Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 16:2

"For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon." — Isaiah 16:2 (ASV)

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.