2 They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab wails over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.
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.
"'They shall not shave their heads, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; Instead of a belt, a rope; Instead of well set hair, baldness; Instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty.
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh shown him all the land of Gilead, to Dan,
Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
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.
Therefore will I wail for Moab; yes, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir Heres shall they mourn.
and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth Diblathaim, and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth Gamul, and on Beth Meon,
You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard. "'You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
In that day did the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, everyone shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir Hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken.
In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
Their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba; Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth Baal, and Beth Baal Meon,
and Nebo, and Baal Meon, (their names being changed), and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities which they built.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 15
Commentary on Isaiah 15 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 15
This chapter, and that which follows it, are the burden of Moab-a prophecy of some great desolation that was coming upon that country, which bordered upon this land of Israel, and had often been injurious and vexatious to it, though the Moabites were descended from Lot, Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though the Israelites, by the appointment of God, had spared them when they might both easily and justly have cut them off with their neighbours. In this chapter we have,
Isa 15:1-5
The country of Moab was of small extent, but very fruitful. It bordered upon the lot of Reuben on the other side Jordan and upon the Dead Sea. Naomi went to sojourn there when there was a famine in Canaan. This is the country which (it is here foretold) should be wasted and grievously harassed, not quite ruined, for we find another prophecy of its ruin (Jer. 48), which was accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy here was to be fulfilled within three years (ch. 16:14), and therefore was fulfilled in the devastations made of that country by the army of the Assyrians, which for many years ravaged those parts, enriching themselves with spoil and plunder. It was done either by the army of Shalmaneser, about the time of the taking of Samaria, in the fourth year of Hezekiah (as is most probable), or by the army of Sennacherib, which, ten years after, invaded Judah. We cannot suppose that the prophet went among the Moabites to preach to them this sermon; but he delivered it to his own people,
Now concerning Moab it is here foretold,
Isa 15:6-9
Here the prophet further describes the woeful and piteous lamentations that should be heard throughout all the country of Moab when it should become a prey to the Assyrian army. "By this time the cry has gone round about all the borders of Moab,' v. 8. Every corner of the country has received the alarm, and is in the utmost confusion upon it. It has reached to Eglaim, a city at one end of the country, and to Beer-elim, a city as far the other way. Where sin has been general, and all flesh have corrupted their way, what can be expected but a general desolation? Two things are here spoken of as causes of this lamentation:-