maintain justice and expedite righteousness." Not like now, where people are faithless and unrighteous. And, as a result, these calamities are coming upon them. As part of the reversal of circumstances between the righteous and the wicked, the Lord makes an end of the oppressors and now establishes the righteous, with a righteous leader over them. The judge who sits on the throne is both the Lord himself, who judges, in the book of Isaiah, and also his Servant. He's a descendant of David, who is a forerunner of Christ's, or the Lord's coming, in the earth. In the book of Zachariah the Lord and his Servant both sit upon one throne. Rhetorically, we can identify the Lord and his Servant as the ones who judge, in the book of Isaiah, because that's the way the word is used when it refers to them in the other parts of Isaiah. It's how we know who the Judge is. Also, Faithfulness and Righteousness are two terms used in connection with the Lord's Servant. The Lord is faithful and righteous, and his Servant personifies those attributes—his righteousness personified, his faithfulness personified. So the real answer to Moab's problem is not to obtain a temporary shelter for the refugees, because their mindset will be to just continue the way they are. But the answer is to actually overturn the situation, to make an end of oppressors and oppression, and to establish justice and righteousness. 16:6 We have heard of the glories of Moab, of its excessive pride and its boasting, of its outbursts of false propaganda. This was the real thinking of Moab. This was the real behavior that led up to this covenant curse. They were aggressive, in a very negative sense, putting others down and building themselves up—false slogans. 16:7 For this shall the Moabites be made to lament, and all have cause to bewail Moab: they shall groan at the ruin of Kir Hareseth in utter dejection. Here is one of the two cities that is mentioned in the beginning of chapter fifteen, verse one. 16:8 For the vineyards of Heshbon shall wither; the ruling nations will smite Sibmah's vines. Its runner vines reached Jazer, trailing through the desert; its branches spread abroad across the sea. So this is not just a nation that is one entity, a single entity, located somewhere in a particular place. It's actually a conglomerate, a nation that has outposts that branches out in other areas of the world, across the sea, using the idea of spreading branches or vines, as a metaphor. 16:9 Therefore I will mourn as Jazer mourns for the vines of Sibmah; I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, when your shouts of cheer over the summer fruit and harvest are stilled. Yes, there's the literal sense that the summer fruit, the vines, and the trees will be destroyed, and there'll be no harvest like there usually is, but also that calamity has overtaken those who are part of the larger entity that constitutes Moab wherever they have presence in the world. 16:10 The joyful festivity will be gone from the orchards; no shouts of delight shall sound in the vineyards. The wine treaders will tread no wine in the presses; the vintage shout I will bring to an end. It's to show that those who were joyful and who had everything going for them, really, that all of that comes to silence. When you see how joy is turned to gloom, you see when you read about the righteous, or elect of Zion—that their gloom is turned to joy at the same time that this reversal takes place. It's simultaneous for both the wicked and the righteous. So this phenomenon, here, doesn't stand alone. It has a counterpart in Zion's silence and gloom and oppression turning to joy. In my book I've been drawing comparisons between fairy tales and the book of Isaiah. This is like the ugly stepsisters gloating over Cinderella and her plight, and heaping oppressions upon her, making her do all the chores. She just kind of takes it, but then in the end they are the ones who lose out, and her gloom is turned into joy. That's kind of how it works for the "woman" Zion. There's many, many parallels there between the woman Zion, and here, and in the story of Cinderella, or Snow White, or whoever it is. The fairy tales capture that archetype of the righteous heroine. 16:11 My breast will vibrate like a harp for Moab, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth. This is the prophet speaking. He is not vindictive about the situation. He recognizes that it is a covenant curse that is as a result of wickedness. He's not gloating over Moab's demise, as the Moabites would have gloated over Israel's, or Zion's, demise. It's not like that. He actually feels for them and wishes he could do something about it. 16:12 For when the Moabites weary themselves with petitioning on the hill shrines, and enter their sanctuaries to pray, it shall be to no avail. Again, when you read this, you don't read it as an isolated verse. Later on it starts talking about the Lord's people, and when they pray the Lord hears them. Even as they're speaking he hears them. So you see the contrast between this passage and the passages like that. On the other hand you also read passages as we did in chapter one where people pray at length, with outstretched arms, and the Lord doesn't hear them, because they're in the same case as the Moabites. He doesn't hear the prayers of the wicked, but of the righteous. He doesn't hear the prayers of hypocrites. 16:13–14 These things the Lord spoke hitherto about Moab. 14 But now the Lord has said, Within three years, as the term of a lease, Moab's glory shall become ignominy. For all its large populace there shall be very few left, and those of no account. So, among these people there is really no righteous remnant. There'll be a few left, perhaps. By "left" we mean a remnant—but not of any consequence. The real remnant that survives into the Millennial time are the righteous of the Lord's people who come out of Babylon, who come out of all these nations. They've already been separated out. So those who survive of these nations are not the righteous people. This "lease" of three years is now made specific. Before this, the prophets prophesied against the nations and against the wicked of Israel, against the whole Babylon conglomerate. But now, there comes a time when there's kind of a countdown. The prophet announces at this time that there will be three more years. And if they don't get their act together by then, then that time of judgment will come upon them—a three year lease of time. And not just for Moab but for the whole Babylon composite—for the whole world, everything that constitutes Babylon. Everything that is not Zion is Babylon. So for that whole group, there is a three-year countdown. They have the chance, at that time, to repent and to be numbered with the people of Israel, to enter the covenant that the Lord has made, to become part of his covenant people. Or to suffer these consequences of wickedness. Their "glory shall become ignominy." That's part of the reversal of circumstances between the righteous and the wicked. The righteous suffer ignominy, now, just as the Lord's Servant does, and as the Lord himself does, before they are exalted, before they obtain glory. But their glory, like the king of Assyria's glory becomes ignominy. They who exalted themselves become humiliated. Now we saw also that that happens to the wicked of the Lord's people, earlier. Women of Zion are mentioned particularly, in that respect, they who were dolling themselves up, end up ignominiously, deprived and in a state of destitution, For all its large populace there shall be very few left." Huge populations of the world will be decimated. Who causes that? The king of Assyria, as we saw earlier. "His purpose shall be to annihilate and exterminate nations, not a few, Isaiah says. And this is one of those references.