What does Isaias Chapter 16 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The prayer and counsel concern the lamb, shelter and a merciful throne. Moab’s pride and vineyard devastation accompany the speaker’s lament. The hireling-year decree remains a prophetic announcement.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 16 opens with a plea to the Lord to send the lamb, ruler of earth, from desert Petra to Sion. The edition heading identifies a prayer for Christ's coming. Moab's daughters resemble fleeing birds at Arnon's passage. Counsel is urged: make shadow like night at midday, hide fugitives and do not betray wanderers. Moab is asked to cover my fugitives from the destroyer, whose oppression ends. A throne is prepared in mercy in David's tabernacle, with truth and swift justice. This is not rewritten as a tribute demand or a detailed refugee treaty.

Moab's pride and indignation exceed its strength. Howling and stripes upon those rejoicing on brick walls precede desolate Hesebon and Sabama's ruined vineyard, its branches reaching Jazer, wilderness and sea. The speaker weeps for vineyard and cities as vintage and harvest lose their voices. Carmel's lost joy is accompanied by the edition's explanation of a fruitful hill or field. Bowels sound like a harp for Moab and inward parts for the brick wall.

Moab wearies on high places and prays in sanctuaries without prevailing. No sacrificial routine or frantic motive is narrated. The earlier word is followed by a three-year hireling comparison: Moab's glory is removed and its remaining people few, small and feeble.

The story inside

Opening: The prayer and counsel concern the lamb, shelter and a merciful throne. Development: Moab’s pride and vineyard devastation accompany the speaker’s lament. Conclusion: The hireling-year decree remains a prophetic announcement.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The prayer and counsel concern the lamb, shelter and a merciful throne.
2
Moab’s pride and vineyard devastation accompany the speaker’s lament.
3
The hireling-year decree remains a prophetic announcement.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 79817–79818
16:1. Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.
Lines 79824–79825
16:3. Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the midday: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.
Lines 79831–79833
16:5. And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and quickly rendering that which is just.
Lines 79835–79836
16:6. We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation is more than his strength.
Lines 79851–79854
16:10. And gladness and joy shall be taken away from Carmel, and there shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the vineyards. He shall not tread out wine in the press that was wont to tread it out: the voice of the treaders I have taken away.
Lines 79859–79860
16:11. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for the brick wall.
Lines 79868–79871
16:14. And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away for all the multitude of the people, and it shall be left small and feeble, not many.