Isaiah 16:3
in Isaiah 16“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Give counsel, execute justice; make thy shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive.
KJV
Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.
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This verse in Isaiah 16
Commentary
8 notes on this verse(Verse 3,4) This is a plan, gather a council: place your shadow as if it were night in the middle of the day, hide those who are fleeing, and do not disclose the wanderers. My outcasts will dwell with you: Moab, be their hiding place from the face of the destroyer, for the dust is at an end, the wretched one is consumed, the one who trampled on the earth has ceased. Instead of 'wretched' in Hebrew, 'Sod' is read, which can also be understood as 'destroyer'.
This site's exposition
Take counsel, execute judgment
on Isaiah 16:3-5
Moab is counseled to do what her own gods cannot: shelter Judah's outcasts, hide the fugitives, and refuse to betray the wanderer, while the oppressor's own end draws near. Verse 5 answers with a throne established in mercy, seated in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and hasting righteousness, terms no king of Moab's line ever met. Matthew Henry and Franz Delitzsch both read the verse toward the throne of the Messiah, David's greater son who alone joins mercy to truth, named as their reading rather than the oracle's plain historical subject.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Here he ordains the punishment against their contempt of the counsel they were given. And this is divided into three: in the first, he sets out the counsel; in the second, their contempt of the counsel: we have heard of the pride of Moab (Isa …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Let them not discover those that absconded among them, nor deliver them up to the pursuers that made search for them: " Betray not him that wandereth, nor deliver him up" (as the Edomites did, Obad. 13, 14 ), "but hide the outcasts. " This was that good work by which Rahab's faith was justified, and proved to be sincere, Heb. xi.
Take counsel, execute judgment,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Take counsel - Hebrew, ‘Bring counsel;’ or cause it to come (הבאו hâbı̂'ı̂û, or as it is in the keri הביאי). The Vulgate, renders this in the singular number, and so is the keri, and so many manuscripts J. D.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Give shelter to the Jewish outcasts who take refuge in thy land (Isa 16:3, 4); so "mercy" will be shown thee in turn by whatever king sits on the "throne" of "David" (Isa 16:5). Isaiah foresees that Moab will be too proud to pay the tribute, or conciliate Judah by sheltering its outcasts (Isa 16:6); therefore judgment shall be executed.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Take counsel “Impart counsel” - The Vulgate renders the verbs in the beginning of this verse in the singular number, So the Keri; and so likewise sixty-one MSS. of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s have it, and nineteen editions, and the Syriac. The verbs throughout the verse are also in the feminine gender; agreeing with Zion, which I suppose to be understood.
The words behind it
14 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָבִ֤יאִי | haviu | bring | H935 → | 2568 times |
| עֵצָה֙ | ʾetzah | counsel | H6098 → | 89 times |
| עֲשׂ֣וּ | ʾasu | make | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| פְלִילָ֔ה | felilah | a decision | H6415 → | |
| שִׁ֧יתִי | shiti | make | H7896 → | 83 times |
| כַלַּ֛יִל | khalayil | like <the> night | H3915 → | 233 times |
| צִלֵּ֖ךְ | tzilekh | shade your | H6738 → | 49 times |
| בְּת֣וֹךְ | betokh | in [the] middle of | H8432 → | 418 times |
| צָהֳרָ֑יִם | tzohorayim | [the] noon<s> | H6672 → | 24 times |
| סַתְּרִי֙ | sateri | hide | H5641 → | 80 times |
| נִדָּחִ֔ים | nidachim | outcasts | H5080 → | 55 times |
| נֹדֵ֖ד | noded | a fugitive | H5074 → | 28 times |
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תְּגַלִּֽי׃ | tegali | you expose | H1540 → | 186 times |
הָבִ֤יאִיbring
haviuH935 →2568 times
עֵצָה֙counsel
ʾetzahH6098 →89 times
עֲשׂ֣וּmake
ʾasuH6213 →2628 times
פְלִילָ֔הa decision
felilahH6415 →
שִׁ֧יתִיmake
shitiH7896 →83 times
כַלַּ֛יִלlike <the> night
khalayilH3915 →233 times
צִלֵּ֖ךְshade your
tzilekhH6738 →49 times
בְּת֣וֹךְin [the] middle of
betokhH8432 →418 times
צָהֳרָ֑יִם[the] noon<s>
tzohorayimH6672 →24 times
סַתְּרִי֙hide
sateriH5641 →80 times
נִדָּחִ֔יםoutcasts
nidachimH5080 →55 times
נֹדֵ֖דa fugitive
nodedH5074 →28 times
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תְּגַלִּֽי׃you expose
tegaliH1540 →186 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 1:17Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”
it leads to
- Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- Jeremiah 22:3
This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.…
- Psalms 82:3–4
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.
- Proverbs 31:9
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the poor and needy.
- Isaiah 1:23
Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
- Micah 6:8
Through
Isaiah 32:2Each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like the shadow of a great rock in an arid land.
it leads to
- Isaiah 25:4
For You have been a refuge for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like…
- Isaiah 25:4
Through
Judges 9:15But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the…
it leads to
- Isaiah 30:2
They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
- Isaiah 30:2
Through
1 Kings 18:4for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)
it leads to
- 1 Kings 18:13
Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them…
- 1 Kings 18:13
About Isaiah

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.
