Bible Strands
Isaiah 16:2
Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses Moab, describing the forced displacement of its women at the Arnon river fords. This occurs amid instructions to send tribute to Zion while judgment approaches.
The words — The Hebrew kə‘ōp̄-nōḇēḏ qēn (like a fluttering bird sent away from a nest) uses nōḇēḏ (fluttering/displaced) and mešullāḥ (sent away/pushed out) to depict sudden, forced removal.
The thread — The displacement motif echoes Proverbs 27:8, which compares a man wandering from home to a bird straying from its nest, and aligns with Israel’s historical crossing of the Arnon past Moab in Numbers 21:13 and Judges 11:18.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of Moab’s forced vulnerability and the futility of seeking refuge without divine shelter. It requires the reader to acknowledge that political displacement leaves no secure footing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 27:8 Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who wanders from his home.
- Judges 11:18 Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border.
- Numbers 21:13 From there they moved on and camped on the other side of the Arnon, in the wilderness that extends into the Amorite territory. Now the Arnon is the border between the Moabites and the Amorites.
- Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the valley, even as far as Gilead, not one city had walls too high for us. The LORD our God gave us all of them.
- Deuteronomy 3:8 At that time we took from the two kings of the Amorites the land across the Jordan, from the Arnon Valley as far as Mount Hermon—
- Deuteronomy 3:12 So at that time we took possession of this land. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave the land beyond Aroer along the Arnon Valley, and half the hill country of Gilead, along with its cities.
- Joshua 13:16 The territory from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Valley, along with the city in the middle of the valley, to the whole plateau beyond Medeba,
- Isaiah 13:14 Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.
- Jeremiah 48:20 Moab is put to shame, for it has been shattered. Wail and cry out! Declare by the Arnon that Moab is destroyed.