Isaiah — Chapter 16
Synopsis: Continuation of the Moab oracle. First, advice to Moab: send the tribute-lamb and shelter Jewish refugees (v.3-4). Second, the Messianic verse (v.5): the throne of David to be re-established in mercy and truth (Christ). Third, Moab's pride makes her unable to profit by this counsel. Fourth, the devastation to come within three years.
Verse 1
Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion. Lapide gives the Messianic reading: the 'Lamb' = Christ the Lamb of God, sent from the 'desert rock' (= Petra = the Church on Peter the rock, or literally from Bethlehem in the Judaean desert). The command to send tribute-lambs is simultaneously a prophecy of Christ's coming as the supreme Lamb.
Verse 3
Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the midday: hide the fugitives, and betray not the wanderers. God advises Moab to give asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing from Nabuchodonosor — a humanitarian counsel against betraying refugees. Applied to the Church: the Church must always receive the oppressed and not betray the wandering.
Verse 5
And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and quickly rendering that which is just. The messianic verse: Christ enthroned in the tabernacle/tent of David (= the Church, or the body of the Blessed Virgin), judging with mercy and truth. Lapide cites Jerome, Cyril, and the Fathers: this is a direct prophecy of Christ's kingly rule over the Church, from His throne in the Eucharist/the Gospel.
Verse 6
We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceeding proud: his pride, and his arrogancy, and his indignation is more than his strength. Moab's pride is greater than his actual power — he cannot match his arrogance with any real defense. Lapide: the proud man's undoing is always that his pride exceeds his capacity. The counsel to receive refugees and honor the Lamb (Christ) would have saved Moab, but pride closes the ear.
Verse 14
And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away. Precise chronological prophecy: within three years of this oracle, Moab's glory will be stripped — a small remnant will remain, without honor. Fulfilled by the Babylonian devastation. 'Years of a hireling' = complete, full years, not approximately, as a hired workman serves out his precise term.