Isaiah 16:12-14

16:12 When the Moabites plead with all their might at their high places, ¹ 

and enter their temples to pray, their prayers will be ineffective! ² 

16:13 This is the message the Lord previously announced about Moab. 16:14 Now the Lord makes this announcement: “Within exactly three years ³  Moab’s splendor will disappear, along with all her many people; there will be just a few, insignificant survivors left.” ⁴ 

[16:12]  ¹ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[16:12]  ² tn Heb “when he appears, when he grows tired, Moab on the high places, and enters his temple to pray, he will not prevail.” It is possible that “when he grows tired” is an explanatory gloss for the preceding “when he appears.”

[16:14]  ³ tn Heb “in three years, like the years of a hired worker.” The three years must be reckoned exactly, just as a hired worker would carefully keep track of the time he had agreed to work for an employer in exchange for a predetermined wage.

[16:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the splendor of Moab will be disgraced with all the great multitude, and a small little remnant will not be strong.”