Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 16

Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land. —In the days of Ahab, Mesha, the then-king of Moab, had paid a tribute of sheep and lambs to the king of Israel (2 Kings 3:4). On his revolt (as recorded in the Moabite Inscription) that tribute had ceased. The prophet now calls on the Moabites to renew it, not to the northern kingdom, which was on the point of extinction, but to the king of Judah as the true ruler of the land. The name Sela (“a rock”) may refer either to the city so-called (better known by its Greek name of Petra), 2 Kings 14:7, or to the rock-district of Edom and the confines of Moab generally.

In either case, the special direction implies that the presence of the invaders described in Isaiah 15:0 would make it impossible to send the tribute across the fords of the Jordan, and that it must accordingly be sent by the southern route, which passed through Sela and the desert country to the south of the Dead Sea (Cheyne). Possibly the words are a summons to Edom, which had attacked Judah in the reign of Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:17), to join in a similar submission.

As a wandering bird cast out of the nest. —Better as in the margin, a forsaken nest.

The “daughters of Moab” are represented as fluttering in terror. This phrase refers either literally to the women driven from their homes, or figuratively to the whole population of its towns and villages. They are like birds whose nests are spoiled , or like fledglings in the nest, on the fords of Arnon, uncertain whether to return to their old homes or to cross into a strange land.

This imagery reminds us of Psalms 11:1, Proverbs 27:8, and also of Aeschylus, Agamemnon, lines 49-52.

Make your shadow as the night ... —The whole verse is addressed, as the context shows, not by the prophet to Moab, but by Moab to the rulers of Judah. The fugitives call on those rulers to plead for them and act as umpires, to be to them as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:2), black as night while the hot sun glares all around. Some critics, however, hold that the prophet still speaks to the Moabites and calls on them to protect the fugitives from Judah as they had done of old (Ruth 1:2; 1 Samuel 22:3), and so to secure a return of like protection (Kay).

Let mine outcasts dwell with thee ... —Better, let the outcasts of Moab dwell with thee. Judah, as being herself in safety, is once more appealed to to show mercy to the Moabite fugitives. The “oppressors” are, literally, they that trample under foot.

And in mercy shall the throne ... —Better, less definitely, in mercy shall a throne be established, and one shall sit upon it in truth. The prophet has in mind the ideal king of Isaiah 9:4-7; Isaiah 11:1–5 (of whom Hezekiah was a partial type and representative), whom he expected after the downfall of the Assyrian oppressor. For the tabernacle of David, compare to Amos 9:11.