Yesaya 16:7

16:7 So Moab wails over its demise ¹  –

they all wail!

Completely devastated, they moan

about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. ² 

Yesaya 51:8

51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes;

a clothes moth will devour them like wool.

But the vindication I provide ³  will be permanent;

the deliverance I give will last.”

[16:7]  ¹ tn Heb “So Moab wails for Moab.”

[16:7]  ² tn The Hebrew text has, “for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth you [masculine plural] moan, surely destroyed.” The “raisin cakes” could have cultic significance (see Hos 3:1), but the next verse focuses on agricultural disaster, so here the raisin cakes are mentioned as an example of the fine foods that are no longer available (see 2 Sam 6:19; Song 2:5) because the vines have been destroyed by the invader (see v. 8). Some prefer to take אֲשִׁישֵׁי (’ashishe, “raisin cakes of”) as “men of” (see HALOT 95 s.v. *אָשִׁישׁ; cf. NIV). The verb form תֶהְגּוּ (tehgu, “you moan”) is probably the result of dittography (note that the preceding word ends in tav [ת]) and should be emended to הגו (a perfect, third plural form), “they moan.”

[51:8]  ³ tn Heb “my vindication”; many English versions “my righteousness”; NRSV, TEV “my deliverance”; CEV “my victory.”