Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"Give counsel, execute justice; make thy shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive." — Isaiah 16:3 (ASV)
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).