1 The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing.
Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Moab, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime; But I will send a fire on Moab, And it will devour the palaces of Kerioth; And Moab will die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; And I will cut off the judge from their midst, And will kill all its princes with him," says Yahweh.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations; therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim, to the children of the east, [to go] against the children of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations. and I will execute judgments on Moab; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon: It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.
Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, everyone shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir Hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken.
I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border. Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them. This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of Yahweh of Hosts. Yahweh will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.
Of Moab. Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disappointed, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down. The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, Madmen, shall be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue you. The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction! Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction. Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness. For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together. The destroyer shall come on every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken. Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get her away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein. Cursed be he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood. Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will send to him those who pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces. Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence. How say you, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war? Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Hosts. The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast. All you who are round about him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod! You daughter who dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab is come up against you, he has destroyed your strongholds. Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch: ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, What has been done? Moab is disappointed; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell you it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste. Judgment is come on the plain country, on Holon, and on Jahzah, and on Mephaath, and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth Diblathaim, and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth Gamul, and on Beth Meon, and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near. The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says Yahweh. Make you him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. For wasn't Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you wag the head. You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss. We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his wrath, says Yahweh, that it is nothing; his boastings have worked nothing. Therefore will I wail for Moab; yes, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir Heres shall they mourn. With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for you, vine of Sibmah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Jazer: on your summer fruits and on your vintage the destroyer is fallen. Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses: none shall tread with shouting; the shouting shall be no shouting. From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate. Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, says Yahweh, him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his gods. Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir Heres: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished. For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the loins sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets of it there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which none delights, says Yahweh. How is it broken down! [how] do they wail! how has Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are round about him. For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Moab. Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, inhabitant of Moab, says Yahweh. He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones. Woe to you, O Moab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity. Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
For in this mountain will the hand of Yahweh rest; and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-hill.
It happened at midnight, that Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. For when they are saying, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape.
Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the springs of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth [only] they left the stones of it; however the men armed with slings went about it, and struck it.
You are this day to pass over Ar, the border of Moab:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 15
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.