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Isaiah 15:2 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep; Moab howleth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.

Cross Reference

Jeremiah 48:1 DARBY

Concerning Moab. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled; Kirjathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and dismayed.

Leviticus 21:5 DARBY

They shall not make any baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

Jeremiah 48:18 DARBY

Come down from [thy] glory and sit in the drought, O inhabitress, daughter of Dibon; the spoiler of Moab is come up against thee, thy strongholds hath he destroyed.

Isaiah 3:24 DARBY

And it shall come to pass, instead of perfume there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe of display, a girding of sackcloth; brand instead of beauty.

Deuteronomy 34:1 DARBY

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And Jehovah shewed him the whole land, Gilead to Dan,

Numbers 21:30 DARBY

And we have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even unto Dibon; and we have laid [them] waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba.

Jeremiah 7:29 DARBY

Cut off thy hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the heights; for Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

Ezekiel 7:18 DARBY

And they shall gird on sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

Jeremiah 48:37-39 DARBY

For every head is bald, and every beard clipped; upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. It is wholly lamentation upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the public places thereof; for I have broken Moab, like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith Jehovah. They howl, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! And Moab shall be a derision and a terror to all that are round about him.

Jeremiah 48:31 DARBY

Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir-heres shall there be moaning.

Jeremiah 48:22-23 DARBY

and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim; and upon Kirjathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon;

Jeremiah 47:5 DARBY

Baldness is come upon Gazah; Ashkelon is cut off, the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

Leviticus 19:27-28 DARBY

-- Ye shall not shave the corners of your head round, neither shalt thou mutilate the corners of thy beard. And cuttings for a dead person shall ye not make in your flesh, nor put any tattoo writing upon you: I am Jehovah.

Isaiah 22:12 DARBY

And in that day did the Lord Jehovah of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth;

Isaiah 16:12 DARBY

And it shall come to pass, when Moab shall appear, shall weary himself on the high place, and enter into his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.

Isaiah 16:7 DARBY

Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab; every one of them shall howl. For the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn, verily afflicted.

Isaiah 15:3 DARBY

In their streets they are girded with sackcloth; on their roofs, and in their broadways, every one howleth, melted into tears.

Isaiah 14:31 DARBY

Howl, O gate! cry, O city! thou, Philistia, art wholly dissolved; for there cometh from the north a smoke, and none remaineth apart in his gatherings [of troops].

Job 1:20 DARBY

And Job rose up, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshipped;

Joshua 13:16-17 DARBY

And their territory was from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the ravine, and all the plateau by Medeba; Heshbon, and all her cities that are in the plateau, Dibon, and Bamoth-Baal, and Beth-Baal-meon,

Deuteronomy 14:1 DARBY

Ye are sons of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for a dead person.

Numbers 32:38 DARBY

and Nebo, and Baal-meon (of which the names were changed), and Sibmah; and they gave other names to the cities that they built.

Numbers 32:3 DARBY

Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jaazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elaleh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

Commentary on Isaiah 15 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 15

Isa 15:1-9. The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters Form One Prophecy on Moab.

Lowth thinks it was delivered in the first years of Hezekiah's reign and fulfilled in the fourth when Shalmaneser, on his way to invade Israel, may have seized on the strongholds of Moab. Moab probably had made common cause with Israel and Syria in a league against Assyria. Hence it incurred the vengeance of Assyria. Jeremiah has introduced much of this prophecy into his forty-eighth chapter.

1. Because—rather, "Surely"; literally, "(I affirm) that" [Maurer].

night—the time best suited for a hostile incursion (Isa 21:4; Jer 39:4).

Ar—meaning in Hebrew, "the city"; the metropolis of Moab, on the south of the river Arnon.

Kir—literally, "a citadel"; not far from Ar, towards the south.

He—Moab personified.

Bajith—rather, "to the temple" [Maurer]; answering to the "sanctuary" (Isa 16:12), in a similar context.

to Dibon—Rather, as Dibon was in a plain north of the Arnon, "Dibon (is gone up) to the high places," the usual places of sacrifice in the East. Same town as Dimon (Isa 15:9).

to weep—at the sudden calamity.

over Nebo—rather "in Nebo"; not "on account of" Nebo (compare Isa 15:3) [Maurer]. The town Nebo was adjacent to the mountain, not far from the northern shore of the Dead Sea. There it was that Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped (compare De 34:1).

Medeba—south of Heshbon, on a hill east of Jordan.

baldness … beard cut off—The Orientals regarded the beard with peculiar veneration. To cut one's beard off is the greatest mark of sorrow and mortification (compare Jer 48:37).

3. tops of … houses—flat; places of resort for prayer, &c., in the East (Ac 10:9).

weeping abundantly—"melting away in tears." Horsley prefers "descending to weep." Thus there is a "parallelism by alternate construction" [Lowth], or chiasmus; "howl" refers to "tops of houses." "Descending to weep" to "streets" or squares, whither they descend from the housetops.

4. Heshbon—an Amorite city, twenty miles east of Jordan; taken by Moab after the carrying away of Israel (compare Jer 48:1-47).

Elealeh—near Heshbon, in Reuben.

Jahaz—east of Jordan, in Reuben. Near it Moses defeated Sihon.

therefore—because of the sudden overthrow of their cities. Even the armed men, instead of fighting in defense of their land, shall join in the general cry.

life, &c.—rather, "his soul is grieved" (1Sa 1:8) [Maurer].

5. My—The prophet himself is moved with pity for Moab. Ministers, in denouncing the wrath of God against sinners, should do it with tender sorrow, not with exultation.

fugitives—fleeing from Moab, wander as far as to Zoar, on the extreme boundary south of the Dead Sea. Horsley translates, "her nobility," or "rulers" (Ho 4:18).

heifer, &c.—that is, raising their voices "like a heifer" (compare Jer 48:34, 36). The expression "three years old," implies one at its full vigor (Ge 15:9), as yet not brought under the yoke; as Moab heretofore unsubdued, but now about to be broken. So Jer 31:18; Ho 4:13. Maurer translates, "Eglath" (in English Version, "a heifer") Shelishijah (that is, the third, to distinguish it from two others of the same name).

by the mounting up—up the ascent.

Luhith—a mountain in Moab.

Horonaim—a town of Moab not far from Zoar (Jer 48:5). It means "the two poles," being near caves.

cry of destruction—a cry appropriate to the destruction which visits their country.

6. For—the cause of their flight southwards (2Ki 3:19, 25). "For" the northern regions and even the city Nimrim (the very name of which means "limpid waters," in Gilead near Jordan) are without water or herbage.

7. Therefore—because of the devastation of the land.

abundance—literally, "that which is over and above" the necessaries of life.

brook of … willows—The fugitives flee from Nimrim, where the waters have failed, to places better watered. Margin has "valley of Arabians"; that is, to the valley on the boundary between them and Arabia-Petræa; now Wady-el Arabah. "Arabia" means a "desert."

8. Eglaim—(Eze 47:10), En-eglaim. Not the Agalum of Eusebius, eight miles from Areopolis towards the south; the context requires a town on the very borders of Moab or beyond them.

Beer-elim—literally, "the well of the Princes"—(so Nu 21:16-18). Beyond the east borders of Moab.

9. Dimon—same as Dibon (Isa 15:2). Its waters are the Arnon.

full of blood—The slain of Moab shall be so many.

bring more—fresh calamities, namely, the "lions" afterwards mentioned (2Ki 17:25; Jer 5:6; 15:3). Vitringa understands Nebuchadnezzar as meant by "the lion"; but it is plural, "lions." The "more," or in Hebrew, "additions," he explains of the addition made to the waters of Dimon by the streams of blood of the slain.