ISAIAH CHAPTER 16 1) Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. a) Gill says this means that they paid tribute. Thompson chain also has tribute paid in the margin. The Moabites, being conquered by David, paid tribute to him, (2 Samuel 8:2) and when the kingdom was divided in Rehoboam's time, the tribute was paid to the kings of Israel, which continued till the times of Ahab, when the Moabites rebelled, and refused to pay it, (2 Kings 3:4,5) READ: 2Sa 8:1-6 and Notice that the LORD preserved David. God does not change. This is the same God that is the God of the New Testament and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God did not become a pacifist when Jesus Christ came on the scene. He sent the Roman army by His providence against the Jews as a punishment for their rejection of the Messiah. b) send the lamb: The tribute was paid in lambs and rams. 2Ki 3:4 And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. 5 But it came to pass, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. c) the ruler of the land: Gill thinks this means the king of Moab rather than the king of Judah. He says the more literal translation is "O ruler of the land". "O king of Moab send the tribute that is due; or ye people of the land send the tribute which your ruler owes to the king of Judah." The reigning king of Judah at this time was Hezekiah. d) Sela: Sela was the chief city of the kingdom of Moab. 2) For it shall be, [that], as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, [so] the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon. a) If they did not pay this tribute they would be as a wandering bird cast out of the nest. b) fords of Aron: the very borders of the land of Moab. So they would be as a wandering bird at the very boarders of their land. 3) Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. 4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. a) That the king of Moab should do what is right in protecting and harbouring the distressed Jews, who would flee unto them from the enemy. b) let mine outcasts dwell with thee: Not the outcasts of the Lord, but the Lord's people who were outcasts. Gill says, "Hide and protect the Jews that shall flee to thee for shelter, from the face of the spoiler of their land and substance, Sennacherib king of Assyria." c) Even though David had conqured the Moabites, yet they should show kindness to the Jews. They were conqured by David because of the providence of the God of Israel and it was this same God that was telling them to execute right judgemnent and hide his people. 5) And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness. a) Gill: That is, the throne of Hezekiah, and his government over Judah, which was more firmly settled and established after the overthrow of the Assyrian army, through the mercy of God granted to him, and on account of the mercy he exercised among his subjects, (see Proverbs 20:28). Hezekiah was a type of Christ, and his throne typical of his, and the ultimate view of the prophecy may be to the stability of the kingdom of Christ. 6) We have heard of the pride of Moab; [he is] very proud: [even] of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: [but] his lies [shall] not [be] so. a) His pride will prevent him from doing what he was counceled to do. How can his pride let him do good to God's people when it was God's people who had conqured him. But he thought to do in his wrath because of his pride will not be so. PRIDE LEADS MEN TO 1) Contempt and rejection of God's word and ministers Jer 43:2 Then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there: 2) A persecuting spirit Ps 10:2 The wicked in [his] pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 3) Wrath Pr 21:24 Proud [and] haughty scorner [is] his name, who dealeth in proud wrath. 4) Contention Pr 13:10 Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised [is] wisdom. Pr 28:25 He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat. 5) Self-deception Jer 49:16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, [and] the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. Ob 1:3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation [is] high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? 6) Pride is followed by destruction: Pr 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Pr 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour [is] humility. 7) Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn; surely [they are] stricken. 8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, [and] the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come [even] unto Jazer, they wandered [through] the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea. a) for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn: This was a very principal city in the land of Moab, and a very strong one. 2Ki 3:24 And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them: but they went forward smiting the Moabites, even in [their] country. 25 And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about [it], and smote it. 26 And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through [even] unto the king of Edom: but they could not. 27 Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him [for] a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to [their own] land. b) lords of the heathen: The Chaldeans, says Gill. c) they are gone over the sea: The Dead Sea. 9) Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. 10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in [their] presses; I have made [their vintage] shouting to cease. 11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh. a) Gill says, "the prophet here represents the Moabites weeping for their vines, etc." The sadness of the situation. 12) And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail. a) After he was weary of sacrificing at all the high places to remedy his situation he would go to his sanctuary, to the temple of Chemosh, and pray there to his god, but this also would be of no use. 13) This [is] the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time. 14 But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant [shall be] very small [and] feeble. a) Moab can pray to all of his gods, but the word of the LORD shall stand concerning Moab.