16:1–4 Send couriers to those who rule in the earth, from Sela in the desert to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion. Like fluttering birds forced out of the nest, so are Moab’s women at the fords of Arnon. 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!
As the type of a kindred people with a sense of entitlement, the Moabites, who form a part of Isaiah’s Greater Babylon, look to others to alleviate the woes they have brought on themselves by their own actions or inactions. Reduced to refugee status, they want someone to cover their sins and care for them. Parallel lines—“to those who rule in the earth” and “to the mountain of the Daughter of Zion”—imply that the Moabites are appealing for help to Jehovah’s people in Zion who have now come into their own. The reference to Moab’s “women” may be both literal and figurative (cf. Isaiah 3:12; 19:16).
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.
The answer to the Moabites’ plight isn’t a temporary refuge from Assyria’s aggression or relief from covenant curses. It is the establishment of a government that administers justice and righteousness. By bringing things to a head in his Day of Judgment, Jehovah puts an end to man’s tyranny of man and replaces it with a theocracy in which Israel’s God rules. Jehovah’s “loving kindness” signifies his millennial covenant with his end-time son and servant, ancient David’s heir (Isaiah 55:3). The term “judge” identifies both Jehovah and his servant—Jehovah’s righteousness (Isaiah 2:4; 11:3–4; 41:2; 51:5).
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