Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 15:1
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence;
1. The verse stands somewhat apart from the sequel of the poem. It announces the catastrophe which has placed the entire country at the mercy of the invaders, viz. the fall of the two chief cities of Moab. What follows is a description, not of the further progress of the campaign, but first of the universal mourning caused by this sudden blow, and second, of the flight of the inhabitants. The opening word because seems to have the force of an interjection, equivalent to “yea” or “surely.”
in the night ] may be meant literally (by a night attack), or we may render “in a night,” i.e. “suddenly.”
Ar ] the capital of Moab, lay on the Arnon (Num 21:15; Num 21:28). It is not to be confounded (as is sometimes done) with the later capital Rabba, which lies about 10 miles further south. Kir of Moab is the modern Kerak, some 17 miles S. of the Arnon. It is perhaps identical with Kir-hareseth or Kir Heres (ch. Isa 16:7; Isa 16:11; 2Ki 3:25); its situation has always been considered well-nigh impregnable. These two cities were both S. of the Arnon and therefore within the proper territory of Moab. Those mentioned in Isa 15:2-4 on the other hand were in the fertile district to the north (now called El-Belka), which Israel claimed for the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The possession of this coveted tract of country was one great motive of the interminable wars between the two nations. Mesha’s inscription on the Moabite Stone is really an account of the reconquest of this region from Ahab. At the time of the prophecy Moab must have long held undisputed possession of these lands.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The burden of Moab – (see the note at Isa 13:1). This is the title of the prophecy. The Chaldee renders this, The burden of the cup of malediction which is to come upon Moab.
Because in the night – The fact that this was to be done in the night denotes the suddenness with which the calamity would come upon them. Thus the expression is used in Job to denote the suddenness and surprise with which calamities come:
Terrors take hold on him as waters,
A tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Job 27:20
So a thief is represented as coming in the night – in a sudden and unexpected manner Job 24:14 :
The murderer in the night is as a thief.
See also Mat 24:43; 1Th 5:2; 2Pe 3:10; Rev 3:3; Rev 16:15.
Ar of Moab – This was the capital of Moab. it was situated on the south of the river Arnon. It was sometimes called Rabbath Moab. Isaiah Isa 16:7-11 calls it the city with walls of burnt brick. Under the name of Areopolis it occurs in Eusebius and Stephen of Byzantium, and in the acts of many Synods of the fifth and sixth centuries, when it was the seat of a bishop (Relands Palestine, pp. 577, 578). Abulfeda says that in his time it was a small town. Jerome says that the city was destroyed by an earthquake when he was young, probably about 315 a.d. Burckhardt found a place called Rabba about twenty miles south of the river Arnon, which he supposed to be the ancient Ar. Seetsen found there ruins of considerable compass; especially the ruins of an old palace or temple, of which portions of the wall and some pillars are still standing. Legh says, There are no traces of fortifications to be seen; but, upon an eminence, were a dilapidated Roman temple and some tanks.
Is laid waste – That is, is about to be laid waste. This passed before the mind of Isaiah in a vision, and he represents it as it appeared to him, as already a scene of desolation.
And brought to silence – Margin, Cut off. The word may mean either. The sense is, that the city was to be destroyed, for so the word damah often means Hos 4:5-6; Hos 10:7, Hos 10:15; Jer 6:2; Jer 47:5; Zep 1:11.
Kir of Moab – Probably this city was the modern Kerek or Karak. The Chaldee renders it by the name keraka’, or fortress, hence, the name Kerek or Karak. According to Burckhardt, it lies about three hours, and according to Abulfeda twelve Arabic miles, south of Ar Moab, upon a very high and steep rocky hill, from which the prospect extends even to Jerusalem, and which, formed by nature for a fortress, overlooks the whole surrounding country. In the wars of the Maccabees (2 Macc. 12:17) it is mentioned under the name of Karaka, and it is now known by the name of Kerek or Karak. In the time of the crusades, a pagan prince built there under king Fulco (in the year 1131) a very important castle, which was very serviceable to the Franks, and in 1183 it held out successfully against a formidable siege of a month by Saladin. Abulfeda speaks of it as so strong a fortress that one must abandon even the wish to take it. It has been visited in modern times by Seetsen, Burckhardt, and the company of English travelers referred to above. The place has still a castle, into which the whole surrounding country brings its grain for safe keeping. The small and poor town is built upon the remains of once important edifices, and is inhabited by Moslems and Christians. It is the seat of a bishop, though the bishop resides at Jerusalem (see Gesenius, Commentary in loc.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 15:1-9
The harden of Moab
The Moabite stone
From the inscription of Mesha (c. 900 B.C.), found at Dibon in 1869, and commonly known as the Moabite stone, we learn that the Moabites spoke a language differing only dialectically from Hebrew; and it is probable also that, in matters of material prosperity and civilisation, Moab stood hardly upon an inferior level to Israel itself. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The prophets pity for Moab
There is no prophecy in the Book of Isaiah in which the heart of the prophet is so painfully moved by what his spirit beholds and his mouth must prophesy. All that he prophesies is felt as deeply by him as if he belonged to the poor people whose messenger of misfortune he is compelled to be. (F. Delitzsch.)
In the night
Ar and Kir of Moab
The seizing of them laid the whole country open, and made all the wealth of it an easy prey to the victorious army.
1. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Here are two cities lost in a night, though that is the time of quietness. Let us, therefore, lie down as those who know not what a night may bring forth.
2. As the country feeds the cities, so the cities protect the country, and neither can say to the other, I have no need of thee. (M. Henry.)
God works in the night time
1. Man has but a little day to work in, but Gods working hours never cease; man becomes weary with his days work, and lies down to rest, and whilst he is in slumber destruction swiftly overtakes him, so that the morning looks upon a branch cut off, a city laid to waste and brought to silence.
2. Men should diligently consider this in musing upon the judgments of providence. They cannot always be awake; they cannot always be upon the walls defending the fortress; they must retire for a time to renew their strength, and whilst they are resting the enemy acquires additional power, and comes down upon their boasted masonry, and hurls it to the dust.
3. Only the Christian man has confidence in the night time. He says, He that keepeth me will not slumber nor sleep.
4. God is against evil-workers, and it delights Him to trouble them by nightly visits, so that in the morning they cannot recall their own plans and purposes, or give an account of that which has happened whilst their eyes have been closed in sleep.
5. Have we any safety in the darkness? Have we made no provision for the night time? If not, then woe will fall upon us, and when the morning comes it will rise upon a scene of desolation. Remember what God said to the fool in the parable who was counting his riches, and forecasting the happy years which his soul was to enjoy–Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
6. Ponder deeply upon the moral of night; the darkness should instruct us, remind us of our exhaustion, helplessness, and dependence upon others for security and rest, and should, above all things, lead us to put our confidence in Him to whom the darkness and the light are both alike. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XV
Prediction of very heavy calamities about to fall upon the
Moabites, 1-9.
This and the following chapter, taken together, make one entire prophecy, very improperly divided into two parts. The time of its delivery, and consequently of its accomplishment, which was to be in three years from that time, is uncertain; the former not being marked in the prophecy itself, nor the latter recorded in history. But the most probable account is, that it was delivered soon after the foregoing, in the first year of Hezekiah; and that it was accomplished in his fourth year, when Shalmaneser invaded the kingdom of Israel. He might probably march through Moab; and to secure every thing behind him, possess himself of the whole country, by taking their principal strong places Ar and Kirhares. – L. The authorized Version which we have followed in the margin, places the prophecy in this chapter fourteen years earlier than that contained in the two preceding,
Jeremiah has happily introduced much of this prophecy of Isaiah into his own larger prophecy against the same people in his forty-eighth chapter, denouncing God’s judgment on Moab, subsequent to the calamity here foretold, and to be executed by Nebuchadnezzar; by which means several mistakes of transcribers in the present text of both prophets may be rectified.
NOTES ON CHAP. XV
Verse 1. Because in the night] beleil. That both these cities should be taken in the night is a circumstance somewhat unusual; but not so material as to deserve to be so strongly insisted upon. Vitringa, by his remark on this word, shows that he was dissatisfied with it in its plain and obvious meaning, and is forced to have recourse to a very hard metaphorical interpretation of it. Noctu vel nocturno impetu; vel metaphorice, repente, subito, inexpectata destructione: placet posterius. Calmet conjectures, and I think it probable, that the true reading is keleil, as the night. There are many mistakes in the Hebrew text arising from the very great similitude of the letters beth, and caph, which in many MSS., and some printed editions, are hardly distinguishable. Admitting this reading, the translation will be, –
“Because Ar is utterly destroyed, Moab is undone!
Because Kir is utterly destroyed, Moab is undone!”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The burden of Moab; a prophecy of the destruction of the Moabites, the inveterate and implacable enemies of the Jews, begun by the Assyrian, and finished by the Babylonian emperors.
In the night; or, in a night; suddenly and unexpectedly; for men sleep securely in the night, and therefore the evils which then overtake them are most terrible to them.
Ar; the chief city of Moab, Num 21:28; Deu 2:9.
Brought to silence; or rather, is cut off, as the word oft signifies, as Jer 47:5; Hos 10:7,15, and elsewhere. Kir; another eminent city of Moab, called more largely and fully Kir-heres, and Kir-hareseth, Isa 16:7,11; Jer 48:31,36.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Becauserather, “Surely”;literally, “(I affirm) that” [MAURER].
nightthe time bestsuited for a hostile incursion (Isa 21:4;Jer 39:4).
Armeaning in Hebrew,“the city”; the metropolis of Moab, on the south of theriver Arnon.
Kirliterally, “acitadel”; not far from Ar, towards the south.
HeMoab personified.
Bajithrather, “tothe temple” [MAURER];answering to the “sanctuary” (Isa16:12), in a similar context.
to DibonRather, asDibon was in a plain north of the Arnon, “Dibon (is goneup) to the high places,” the usual places of sacrifice in theEast. Same town as Dimon (Isa15:9).
to weepat the suddencalamity.
over Neborather “inNebo”; not “on account of” Nebo (compare Isa15:3) [MAURER]. Thetown Nebo was adjacent to the mountain, not far from the northernshore of the Dead Sea. There it was that Chemosh, the idol of Moab,was worshipped (compare De 34:1).
Medebasouth ofHeshbon, on a hill east of Jordan.
baldness . . . beard cutoffThe Orientals regarded the beard with peculiar veneration.To cut one’s beard off is the greatest mark of sorrow andmortification (compare Jer 48:37).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The burden of Moab,…. A heavy, grievous prophecy, concerning the destruction of Moab. The Targum is,
“the burden of the cup of cursing, to give Moab to drink.”
This seems to respect the destruction of it by Nebuchadnezzar, which is prophesied of in Jer 48:1 for that which was to be within three years, Isa 16:14 looks like another and distinct prophecy from this; though some think this was accomplished before the times of Nebuchadnezzar, either by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, some time before the captivity of the ten tribes, as Vitringa and others; or by Sennacherib, after the invasion of Judea, so Jarchi.
Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence; this was a chief city in Moab, perhaps the metropolis of it; see Nu 21:28. Kimchi conjectures it to be the same with Aroer, which was by the brink of the river Arnon, De 2:36 De 3:12 and is mentioned with Dibon, as this, in Nu 32:34 of which notice is taken, and not of Ar, in Jer 48:19. Some versions take Ar to signify a “city”, and render it, “the city of Moab”, without naming what city it was; and the Targum calls it by another name, Lahajath; but, be it what city it will, it was destroyed in the night; in such a night, as Kimchi interprets it; in the space of a night, very suddenly, when the inhabitants of it were asleep and secure, and had no notice of danger; and so the Targum adds,
“and they were asleep.”
Some have thought this circumstance is mentioned with a view to the night work, that work of darkness of Lot and his daughter, which gave rise to Moab; however, in a night this city became desolate, being taken and plundered, and its inhabitants put to the sword, and so reduced to silence; though the last word may as well be rendered “cut off” n, utterly destroyed, being burnt or pulled down; two words are made use of, to denote the utter destruction of it:
because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence; either in the same night, or rather in another. Kir, another city of Moab, met with the same fate as Ar. This is called Kirhareseth, and Kirharesh, in Isa 16:7 and so Kirheres in
Jer 48:31 called Kir of Moab, to distinguish it from Kir in Assyria, Am 1:5 and Kir in Media, Isa 22:6.
n “succisus”, Pagninus, Montanus; “excisa”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. So Ben Melech interprets it by .
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There is no other prophecy in the book of Isaiah in which the heart of the prophet is so painfully affected by what his mind sees, and his mouth is obliged to prophesy. All that he predicts evokes his deepest sympathy, just as if he himself belonged to the unfortunate nation to which he is called to be a messenger of woe. He commences with an utterance of amazement. “Oracle concerning Moab! for in a night ‘Ar-Moab is laid waste, destroyed; for in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, destroyed.” The ci (for) is explanatory in both instances, and not simply affirmative, or, as Knobel maintains, recitative, and therefore unmeaning. The prophet justifies the peculiar heading to his prophecy from the horrible vision given him to see, and takes us at once into the very heart of the vision, as in Isa 17:1; Isa 23:1. ‘Ar Moab (in which ‘Ar is Moabitish for ‘Ir; cf., Jer 49:3, where we find ‘Ai written instead of ‘Ar, which we should naturally expect) is the name of the capital of Moab (Grecized, Areopolis), which was situated to the south of the Arnon, at present a large field of ruins, with a village of the name of Rabba. Kir Moab (in which Kir is the Moabitish for Kiryah) was the chief fortress of Joab, which was situated to the south-east of Ar, the present Kerek, where there is still a town with a fortification upon a rock, which can be seen from Jerusalem with a telescope on a clear day, and forms so thoroughly one mass with the rock, that in 1834, when Ibrahim Pasha resolved to pull it down, he was obliged to relinquish the project. The identity of Kir and Kerek is unquestionable, but that of Ar and Rabba has been disputed; and on the ground of Num 22:36, where it seems to be placed nearer the Arnon, it has been transposed to the ruins on the pasture land at the confluence of the Lejm and Mujib (= “the city that is by the river” in Deu 2:36 and Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16: see Comm. on Num 21:15) – a conjecture which has this against it, that the name Areopolis, which has been formed from Ar, is attached to the “ metropolis civitas Ar ,” which was called Rabba as the metropolis, and of which Jerome relates (on the passage before us), as an event associated with his own childhood, that it was then destroyed by an earthquake (probably in 342). The two names of the cities are used as masculine here, like Dammesek in Isa 17:1, and Tzor in Isa 23:1, though it cannot therefore be said, as at Mic 5:1, that the city stands for the inhabitants (Ges. Lehrgebude, p. 469). “ In a night ” ( absolute, as in Isa 21:11, not construct, which would give an illogical assertion, as shuddad and nidmah are almost coincident, so far as the sense is concerned) the two pillars of the strength of Moab are overthrown. In the space of a night, and therefore very suddenly (Isa 17:14), Moab is destroyed. The prophet repeats twice what it would have been quite sufficient to say once, just as if he had been condemned to keep his eye fixed upon the awful spectacle (on the asyndeton, see at Isa 33:9; and on the anadiplosis, Isa 15:8; Isa 8:9; Isa 21:11; Isa 17:12-13). His first sensation is that of horror.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Burden of Moab. | B. C. 725. |
1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; 2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. 3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly. 4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him. 5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, a heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
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. xlviii.), which was accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy here was to be fulfilled within three years (ch. xvi. 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, 1. To show them that, though judgment begins at the house of God, it shall not end there,–that there is a providence which governs the world and all the nations of it,–and that to the God of Israel the worshippers of false gods were accountable, and liable to his judgments. 2. To give them a proof of God’s care of them and jealousy for them, and to convince them that God was an enemy to their enemies, for such the Moabites had often been. 3. That the accomplishment of this prophecy now shortly (within three years) might be a confirmation of the prophet’s mission and of the truth of all his other prophecies, and might encourage the faithful to depend upon them.
Now concerning Moab it is here foretold,
I. That their chief cities should be surprised and taken in a night by the enemy, probably because the inhabitants, as the men of Laish, indulged themselves in ease and luxury, and dwelt securely (v. 1): Therefore there shall be great grief, because in the night Air of Moab is laid waste and Kir of Moab, the two principal cities of that kingdom. In the night that they were taken, or sacked, Moab was cut off. The seizing of them laid the whole country open, and made all the wealth of it an easy prey to the victorious army. Note, 1. Great changes and very dismal ones may be made in a very little time. Here are two cities lost in a night, though that is the time of quietness. Let us therefore lie down as those that know not what a night may bring forth. 2. As the country feeds the cities, so the cities protect the country, and neither can say to the other, I have no need of thee.
II. That the Moabites, being hereby put into the utmost consternation imaginable, should have recourse to their idols for relief, and pour out their tears before them (v. 2): He (that is, Moab, especially the king of Moab) has gone up to Bajith (or rather to the house or temple of Chemosh), and Dibon, the inhabitants of Dibon, have gone up to the high places, where they worshipped their idols, there to make their complaints. Note, It becomes a people in distress to seek to their God; and shall not we then thus walk in the name of the Lord our God, and call upon him in the time of trouble, before whom we shall not shed such useless profitless tears as they did before their gods?
III. That there should be the voice of universal grief all the country over. It is described here elegantly and very affectingly. Moab shall be a vale of tears–a little map of this world, v. 2. The Moabites shall lament the loss of Nebo and Medeba, two considerable cities, which, it is likely, were plundered and burnt. They shall tear their hair for grief to such a degree that on all their heads shall be baldness, and they shall cut off their beards, according to the customary expressions of mourning in those times and countries. When they go abroad they shall be so far from coveting to appear handsome that in the streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth (v. 3), and perhaps being forced to use that poor clothing, the enemy having stripped them, and rifled their houses, and left them no other clothing. When they come home, instead of applying themselves to their business, they shall go up to the tops of their houses which were flat-roofed, and there they shall weep abundantly, nay, they shall howl, in crying to their gods. Those that cry not to God with their hearts do but howl upon their beds,Hos 7:14; Amo 8:3. They shall come down with weeping (so the margin reads it); they shall come down from their high places and the tops of their houses weeping as much as they did when they went up. Prayer to the true God is heart’s ease (1 Sam. i. 18), but prayers to false gods are not. Divers places are here named that should be full of lamentation (v. 4), and it is but a poor relief to have so many fellow-sufferers, fellow-mourners; to a public spirit it is rather an aggravation socios habuisse doloris–to have associates in woe.
IV. That the courage of their militia should fail them. Though they were bred soldiers, and were well armed, yet they shall cry out and shriek for fear, and every one of them shall have his life become grievous to him, though it is characteristic of a military life to delight in danger, v. 4. See how easily God can dispirit the stoutest of men, and deprive a nation of benefit by those whom it most depended upon for strength and defence. The Moabites shall generally be so overwhelmed with grief that life itself shall be a burden to them. God can easily make weary of life those that are fondest of it.
V. That the outcry for these calamities should propagate grief to all the adjacent parts, v. 5. 1. The prophet himself has very sensible impressions made upon his spirit by the prediction of it: “My heart shall cry out for Moab; though they are enemies to Israel, they are our fellow-creatures, of the same rank with us, and therefore it should grieve us to see them in such distress, the rather because we know not how soon it may be our own turn to drink of the same cup of trembling.” Note, It becomes God’s ministers to be of a tender spirit, not to desire the woeful day, but to be like their master, who wept over Jerusalem even when he gave her up to ruin, like their God, who desires not the death of sinners. 2. All the neighbouring cities shall echo to the lamentations of Moab. The fugitives, who are making the best of their way to shift for their own safety, shall carry the cry to Zoar, the city to which their ancestor Lot fled for shelter from Sodom’s flames and which was spared for his sake. They shall make as great a noise with their cry as a heifer of three years old does when she goes lowing for her calf, as 1 Sam. vi. 12. They shall go up the hill of Luhith (as David went up the ascent of Mount Olivet, many a weary step and all in tears, 2 Sam. xv. 30), and in the way of Horonaim (a dual termination), the way that leads to the two Beth-horons, the upper and the nether, which we read of, Jos 16:3; Jos 16:5. Thither the cry shall be carried, there it shall be raised, even at that great distance: A cry of destruction; that shall be the cry, like, “Fire, fire! we are all undone.” Grief is catching, so is fear, and justly, for trouble is spreading and when it begins who knows where it will end?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 15
ORACLE CONCERNING MOAB, (Verse 1-9)
1. The Moabites were the descendants of Lot, through incestuous union with his oldest daughter (Gen 19:37); their land was the mountainous plateau East of the Dead Sea. They had been perpetual enemies of Israel.
2. The whole land is pictured as being in mourning, (Verse 1-4).
a. On the housetops, in the streets and broad ways, there is weeping, wailing, sackcloth, baldness of head and shaven beards, (Lev 21:5; Jer 48:37-38; comp. Isa 22:4).
b. Moab is laid waste, brought to naught, and made desolate -suddenly and “in the night”.
3. In pity, Isaiah’s heart cries out for Moab – her waters made desolate, her grass withered, with no green thing left, (Verse 5-6; comp. Jer 4:19-20; Jer 31:18).
4. The abundance they have stored up for themselves is seen being carried away over the brook of willows, (Verse 7; comp. 2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:25; Isa 30:6-7; Jer 48:36).
5. That a great slaughter has taken place is evidenced by the fact that: “The waters of Dimon are full of blood”, (Verse 8-9a).
6. And still further calamity is to befall the remnant that has escaped, (Verse 9 b; comp. 2Ki 17:24-26; Jer 5:6; Jer 15:3; Jer 50:17).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. The burden of Moab. Here the Prophet prophesies against the Moabites, who were neighbors to the Jews and related to them by blood; for we know that the Moabites were descended from Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew. (Gen 11:31.) Those nations being so closely related, humanity at least demanded that they should maintain some friendly intercourse with each other. But no relationship prevented the Moabites from cherishing hostility towards the Jews, or even from harassing them whenever it was in their power; which is an evidence of a savage and barbarous disposition. To them also, on account of their cruelty towards the people of God, to whom they ought to have conducted themselves with brotherly love, the Prophet therefore threatens destruction.
We ought to remember the design of these predictions. It cannot be believed that they were of any advantage to the Moabites, even though they had heard from the mouth of the Prophet himself the words which we read; but he neither addressed them with his voice, nor sent to them a written communication. It was therefore to believers, rather than to them, that the Prophet looked, and for two reasons. The first reason was, that when they saw so many changes taking place, cities overturned, kingdoms destroyed and succeeding one another, they might not think that this world is governed by the blind violence of fortune, but might acknowledge the providence of God. If nothing had been foretold, the minds of men, having a strong tendency to foolishness, and being strangely blind to the works of God, might have been disposed to attribute all this to chance; but when they had been forewarned by the Prophets, they beheld the judgments of God as from a lofty watch-tower. To us also in the present day Isaiah has, as it were, pointed out with the finger what was then hidden. In his predictions we behold God sitting on his judgment-seat, and regulating everything according to his pleasure; and although the wicked in various ways vented their mad rage, still the Lord made use of their agency to execute his judgments. The second design which the prophets had in view was, that while the whole world was shaken, the Jews might know that God took care of their safety, and that he testified the warmth of his affection for the Church, by taking vengeance on her enemies by whom she had been barbarously treated.
Ar-Moab. The Hebrew word ער ( Ar) means a city; as קיר ( kir) means a wall; but as ער מואב ( Ar-Moab) was one of the chief cities of the Moabites, it is supposed to be here a proper name. We might indeed explain both words as appellatives, to convey a threatening of the overthrow of the fortified towns of which the Moabites are proud; but I rather adopt the ordinary interpretation. Here therefore Isaiah has given a description, that we may behold in it the overthrow of the Moabites, when their chief cities are destroyed.
In the night. By the night he means a sudden and unexpected occurrence, which the Moabites did not dread. Night being appropriated to rest, if anything happen at that time, it is viewed as sudden and unlooked for, and therefore excites violent alarm. Besides, he intended to rebuke the Moabites for being free from anxiety, considering themselves to be fortified by defences on every hand, and placed beyond the reach of all danger.
Is brought to silence. That is, is destroyed, and hence also Silence sometimes means Death. Others disregard the metaphor, and choose to render it, She is cut off; but I leave that point undecided. What Isaiah declares as to the Moabites, Scripture pronounces as to the reprobate, that destruction is at hand, and, when they are looking for nothing of that kind, will fearfully overwhelm them. (Jer 23:19.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
B. IMPUDENT EASTERNERS CHAPTERS 1517
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1.
MOAB
a. INVASION
TEXT: Isa. 15:1-9
1
The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought.
2
They are gone up by Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.
3
In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one waileth, weeping abundantly.
4
And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him.
5
My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles flee unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.
6
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the brook of the willows.
8
For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the wailing thereof unto Eglaim, and the wailing thereof unto Beer-elim.
9
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon them of Moab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land.
QUERIES
a.
Why baldness on every head and beards cut off?
b.
Whose heart crieth out for Moab?
PARAPHRASE
Gods message to Moab: In a night your cities of Ar and Kir will be destroyed. Your people go mourning to Bayith and Dibon, their pagan temples and altars, to weep for the fate of Nebo and Medeba; they shave their heads and cut off their beards in public display of their grief. They wear sackcloth through the streets, and from every home comes the sound of weeping. The weeping and wailing from the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh are heard very far away, even in Jahaz. The bravest warriors of Moab cry in utter terror. There are no heroes in Moab now! My heart weeps for Moab! His people flee as refugees to Zoar and Eglath. Weeping, they climb the upward road to Luhith, and their moaning will be heard all along the road to Horonaim. Nimrim River is desolate! The grassy banks are dried up and the tender plants are gone. The desperate refugees take all their possessions they can carry, and flee across the Brook of Willows. The whole land of Moab is a land of weeping, from one end to the other. The waters of Dimon will run red with blood. But I am not through with Dimon yet! For the refugees of Moab I have appointed a lion to hunt them down.
COMMENTS
Isa. 15:1-4 DESOLATION: Moab the arrogant, the insolent, will be overtaken by a destroyer in such suddenness it will transpire in only a night, as it were. Moab was a grandson of Lot by incest with his elder daughter (Gen. 19:30-38). Israel, on its march to the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, was seduced when Balaam a prophet of God advised Balak, king of Moab, how best to resist Israel. Moab dominated and exploited Israel for 18 years during the reign of Eglon, king of Moab, but was delivered by the Israelite judge, Ehud (Jdg. 3:30).
God, through His prophets, pronounced Moabs doom for her pagan sins and atrocities (human sacrifice, etc.). Isaiahs prediction of complete desolation was fulfilled by Shalmanezer of Assyria and his successors (Cf. also Eze. 25:8-11; Jer. 48:1 ff; Zep. 2:8-11). A vivid picture of Semitic or Oriental demonstrativeness is portrayed, When peoples of these races mourn they do so in a highly emotional state and make a public display of it by shaving their heads and beards, by tearing their clothes, by wearing sackcloth, and by weeping and wailing so abundantly they literally exhaust themselves emotionally over it all and collapse in tears. The bloody destruction of the Assyrian hordes in this territory was awful to behold.
Isa. 15:5-9 DESPERATION: The speaker in this verse is no doubt Isaiah himself. He is a man of God, tender in his regard for human beings. He is not oblivious to the great suffering of this neighbor nation, (Cf. Isa. 16:9; Isa. 16:11). There were racial and social ties between Israel and Moab, as well as hostilities. In the days of the judges Elimelech of Bethlehem took his family to Moab to sojourn during a famine; there his two sons married and died, and Ruth, the Moabitess returned with Naomi, married Boaz and became an ancestress of David. David, when in difficulty with King Saul, took his father and mother to the king of Moab for his protection (1Sa. 22:3-4).
So Isaiahs heart is touched with this prediction of the desperation of the Moabites. Isaiah paints a picture of thousands of weeping refugees fleeing their homes and cities, carrying what possessions they could hastily snatch up in a moments desperation. They flee southward for asylum in Edom. The slaughter by the Assyrian armies rampages until the waters of Dimon are stained red with human blood! Those that remain in Moab, and even those that flee, have still more slaughter and destruction to come upon them. God will send a lion (probably the Babylonians and Persians to come) to hunt them down. Such is the destiny of proud and inhuman Moab !
QUIZ
1.
What is Moabs origin?
2.
What dealings did Moab have with Israel in Israels early history?
3.
How do Semitics demonstrate their grief?
4.
What ties were there between Moab and Israel?
5.
Where did the Moabites flee for refuge at the Assyrian invasion?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XV.
(1) The burden of Moab.The oracle which fills the next two chapters deals with the coming history of Moab. The comparative obscurity of that history, the names of towns and villages which it is difficult to identify, present a striking contrast to the evolution of the great world-drama which is brought before us in the burden of Babylon. What light can be thrown on that obscurity must be gathered from what we can learn of the contemporary history of Moab and its relation to Israel. This we know partly from the record of 2 Kings 3, partly from the inscription of the Moabite stone found at Diban, in 1860, by Mr. Klein, and translated by Dr. Ginsburg in Records of the Past, xi. 163. Combining the information from these two sources, we find that Omri and Ahab had subdued Moab when that nation was governed by Chemosh-Gad of Dibon, and had compelled him to pay a sheep tribute reckoned by hundreds of thousands. When Jehoram succeeded Ahab, Mesha, the son of Chemosh-Gad, revolted, and the Moabite inscription records the successful issue of the campaign. Jehoram entered into an alliance with Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom. The Moabites were defeated. Their trees were cut down, their wells stopped, and their land made barren. The king of Moab in his despair offered up his son as a sacrifice to Chemosh in the sight of both armies. With that sacrifice apparently the tide of victory turned. Mesha, in his inscription, records how he took Nebo from Israel and slew seven thousand men, and built or restored fortified towns, and offered the vessels of Jehovah, taken probably from the sanctuaries of the high places of Nebo. Exulting in the memory of this victory, Moab became exceeding proud (Isa. 16:6), and in a psalm, probably contemporary with Isaiah (see the mention of Assur, or Assyria, in Psa. 83:8), they are named as among the enemies of Judah, joined with the Philistines and Assyrians. It is probable enough that, having been kept in check-by the prosperous rule of Uzziah, they took advantage of the weakness of Ahaz to renew hostilities, and were looking, half with dread, half with hope, to the Assyrian power. It may be noted here that the following cities named in these chaptersDibon, Medeba, Nebo, Horonaimoccur also in the Moabite stone, which thus renders a striking testimony to their antiquity, and, so far, to their authenticity. (Comp. Jeremiah 48, which is, to a large extent, a reproduction of Isaiahs language.)
Ar of Moab is laid waste.This was apparently the older capital (Num. 21:28; Deu. 2:9), sometimes known as Rabbath Moab. In Jeromes time it was known as Areopolis, the Greeks catching, probably, at the resemblance between the name Ar and that of their god, Ares. Probably Ar was a Moabite form of the Hebrew Ir, a city. One of the names survives in the modern Rabba; but the ruins are comparatively insignificant. The prophet begins with words of threatening. Both that city and Kir (here again the word means city, and if we identify it, as most experts do, with Kerek, the castle on a hill, which rises to 1,000 feet above the Dead Sea, it must have been the strongest of the Moabite fortresses) were to be attacked at night, when resistance was most hopeless. So Mesha boasts (Records of the Past, xi. 66) that he had taken Nebo by a night attack. We note the emphasis of iteration in the words laid waste and brought to silence. The latter clause would be more accurately rendered cut off, or destroyed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The burden of Moab “Burden,” here, may indicate “prophecy,” at first orally uttered, afterward written up. If an old prophecy has been a basis of utterance, it is now modified and adopted as Isaiah’s. See same case in Jeremiah 47, and a similar case in Isa 2:1-5.
Because Hebrew, , ( ki,) elliptically, “it is that.” Gesenius renders it, verily.
In the night in the night Poetic repetition here possibly indicates a fact of frequent occurrence. As in these times in that country, so then, no doubt, towns and great encampments were occasionally overthrown in a single night by earthquakes or invading hordes.
Ar of Moab The city of Moab, the only city of account Moab proper had, situated south of the Arnon, not on it, though Num 21:15 speaks of it as if it were at the northern border on the Arnon: this, because no other city intervened. See TRISTRAM, Land of Moab, p. 120.
Kir of Moab Now Kir-Hareseth, Isa 16:7, some two miles south of Ar, according to present ruins.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The burden of Moab.
For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste,
It is brought to nought.
For in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste.
It is brought to nought.
He is gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon,
To the high places to weep.
Moab howls over Nebo,
And over Medeba.
On all their heads is baldness,
Every beard is cut off.’
In chapter 14 Isaiah ended with the approaching dust clouds of the Assyrian army, and the failing hearts of the Philistines. Now he moves on to their actual approach on one of the rebel nations, on Moab. The inevitable is described. Assyria’s power is such that nothing human can stand before their armies. So effective is their siege expertise that the cities of Ar and Kir are both laid waste in a single night. Both are brought to nought.
However Kir means ‘city’. Thus the idea may be of ‘each city’ rather than one particular city, that is, a number of cities. Indeed Nebo and Medeba have fallen. The cities are mentioned in the main from south to north. ‘He’ is probably Moab. So the idea is that the Moabites go to Bayith and Debir to weep before their gods in the high places. The whole of Moab weeps. They make themselves bald and cut off their beards, both evidences of severe mourning.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 15:7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
Isa 15:7
Psa 137:1-2, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies Against the Nations Isa 13:1 to Isa 27:13 records prophecies against twelve nations, culminating with praise unto the Lord. God planted the nation of Israel in the midst of the nations as a witness of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Instead of embracing God’s promises and commandments to mankind, the nations rejected Israel and their God, then they participated in Israel’s destruction. Although God judges His people, He also judged these nations, the difference being God promised to restore and redeem Israel, while the nations received no future hope of restoration in their prophecies; yet, their opportunity for restoration is found in Israel’s rejection when God grafts the Church into the vine of Israel (Rom 11:11-32). The more distant nations played little or no role in Israel’s idolatry, demise, and divine judgment, so they are not listed in this passage of Scripture.
It is important to note in prophetic history that Israel’s judgment is followed by judgment upon the nations; and Israel’s final restoration is followed by the restoration of the nations and the earth. Thus, some end time scholars believe that the events that take place in Israel predict parallel events that are destined to take place among the nations.
Here is a proposed outline:
1. Judgment upon Babylon Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27
2. Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32
3. Judgment upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14
4. Judgment upon Damascus Isa 17:1-14
5. Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7
6. Judgment upon Egypt Isa 19:1-25
7. Prophecy Against Ethiopia & Egypt Isa 20:1-6
8. Judgment upon the Wilderness of the Sea Isa 21:1-10
9. Judgment upon Dumah Isa 21:11-12
10. Judgment upon Arabia Isa 21:13-17
11. Judgment upon Judah Isa 22:1-25
12. Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18
13. Judgment upon the Earth Isa 24:1-23
14. Praise to God for Israel’s Restoration Isa 25:1 to Isa 27:13
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Judgment Upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14 record’s Isaiah’s prophecy against Moab.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecy against Moab.
v. 1. The burden, v. 2. He, v. 3. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth, v. 4. And Heshbon, v. 5. My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old, v. 6. For the waters of Nimrim, v. 7. Therefore, v. 8. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab, v. 9. For the waters of Dimon,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 15:1-9
THE BURDEN OF MOAB. The present chapter and the next are very closely connected, and may be regarded as together constituting “the burden of Moab.” It has been argued on critical grounds that the bulk of the prophecy is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he has merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there (so Gesenius, Rosenmller, Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, Knobel, and Cheyne). Jeremiah is thought to have also based his “judgment of Moab” (Jer 48:1-47.) on the same early writing. But speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain, and moreover lead to no results of the slightest importance. It is best, therefore, to regard Isaiah as the author of these two chapters. Having threatened Philistia, Israel’s nearest enemy upon the west, he turns to Moab, her nearest foe towards the east.
Isa 15:1
Because. An elliptical beginning. Mr. Cheyne supposes some such words as “Lament for Moab,” or “Alas for Moab!” to have been in the writer’s mind, but to have been omitted through “lyrical excitement.” In the night. This is best taken literally. Night attacks, though not common in antiquity, were not unknown. Mesha, King of Moab, boasts that he “went in the night” against Nebo, and assaulted it at early dawn (Moabite Stone, I. 15). Ar of Moab; or, Ar-Moab. An ancient city, mentioned among those taken from the Moabites by Sihon (Num 21:28). According to Jerome, it was called in Roman times Areopolis, or Rabbath-Moab. Modern geographers identify it with Rabba, a place on the old Roman road between Kerak and Arair, south of the Amen, where there are some ancient remains, though they are not very extensive. Is laid waste, and brought to silence; rather, is stormed, is ruined. Kir of Moab. “Kir of Moab” is reasonably identified with Kerak, a place very strongly situated on a mountain peak, about ten miles flora the south-eastern corner of the Dead Sea.
Isa 15:2
He is gone to Bajith; rather, he is gone to the temple. Probably the temple of Baal at Beth-baal-meon is intended. Beth-baal-meon is ‘mentioned in close connection with Dibon in Jos 13:17. And to Dibon. Diboa is mentioned in Num 21:30; Num 32:3, Num 32:34; Jos 13:9, Jos 13:17; Jer 48:18, Jer 48:22. It was an ancient Moabite town of considerable importance, and has recently been identified with the site called Diban, where the Moabite Stone was found. This place is situated in the country east of the Dead Sea, about three miles north of the river Arnon, on the old Roman road connecting Rabbath-Moab with Hesh-bob. The town seems to have gained in importance from the fact that it was the birthplace of Chemosh-Gad, Mesha’s father (Moabite Stone, 1. 2). Mesha added to its territory (ibid; 1.21). It is extremely probable that it was the site of one of the Moabite “high places,” and was therefore naturally one of the places whereto the Moabites, when afflicted, went up” to weep.” Over Nebo, and over Medeba. Nebe and Medeba were also ancient Moabite towns. Nebo is mentioned in Num 32:3, Num 32:38; Num 33:47; 1Ch 5:8; Jer 48:1, Jer 48:22. It seems to have lain almost midway between Beth-baal-meon (Main) and Medeba, about three or four miles south-east of Heshbon. Medeba obtains notice in Num 21:30; Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16; 1Ch 19:7. Mesha says that it was taken from the Moabites by Omri, King of Israel, but recovered by himself at the end of forty ‘years (Moabite Stone, 11. 7-9). It lay south-east of Hesh-ben, at the spot which still retains the old nameMadeba. It has been suggested that there was at Nebo a shrine of the Baby-Ionian god so named; but this is to assume a resemblance which the facts at present known do not indicate, between the Moabite and Babylonian religions. On all their heads shall be baldness. The practice of cutting off the hair in mourning was common to the Jews (Isa 22:12; Mic 1:16) with various other nations; e.g. the Persians (Herod; 1Ch 9:24), the Greeks, the Macedonians (Pint; ‘Vit. Pelop.,’ 34), the primitive Arabs, and the North American Indians (Bancroft,’ Native Races of America’). It was probably intended, like lacerations, and ashes on the head, as a mere disfigurement,
Isa 15:3
In their streets; literally, in his streets; i.e. the streets of Moab. They shall gird themselves with sackcloth. Another widely spread custom, known to the Assyrians (Jon 3:5), the Syrians (1Ki 20:31), the Persians (Est 4:1, Est 4:2), the Israelites (Neh 9:1), and, as we see here, to the Moabites. The modern wearing of black garments, especially crape, is representative of the old practice. Every one shall howl. “Howling” remains one of the chief tokens of mourning in the East. It was a practice of the Egyptians (Herod; 2.79), of the Persians (ibid; 8.99; 9.24), of the Babylonians (Jer 51:8), and probably of the Orientals generally. Weeping abundantly; or, running down with tears (comp. Jer 9:18; Jer 13:17; Herod; 8.99).
Isa 15:4
Heshbon shall cry. Heshbon, now Hesban, lay about twenty miles east of the Jordan, nearly on the parallel of its embouchure into the Dead Sea. It was the capital city of Sihon (Num 21:21), who took it from the Moabites. On the partition of Palestine among the tribes of Israel, it was assigned to Reuben (Num 32:37; Jos 13:17); but at a later time we find it reckoned to Gad (1Ch 6:81). We do not know at what time Moab recovered Heshbon, but may conjecture that it was one of the conquests of Mesha, though it is not mentioned on the Moabite Stone. And Elealeh. Elealch is commonly united with Heshbon (Num 32:3, Num 32:37; Isa 16:9; Jer 48:34). It is probably identical with the modern El-A‘al, a ruined town on the top of a rounded hill, little more than a mile north of Hesban. Even unto Jahaz. Jahaz lay considerably to the south of Hesh-ben, probably not very far north of the Arnon. It must have been in the vicinity of Dibon, since Mesha, on taking it from the Israelites, annexed it to the territory of that city (Moabite Stone, II. 19-21). It was the scene of the great battle between Sihon and the Israelites under Moses (Num 21:23). His life shall be grievous unto him; rather, his soul shall be grieved within him. The Moabite people is personified (Cheyne).
Isa 15:5
My heart shall cry out for Moab (comp. Isa 16:9, Isa 16:11). The prophet sympathizes with the sufferings of Moab, as a kindred people (Gen 19:37), and perhaps as having, in the person of Ruth, furnished an ancestress to the Messiah (Mat 1:5). His fugitives; literally, her fugitives. The country is here personified, instead of the people, the former being feminine, the latter masculine. Shall flee unto Zoar. Zoar, the “little” town, spared for Lot’s sake (Gen 19:20-22), is placed by some at the northern, by others at the southern, extremity of the Dead Sea. The present passage makes in favor of the more southern site. An heifer of three years old. Those who defend this rendering refer the simile either to Zest, or to Moab, or to the fugitives. Having regard to the parallel passage of Jeremiah (Jer 48:34), we may pronounce the last explanation to be the best. The resemblance to the heifer will consist in the cries uttered. To ninny critics, however, this idea appears harsh, and the alternative is proposed of regarding Eglaththe word translated “heifer”as a place, and the epithet, “of three years old,” as really meaning “the third.” Attempts are made to show the existence of three Eglaths in these parts; but they are not very successful; nor is any instance adduced of a city being distinguished from others of the same name by a numerical suffix. The rendering of the Authorized Version may therefore stand, the comparison being regarded as one of the fugitive Moabites to a heifer in its third year, “rushing along with loud, hopeless bellowings” (Kay). By the mounting up of Luhith. This ascent has not been identified. It should have been on the way from Moab proper to Zoar. The way of Horonaim. On the Moabite Stone Horonaim is mentioned as a town of the Edomites attacked and taken by Mesha (11:31-33). It lay probably south or southeast of the Dead Sea. The Moabites, flying kern their invaders, seek a refuge in the territories of Edom and Judah, weeping and wailing as they go.
Isa 15:6
The waters of Nimrim shall be desolate. The Wady Numeira is a watercourse running into the Dead Sea from the east, hallway between the promontory called the “Lisan” and the sea’s southern extremity. It is fed by “six or seven springs””plenteous brooks gushing from the lofty hills” (Tristram), and boasts along its banks a number of “well-watered gardens.” There is no reason to doubt the identity of this stream with “the waters of Nimrim.” Their “desolation” was probably caused by the enemy stopping up the sources (2Ki 3:19, 2Ki 3:25; 2Ch 32:3, 2Ch 32:4). The hay is withered away. There is luxuriant vegetation in the wadys and ghors at the southern end of the Dead Sea, especially in the Ghor-es-Safiyeh, the Wady Numeira, and the Wady el-Mantara.
Isa 15:7
The abundance, etc.; i.e. “the property which they have been able to save and carry off with them.” This, finding no place of refuge in their own territory, they convey to their southern border, where “the brook of the willows” separates their country from Edom, with the intention, no doubt, of transporting it across the brook.
Isa 15:8
Eglaim Beer-Elim. Unknown sites on the borders of Moab, both probably towards the south. The enemy has come in from the north, and has driven the population southwards. A hope has been entertained of the pursuit slackening; but it is disappointed. The enemy causes grief and “howling“ in every part of the territory.
Isa 15:9
The waters of Dimon. It is thought that “Dimon” is here put for “Dibon,” in order to assimilate the sound to that of dam, blood. St. Jerome says that in his day the place was called indifferently by either name. If we accept this view, “the waters of Dimon” will probably be those of the Amen, near which Dibon was situated (see the comment on Isa 15:2). I will bring more; literally, I will bring additions; i.e. additional calamities, which will cause the stream of the Aton to flow with blood. Lions; or, a lieu. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 4:7), who is said by Josephus to have conquered the Moabites, or possibly Asshur-bani-pal, who overran the country about B.C. 645.
HOMILETICS
Isa 15:5
Denunciations of God’s wrath upon sinners compatible with the deepest pity for them.
It is sometimes assumed that those who exert themselves earnestly to set before men the severer aspects of religion, who, like Paul before Felix, “reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come“ (Act 24:25), must be persons of harsh, stern, and pitiless tempers, devoid of the gentler feelings, or at any rate without keen sympathy with their fellow-men. The advocates of universal salvation claim to be more tender-hearted than their opponents, and brand the latter with epithets denoting a want of humanity and kindliness. But true tenderness and kindness will not lead men to conceal unpleasant truths, but to state them with the utmost clearness and distinctnessto press them upon men, insist upon them, compel attention to them. Their outspokenness is no sign of want of sympathy, but rather an indication of the contrary. It springs froth the deepest love, from the most earnest desire to save souls, Throe great examples may be alleged in proof of this.
I. THE EXAMPLE OF ISAIAH. Nowhere do we find more unreserved denunciations of God’s wrath against sinners than in the writings of “the evangelical prophet.” All the enemies of God are in their turn arraigned, condemned, and sentenced to the severest sufferings. But can it be said that Isaiah is cold, or harsh, or unsympathetic? No. Far otherwise. His “heart cries out for Moab” (Isa 15:5). He “bewails with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah” (Isa 16:9); he “waters Heshbon and Elealeh with his tears” (Isa 16:9); his “bowels sound like an harp for Moab,” and his “inward parts for Kir-Haresh” (Isa 16:11). Nor is it only the kindred nation of Moab which draws forth such feelings. A vision of the siege of Babylon causes him to cry out, “Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth; I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart punted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me” (Isa 21:3, Isa 21:4).
II. THE EXAMPLE OF ST. PAUL. NO sacred writer is more direct in his warnings against sin, or more plain in his denunciations of eternal death to sinners, than St. Paul. “As many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law: and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law “(Rom 2:12). “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-21). Yet what writer shows greater tenderness towards those whom he warns, or a more affectionate concern for them, than the great apostle of the Gentiles? “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved ‘(Rom 10:1). “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsfolk according to the flesh” (Rom 9:1-3).
III. THE EXAMPLE OF OUR LORD. The tenderness of Christ’ is without a parallel in the history of man. Not only did he die for men, but throughout his life he showed at every turn a love for them surpassing human love. For their sake becoming poor and despised, for their sake unwearied in works of mercy, moved with compassion if he saw them faint or weary, grieving bitterly, even weeping, when he found them impenitent, never breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoking flax, on his way to his death of shame praying for his murderers, it is yet he who delivers the warnings concerning final judgment, which are most awful and most impossible to explain away. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Mat 7:19). “As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mat 13:40-42). “Then shall he say to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Mat 25:41, Mat 25:46). “It is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 15:1-9
Oracle concerning Moab.
I. HISTORY or Moan. Zoar was the cradle of the race, the house of the tribal father Lot. While the brother-tribe of Ammon wandered to the pastures of the northeast, Moab remained nearer the original seat. They were confined to a narrower district by the invasion of the Amorites (Num 21:26-30; Deu 2:10, Deu 2:11). Their long feud with the tribe of Benjamin lasted to the time of Saul. But in the Book of Ruth we have a pleasant glimpse of the intercourse between the people of Moab and those of Judah; and David, by descent from Ruth, had Moabite blood in his veins. Eglaim, a Moabite king, had reigned at Jericho; but a fearful war, the last of David’s, had crushed, almost extirpated, Moab (2Sa 8:1-18.; 1Ch 18:1-17.). On the division of the kingdom, Moab fell under the dominion of Israel, and paid its kings an enormous tribute (2Ki 3:21). On the death of Ahab this tribute was refused, and Moab, in alliance with the Ammonites and others, attacked the kingdom of Judah (2Ch 20:1-37.). A fearful disaster followed, and Israel, Judah, and Edom united in an attack upon the Moabites, who, deceived by a stratagem, were overcome with fearful carnage. And then, to crown these horrors, the king Mesha, having retreated to the strong place of Kir-Hareseth, was seen by the host of Israel sacrificing his own son upon the wails, as an extreme measure, with a view to obtain deliverance from the gods of the land. From that time we know little of the fortunes of Moab until the date of this prophecy, about a century and a half later, B.C. 726. She had regained the lost ground, and was settled in the territory north of the Arnon, when this disaster overtook her. Ewald thinks that three prophets were concerned in this prophecy, and that it is preserved in Jer 48:1-47, more nearly in its original form.
II. THE PATHOS OF MOAB‘S FATE. The whole description is characterized by a tone of deep sympathy. The prophet’s heart is torn by sorrow and compassion; it melts with tenderness. The mood is elegiac rather than prophetic. The fragment is unique among the elder prophets; even in Hoses there is nothing quite like it (Ewald). “In a night Ar-Moab is laid waste, destroyed; for in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, destroyed.” Perhaps the ruins of the capital and the fortress may be identified by antiquarians; perhaps not. But what is more important to us to notice is the pathos of ruined cities. What are they but the speaking symbols of man’s efforts and man’s failures, his soaring ambition, his profound disappointment and humiliation? So the poet in our own time amidst the colossal ruins of Egypt: “I surveyed the generations of man from Rameses the Great and Menmon the beautiful, to the solitary pilgrim whose presence now violated the sanctity of those, gorgeous sepulchers. And I found that the history of my race was but one tale of rapid destruction and gradual decay. And in the anguish of my heart I lifted up my hands to the blue ether, and I said, ‘Is there no hope? What is knowledge and what is truth? How shall I gain wisdom?'” (Disraeli). A city is to the passionate fancy of prophet and poet as a living person, a woman glorious in her beauty, and extorting tears from the onlooker in her fall. He sees the people going up to the central temple of the land, not to rejoice, but to weep. Every head is bald, and every beard is torn in sign of mourning for the departed. Figures move about in the market-places, not in holiday attire, but in sackcloth; on the roofs and in the streets universal wailing is heard, and there is beheld as it were a deluge of tears. The hill Heshbon cries, and Elealeh returns a hollow sound, and from far-off Jahaz an echo comes. The heroes’ hearts are paralyzed; they cry out with the women in helpless lamentation. The very heart of the land trembles; it is an earthquake of woe. In sudden calamities, the sudden deaths of individuals, the sudden fall of cities, there is an expression of the mystery of destiny which overwhelms the soul. Goethe, after describing the awful earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, which “spread a vast horror over a world already accustomed to peace and rest,” speaks of his own feelings as a boy on hearing the details often repeated. “He was no little moved. God the Creator and Upholder of heaven and earth, whom the explanation of the first article of belief represented as so wise and generous, had, in dealing out like destruction to the just and the unjust, by no means acted as a father. In vain his young spirit strove to recover from these impressions; and it was the less possible, because the wise men and the doctors could not agree on the manner in which the phenomenon should be viewed.” Without attempting to unravel the tragic enigmas of existence, it may be welt to note how deep is the abyss of thought and passion in our own hearts opened by the tale of such horrors; and thus to learn something of that Divine sympathy which broods over nature and over men, and to be reminded of those tears shed over Jerusalem, already seen by Jesus in the lurid light of its approaching doom.
III. THE SYMPATHY OF THE PROPHET. It is expressed in appropriate figures. His heart cries out with passionate yearning towards Mesh. The city of Zoar seems to him as a heifer of three years old, in all the unexhausted fullness of its strength. This is an image of a fair and fertile land, applied also to Egypt and to Babylon (Jer 46:20; Jer 48:34; Jer 50:11; cf. Hos 4:16; Hos 10:1). The roads are filled with fugitives, weeping and raising the cries of death and despair. At Nimrim, the “fair waters,” the springs have been filled up with rubbish, and will probably be a waste forever. The greenness of the spot has vanished beneath the hand of the conqueror, and the fugitives, with their savings and stores, are seen hurrying across the brook of the willows into the territory of Edom. From south to north, from Eglaim to Beer-Elim, there is wailing, there is wailing! Dimon or Dibon’s (perhaps the Arnon) waters are full of blood. And yet a further perspective of evil opens. A lion is to be brought upon the fugitives and the survivors; probably Judah, as this animal was Judah’s tribal ensign (Gen 49:9). But we must be content to leave the passage obscure.
IV. MUSINGS AMONG THE RUINS OF MOAB. The land has been but seldom visited by Europeans, and their descriptions vary; but all agree in stating that the country is covered with an extraordinary number of ruins. Of the language we do not know very much, but the Moabite Stone shows that it was closely akin to Hebrew. Of the religion we know still less. Of what nature was their great god Chemosh, whose worship Sdomon introduced into and Josiah expelled from Judah? Here almost all is conjectural, and imagination has fled course and unchecked play amidst the ruins of Moab. The ruins are symbolic of human greatness, of human diseases and decay.
“All things have their end;
Temples and cities, which have diseases like to man,
Must have like death that we have.”
The moldering stones sermonize with silent eloquence on the old text, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” They remind us of man’s short life and long hopes. He builds for a thousand years, though he may have but as many months to live. Thus, bearing their witness to the aspiration for immortality, the passion to create the beautiful thathall not die, venerable ruins of remote antiquity have a lofty spiritual expression.
“There is given
Unto the things of earth, which time hath bent,
A spirit’s feeling; and where he hath leant
His hand, but broke his scythe, there is a power
And magic in the ruined battlement,
For which the palace of the present hour
Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.”
They remind us, by contrast of that which falls not into ruinthe edifice of God in the human spirit; the shrine not to be found on the mounts of Moab or of Judah; the jiving altar on which the fire goes not out from age to age; the element in life which abides forever, when this world and the lust thereof hath passed away.J.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 15:1
Moab a national type.
Of late years attention has been directed to Moab, through the discovery of what is known as the Moabite Stone, which contains the earliest inscription we have wholly in alphabetical characters. This stone was found at Diban, about three miles north of the central part of the Arnon. Its inscription remarkably confirms the Scripture record. The original territory of Moab seems to have been divided into three portions:
1. What was known as the “land of Moab”-the open rolling country north of the Arnon, opposite Jericho, reaching to Gilead on the north.
2. The “field of Moab”upland undulating plains, extending from the precipitous mountains overlooking the Arabah and the Dead Sea on the west, to the Arabian desert on the east; from the deep chasm of the Arnon on the north, to Edom on the south.
3. The “Arboth-Moab,” or dry tropical regions in the Arabah on the east of the Jordan. The peculiarity of Moab, so far as indicated, seems to have been that for many years it had been undisturbed and prosperous, not affected by invasions or famines; and so, lacking experiences of calamity and suffering, social and moral evils had so grown that at last terrible and almost overwhelming Divine chastisements seemed necessary; and these would cause unusual grief and distress. The Prophet Jeremiah indicates the special characteristic of Moab in a very striking passage (Jer 48:11): “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.” A contrast is suggested between the national experiences of Israel and of Moab. Israel had known no easy restful periods in her history; she had been “shaken loose or unsettled every few years by some great change or adversityby a state of slavery in Egypt, by a forty years’ roving and fighting in the wilderness, by a time of dreadful anarchy under the judges, by a revolt and separation of the kingdom, and then by a captivity. Moab had been at ease from the first, shaken by no great overturnings or defeats, humbled and broken by no captivities, ventilated by no surprising changes or adversities. He has lived on, from age to age, in comparative security, settled on his lees; and therefore he has made no improvement” (Bushnell). Moab is thus a type of those nations that have long periods of peace and prosperity, and of those families and individuals who have for years few experiences of trouble. From Moab, as a type, we may learn such lessons as these.
I. GOD IS IN OUR TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE. It is a fact of common human experience that our relations with God are recognized in our times of trouble, but lost sight of in our times of prosperity. It is woe to us when all men speak well of us, and it is woe to us when all things go well with us. Nothing so easily hides God from our view as success attending our own self-endeavors. And yet God is in our times of prosperity, as truly sending them, presiding over them, and working his purpose through them, as he is sending and using times of suffering. No truth needs more constant and varied reassertion than thisGod is in prosperity and success.
II. SUCH TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE ARE SEARCHING TESTS OF CHARACTER. The common sentiment is that troubles alone test us. The truth is, that removal of trouble tests; that holding off of trouble tests; and that bestowments and benedictions test. These, indeed, become most searching tests, under which many of us utterly fail after coming well through our times of tribulation. What is thought of as the inequality of lifethe disproportionate allotment of joy and sorrow, success and failurefinds a partial explanation, if we apprehend that a man’s success and case are his moral testings, and that, before God, thousands more fail under life’s prosperities than fail under life’s adversities. Man, looking at Israel and at Moab, would at once say that Moab, in his quietness, was the best off. The issue plainly shows that the lot of Israel was the more desirable.
III. SUCH TIMES OF RESTFULNESS AND EASE DEVELOP PARTICULAR FORMS OF EVIL. Not the same forms that are developed by adversities, but more subtle and more vital evils. All those which come out of centering thought on selfinvolving heart-separation from God; self-conceit; contempt of others; over-estimate of the material and temporal; luxury of self-indulgence; and those aggravated and degrading forms of immorality which attend unchecked civilization and over-swift development of wealth. We know the moral evils of war-times; we fail to estimate the more pervading moral evils of peace-times.
IV. SUCH EVILS, SOONER OR LATER, BRING ON SPECIAL DIVINE JUDGMENTS. As with Moab. When the judgment comes, it needs to be so severe as to seem a gathering up of all the testing sufferings of years. And though it is still only chastisement, it takes a form that looks like overwhelming judgment. In this chapter the prophet seems to be amazed at the terrible character of the Divine judgment on Moab when it did fall.R.T.
Isa 15:3
National distress.
The particular trouble causing such extreme grief was the destruction of the two chief cities of Moab, Ar and Kit. To destroy the capital of a kingdom is to strike the nation at its very heart. Conquerors can dictate peace when the chief city lies at their mercy. Illustrate from the recent German siege of Paris. This chapter vigorously pictures the distress throughout the land when Ar was taken, the rush of people to the border districts, the alarm of those whose property was imperiled, the wail of those who had lost their friends in the strife. Howling, weeping, plucking off the hair, covering with sackcloth, and other signs of despairing grief, were found everywhere; and the cries were all the more bitter because for so many generations Moab had dwelt secure. Here one kind of national distress brings before us that general subject, and sets upon considering
II. ITS BEARING ON THE POOR. They are always the first to suffer from political or international conditions which affect manufacture, trade, or agriculture. Living upon daily wage, and, when thrifty, only able to provide in limited degrees for depressed times, the poor are most dependent on the preservation of peace, security, order, and mutual confidence. Demagogues urge the poor to a disturbance of social relations, with the promise of material advantage. In the interests of the poor themselves we plead that war, disturbance, revolutionary change, never even temporarily serve their interest. So grievous is the effect of political convulsions on the poor, that no class of the community should more intensely demand the knitting of laud to land by commerce and brotherhood, and the correction of social and political evils by processes which do not disturb the sense of national security. Of the poor the words may well be used, “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
II. ITS BEARING ON THE RICH. They are always the aim of attack in lawless times, whether the evil come through aggressive enemies outside the nation, or through turbulent people inside the nation. The one wants “booty,” and the other wants excuse for robbery. The rich need national security
(1) for the retention of what they have;
(2) for the increase of what they have;
(3) and for the enjoyment of what they have.
National distress becomes especially afflictive to the rich, because by training and association they are unfitted for self-help when their riches are taken away.
III. ITS MISSION AS SENT BY GOD. It is often that which we find illustrated in the case of Moab. National distress, circumstances that unite the whole land in a common grief, and in a common sense of helplessness, is the Divine corrective of the evils which attend prolonged peace, security, and luxury. Those evils may be traced:
1. In the sphere of men’s thought. The material is exaggerated, the unseen and spiritual are at disadvantage, and cannot hold their due place and proportion.
2. In the sphere of social life. In prolonged times of peace and prosperity, the separations between classes of society are grievously widened, and there grows up a painful contrast between the few who are unduly rich and the many who are miserably poor. National distress brings rich and poor together, in mutual dependence and service.
3. In the spheres of religion. Like the voyager, men can easily dismiss the thought of God when, for long times together, seas are calm and heavens are clear; but when the skies are black, and the wild waves shake the frail ship, and fear whitens every face, the soul begins to cry for a sight of God and a touch of his protecting hand. We are with God as our little children are with their mothers. They run about and play, taking little heed of her, until the head aches, and the pulse is high, and pain wearies; and then there is nobody in all the world will do but their mother. National distress brings nations back to the thought and love of God. The atheist, the agnostic, and the secularist have their chance when the sun shines; nobody wants such vain helpers when the tempests rage. Then nobody will do but the God of our fathers.
IV. ITS SHAME, IF CAUSED BY MAN‘S WILFULNESS OR MAN‘S NEGLECT. And these are too often the immediate causes of national distress. War is almost always the issue of somebody’s willfulness or masterfulness. Nobody would need to go to war if they did not hanker after something to which they had no right, or were not compelled to resist these envious, masterful folk. And such distresses as come by prevailing disease are usually traceable to men’s neglectings of social and family and household duty. God makes even man’s errors and sins serve his purpose, but he never ceases to declare woe unto him by whom the offence cometh.R.T.
Isa 15:6
Divine judgments in precise adaptations.
The point which arrests attention here is that Moab, being so largely a sheep-feeding country, was dependent on its pastures, and these were dependent on the dews, and rains, and fountains, and streams. To a grazing country no greater calamity, no more precisely adapted calamity, could come than is described in this verse: “The waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.” Possibly the mischief was wrought in part by the malicious act of the invaders in stopping the wells and defiling the streams. If one thing more than another is impressed on devout minds by a review of life, it is the marvelous way in which Divine wisdom has found the best, most adapted forms for judgment and chastisement to take. Chastisement sent by the Divine Father is always precisely corrective of the evil which has called for it, and always precisely corrective to the individual and to the particular nation. This general subject may be opened out thus
I. DIVINE JUDGMENTS HAVE PRECISE AIMS. The aim expressed in general terms ishumiliation with a view to exaltation.
II. DIVINE JUDGMENTS ARE DIRECTED TO SECURE THOSE AIMS. And this decides the form and the degree of the humiliation that is found to be necessary.
III. DIVINE JUDGMENTS ARE ADAPTED IN WAYS THAT MAY ESCAPE PRESENT NOTICE. And this occasions some of the gravest perplexities, and sternest struggles of life.
IV. THE ADAPTATION OF ALL DIVINE JUDGMENTS, TO THE SECURING OF THEIR PRECISE AIMS, WILL BE THE DELIGHTFUL DISCOVERY OF THE FUTURE. It will be our reading of our own history, and. of the world’s history, when we have learned how to read aright.R.T.
Isa 15:7
The insecurity of worldly possessions.
The picture is a striking one. In the national fright, the people are seen picking up what they can of their treasures, and escaping for life to the border districts; learning the lesson that “riches take to themselves wings, and flee away.” The word “abundance,” in the text, should be replaced by the word “remainder;” and the most probable meaning of the verse is that the Moabites shall carry what they can save of their possessions into the land of Edom. The picture suggests two topics.
I. THE INSECURITY OF THE MAN WHO IS RICH IN WHAT HE HAS. Illustrate from riches
(1) in land;
(2) in money;
(3) in houses;
(4) in goods.
How dependent he is on a thousand things for the retention and use of all! The lesson of Job is that no form of earthly possession can possibly be secure. Land is unlet; money cannot be profitably exchanged; houses get out of repair, and eat up rentals; and goods deteriorate in the warehouses. When ordinary forces leave our property alone, the heavens can send fire; the earth can heave and quake; and by mysterious influences we can be made to learn our lesson, that “this is not our rest.”
II. THE SECURITY OF THE MAN WHO IS RICH IN WHAT HE IS. No human and no supernatural forces, here or hereafter, can deprive a man of his possessions in what he is. Character, piety, are beyond reach of moth, or worm, or rust, or storm, or earthquake, or death. It is said of knowledge that a man “only possesses what he understands.” It might be said of a man’s wealth that he “only has what he is.” When calamities come, the man of character never has to gather his treasures hurriedly together and make off for the border-land. Wherever he is, he has his riches with him. Stripped of all his so-called wealth, he is not deprived of one grain. He holds it all, and his riches none can take away. The Lord Jesus men called poor. He was the only truly and perfectly rich man that ever lived; and such as he was we would desire to be.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 15:1. The burden of Moab In this and the next chapter, which contain the third discourse, the prophet, in a most lively manner, foretels the fate of the Moabites; wherein we have, first, the title prefixed to it, Isa 15:1. Secondly, the context, or body of the prophecy, Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:12. Thirdly, the conclusion, chap. Isa 16:13-14. The context, or body of the prophecy is two-fold: the first part sets forth at large the calamity impending over Moabin this chapter; the second relates the causes of these evils, by way of counsel suggested to the Moabites; and, after giving the Jews hopes of a more prosperous state of their nation, repeats the same prediction, chap. Isa 16:1-12. The first part is comprehended in three sentences of similar argument, which unfold both the evils coming upon the Moabites, and the consequence of them; lamentation, mourning, and distress; the first in Isa 15:1-4 the second, Isa 15:5-7 the third, Isa 15:8-9. There can be no doubt that this prophesy literally refers to the Moabites, and Vitringa thinks it unquestionable from the last verse of the 14th chapter, that it was completed by the destruction brought upon the Moabites by Salmanezer, three years after its delivery. For the history of the Moabites, see Vitringa and the Univ. Hist. vol. 2: p. 125.
Because in the night Ar of Moab From this to the fourth verse, we have the first sentence of the first part of this prophesy: wherein are an antecedent and consequent: the antecedentthe devastation of the principal cities of Moab, which should involve the whole nation in destruction: Isa 15:1 the consequence the distress and common lamentation of the Moabites under this calamity. The prophet so orders his discourse in this prophecy, as if, being placed on a high mountain, he beheld the army of the Assyrians, suddenly, and contrary to all expectation, directing their course towards Moab; and in this unforeseen attack ravaging and plundering, rather than besieging the principal cities and fortifications of this country; while the Moabites, astonished at the report of this event, burst forth into weeping and lamentation, and hasten to the temples and altars of their god Chemosh, to implore his aid, making bare their heads, cutting off their hair, and filling all places with howling and lamentation, like desperate men; while some of them fall by the sword of the enemy, some of them fly towards Arabia; their goods, land, vineyards, &c. being left a spoil to the enemy and avenger. The article ki, because, prefixed to this prophesy, may be rendered, truly, certainly; or it may be taken in its proper sense. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, he (namely Moab, Isa 15:2.) is gone up, &c. But Vitringa thinks it more elegant and emphatical to render it affirmatively; Truly in the night, &c. Gen 4:24. 1Sa 14:39. Instead of, and brought to silence, Bishop Lowth reads is undone. Ar and Kir were two of the principal and best fortified cities of Moab: see chap. Isa 16:7-11 where the latter is called Kir-hareseth,the city of the sun, as they worshipped there the sun under the appellation of Chemosh. This destruction of Moab is said to have been in the night, which seems a metaphorical expression to denote the sudden and unexpected ruin. which should come upon them like a thief in the night. See Job 27:20; Job 34:25. The towns mentioned in the following verses belong to the Moabites; some of them have been mentioned in the preceding parts of the scripture; it is probable that they were remarkably famous for their high places, temples, and altars. The prophet closes the fourth verse with telling us that even the armed soldiers themselves, the warriors, and those who should defend the state, should lose all their spirit and courage, and join in the general lamentation and dismay. See Jer 48:34; Jer 48:41. The last clause, His life, &c. might be rendered, The soul of every one of them shall be in distress.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. AGAINST MOAB
Isaiah 15, 16
Concerning the relation of Moab to the Israelites, comp. the remarks prefixed to Jeremiah 48. The present prophecy is a double address. For it consists of an older discourse (Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:12), which, as appears, was not published immediate ly on its origination, but was given publicity by Isaiah only when he could announce definitely that the beginning of its fulfilment would occur after three years. Some have therefore conceived the notion that the older address is not Isaianic. Koppe, Augusti, Bauer, Berthold, have regarded Jeremiah as the Author, which is quite impossible. Hitzig (comp. his Des Propheten Jonas Orakel iiber Moab, Heidelberg, 1831,) even holds that Jonah is the author, and has found followers (Knobel, Maureb, etc.,) in this singular view, whereas Hendewebk decidedly controverts him. It is regarded as decisive for the view that this is not Isaianic, that it betrays a tender-hearted sympathy for an otherwise hated foreign nation. But this sympathy is not as tender-hearted as it appears. It rather serves as a measure by which to estimate the fearfulness of the judgment. Further appeal is made to a number of ” peculiar, and in a measure, singular thoughts and turns. Some of these are that mourning garments are put on in the street (Isa 15:3)yet Hezekiah went into the temple clothed in sackcloth, and a deputation from him to Isaiah went in sackcloth (2Ki 19:1-2); further that crying encircled the land (comp. my comment), Sibmas vine spread itself over whole regions-only a bold figure worthy of Isaiah (see the comment); its branches make drunk, (which the Prophet does not say, see the comment on Isa 16:8), the heart cries for Moab and Hounds like a harp, the tears of the writer bedew Heshbon (also figures quite agreeing with Isaiahs style). Moreover a number of unexampled phrases are pointed to with doubtful suspicion: , to weep bitterly ” (but the expression means something quite different), , waters are deserts, (it means rather: places of springs are loca arida), to set shadows,” (it means rather to make the shadow like the night), etc.; further appeal is made to words, forms, meanings, and references that are peculiar to the author of this passage.
All these things rest on misunderstandings; partly they are , the like of which are to be found in nearly every chapter of Isaiah; partly the Prophet intentionally imitates Moabite forms of speech. At all events, the little peculiarities, which in no case witness directly against Isaiah, and which are natural to such originality as his, are not to be considered in comparison with the great mass of decidedly Isaianic modes of expression which we shall prove in particular below. I therefore hold decidedly that Isaiah is the author.
As regards the time of the composition of Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:12, the text seems to me to present two points of limitation. According to these chapters not only Dibon, but also Jahas, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sibmah, Medeba are in the hand of the Moabites. But according to 2Ki 15:29; 1Ch 5:26, these regions were only depopulated by Tiglath-Pileser, and thus only afterward occupied by the Moabites. That expedition of Tiglath-Pileser, according to universal opinion, occurred in the year 741, thus in the third year of the reign of Ahaz. From Isa 16:1 it further appears that at that time the Edomites were still subject to the Jews. This relation was changed under Ahaz. For, according to 2Ch 28:17, the Edomites during his reign made an incursion into Judah. It is not conceivable that after this time Isaiah gave the Moabites counsel to send tribute from Seba to Jerusalem. For the Edomites would not allow that, and the Moabites who looked for refuge to Edom would never have dared to do so. Unfortunately we are not informed as to the time when that incursion of the Edomites took place. But it occurred in the time of Ahaz, and thus this prophecy Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:12 must be referred to the period of this kings reign, and that between the two events 2Ki 15:29 (1Ch 5:20) and 2Ch 28:17. Unfortunately we do not know which Assyrian king accomplished (or began to accomplish) Isaiahs prophecy to the Moabites. Therefore we cannot know when he subjoined the two concluding verses and published the entire oracle.
The prophecy evidently subdivides into four parts. Thus the old, first prophecy easily subdivides into three sections, of which the first (Isa 15:1-9) announces Moabs terror and flight, the second (Isa 16:1-5) the condition of deliverance, the third (Isa 16:6-12) Moabs haughty refusal to fulfil these conditions and his consequent entire ruin. Finally, the later supplement determines definitely the beginning period of the fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14).
) THE OLDER PROPHECY
Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:12
a) Moabs Terror and Flight
Isa 15:1-9
1The Burden of Moab.
Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and 1brought to silence;
Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and 1brouht to silence;
22He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep.
3Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba:
On all their heads shall be baldness,
And every beard cut off.
34In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth:
On the tops of their houses, and 5in their streets, every one shall howl,
6Weeping abundantly.
4And Heshbon 7shall cry, and Elealeh:
Their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz:
Therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out;
His 8life shall be grievous unto him.
5My heart eshall cry out for Moab;
9His fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old:
For by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up;
For in the way of Horonaim they 10shall raise up a cry of 11destruction.
6For the waters of Nimrim shall be 12desolate:
For the 13hay is withered away, the igrass faileth,
There is no green thing.
7Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up,
14Shall they carry away to the 15brook of the willows.
8For the cry is gone around about the borders of Moab;
The howling thereof unto Eglaim,
And the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.
9For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood:
For I will bring 16more upon Dimon,
Lions upon him that escapeth of Moab,
17And upon the remnant of the land.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 15:1. may of course be made to relate to , and one may find in the latter phrase the sense that is elsewhere expressed by or (comp. Isa 6:5). But this does not suffice. For is everywhere else nothing but superscription, and is nowhere connected with the beginning of the discourse. As in chaps, 15, 16 there is made a surprisingly frequent use of the particle it occurs nine times in 15, and five times in 16so, too, the of Isa 15:1 is surely to be interpreted according to this usage. No where else is Isa. wont to multiply this particle in a surprising way. It seems to me that he had here a particular aim. Perhaps he imitates Moabite language. The same is the case with . It must occasion surprise that of the five times that Isaiah uses (except these he uses ) three belong to the chapters on Moab (comp. Isa 16:3). In Isa 21:11 occurs, and probably for the sake of variety in the parallelism, perhaps, too, as mimicking the dialect of Edom and as reminiscence of Exo 12:42. But Isa 30:29, the form occurs as st. constr., and also with allusion to Exo 12:42. On the monument of king Mesa, in line 15, the night is actually called (comp. Schlottm. in Stud. and Krit. 1871, Heft. IV., p. 596) from which it appears that the pronunciation with e is Moabitic. It is needless, with Drechsler and others, to take here as st. constr. This, as Delitzsch says, would give an illogical thought, in as much as and , comp. Jer 47:5, nearly coincide as to meaning., Pual, occurs again Isa 23:1; Isa 23:14 (comp. Isa 16:4; Isa 21:2; Isa 33:1). is without doubt the Moabitic word for (comp. Schlottmann, l. c., p. 607). For it is used only of the capital of Moab and of the territory immediately belonging to it. It is, indeed, used in the latter sense alone (Num 21:15; Deu 2:9; Deu 2:18; Deu 2:29, comp. Schlott., p. 608); but in the former sense in the connection (Num 21:8 and here). is subjoined , with an emphasis that makes an impression of shuddering, (comp. Isa 33:9; Jer 9:9; Jer 1:3). The word occurs in Isaiah again Isa 6:5. The repetition, too, of the phrase in the second clause (anadiplosis) is a rhetorical device that serves to make the impression stronger. Isaiah often resorts to this: Isa 15:8; Isa 8:9; Isa 17:12 sq.; Isa 21:11. Comp. on Isa 40:1. means in Hebrew the wall (Isa 22:5; Psa 62:4; Eze 13:12 sqq., and oft). But in Moabitic it stands for . In the inscription of Mesa occurs four times in the sense of city: Line 11, 12, 24 bis. and although names of cities, are construed as masculines. The reason of this appears to me to be, that in the Prophets representation the notion Moab predominated, and the names of nations are prevalently used as masculine.
Isa 15:2. is used impersonally, there goes up, or one goes up (comp. Isa 14:30; Isa 14:32). after is genitive to the latter, and not nom. to . Medba-Moab is a combination that does not occur elsewhere, but which the Prophet perhaps made because he thought he saw in , Moabitic , a kindred notion to ( ) and an allusion to the origin of the nation (Gen 19:30 sqq.)., comp. Isa 15:3; Isa 52:5; Isa 65:14.The words are quoted from Amo 8:10, where we read (comp. Jer 48:37; Eze 7:18; Eze 29:18). The pointing instead of , for which some Codices read , ,, is found only here. It is possible that in the mind of the Prophet, citing from memory, the sound, which the word has in the original passage, had its effect., does not elsewhere occur as the name of a city. Isaiah uses it again as appellative, Isa 3:24; Isa 22:12. There lies in it an allusion which the inscription of Mesa suggests to us. For, according to lines 2126, this one built Korcha () i.e., a cleared place at or in Dibon (according to line 24) that had as yet no wall (Diestel, Die Moabitische Gedenktafel, Iahrb. f. deutsche Theol., 1871, Heft. II. p. 237), and transferred thither the royal residence (line 23).By quoting the words of Amos, the Prophet seems to intend derision: if all heads are bald, then, of course, baldness () reigns over Moab. comp. Isa 9:9; Isa 10:33; Isa 14:12; Isa 22:25; Isa 45:2.Jer 48:37 has , as, according to Gesenius and Delitzsch, the Masora and many Codd. and older editions read in the present passage, whereas in Jeremiah only 10 Codd. have . designates regular shearing, irregular hewing or cutting off in haste (clipping). The difference in the reading corresponds to the character of both prophets, whence in neither of the two passages perhaps, is the received reading to be altered.
Isa 15:3. Notice here the interchange of gender and number according as Moab comes before the Prophets mind as a nation or land, as a whole, or as a totality of individuals., which occurs again in Isa. only Isa 16:7, seems likewise to be a mimicry of Moabitic form of speech. For in the inscription of Mesa is found the suffix form exclusively (about 12 times). The name Nebo also is written , not as in Hebrew . in the sense of flowing down, dissolving in tears would be, as Knobel, too, confesses, without example in the Old Testament. The simple Accusative would be required for that as Jer 9:17; Jer 13:17; Lam 1:16; Lam 3:48, and often.
Isa 15:4. comp. Isa 42:13; Isa 44:23.The Praet. occurs only here. Many expositors (Gesen., Knobel, Delitzsch), on account of the word , tremulum, curtain, take this word to mean to tremble, shake. But it is not to be overlooked why the Perfect should not be taken here in the same sense in which otherwise the Imperfect is used, i.e., in the sense of malum., miserum., afflictum esse. The Prophet intends a play on the word , therefore he employs the otherwise unused perfect, without meaning to use it in any other sense than that in which imperfect occurs, which has besides passed over to the service of the kindred root . Therefore has the same meaning as 1Sa 1:8; Deu 15:10; compare Psa 106:32.
Isa 15:5. is construed like Jer 46:2; Jer 51:59, i. e., annus quarti scil, numeri; Lev 24:22, 2Ki 12:10. But is it designative of a locality or appositive to such? Maurer, Ewald, Knobel, Drechsler, Dietrich (Zur bibl. Geogr. in Merx Archiv I., p. 342 sqq.) see in it a third Egla, in proof of whose existence they appeal to Josephus Ant. XIV. 1, 4, where, beside Zoar, Oronai and other places, an is mentioned. But how uncertain is this assumption of a third Egla, since we do not otherwise hear of a single one, not to speak of three, for that of Josephus can just as well be (Isa 15:8)! Doederlein and Koster (Stud. and Krit. 1862 I., p. 113 sqq.) take Zoar, Horonaim and Egla to have been a Tripolis whose chief name was Egla. But of such a city, which must, too, have had a considerable circumference, there is to be found no trace. We must therefore take as appositive. It cannot be referred to Moab on account of its position in the sentence. It must then be referred to , and that in a sense in which it may be joined also to the city Horonaim as predicate, as is done Jer 48:31. But we must take as having the same meaning with Gen 15:9. along with which are named a and a . Now these, as is acknowledged, are three years old, as it were beasts raised to the third degree, viz., degree of years. is acc. loci = on the road. is Pilpel contracted from , like from . The expression only here.
Isa 15:6. only here in Isaiah. The here, as in Isa 15:8 sq. (comp. on Isa 15:1), makes the impression of being an intentional redundancy.
Isa 15:7. represents an impersonal relative phrase = what are made, acquired, unless we assume a very abrupt change of person in the following ,. The impersonal construction is comparatively frequent in our passage (Isa 15:2; Isa 15:5). can mean only Arabians or willows. It cannot mean deserts, which is (Jer 5:6). As only the situation of the brook, not the meaning of its name, is of importance here, it is no matter which one prefers. Still, as in the Old Testament, the word in the plural, , never occurs meaning Arabians, whereas it is often used to mean willows (Isa 44:4; Lev 23:40; Job 40:22; Psa 137:2), I prefer the meaning willow-brook, leaving undetermined whether or not , Amo 6:14 is identical with this. Comp. Herzogs R. Encycl. XI. p. 14.
Isa 15:8. does not mean here outwardly encircled; but it is = make the round, as in Lev 19:27; Job 1:5, where there is a difference as to form, but an essential analogy. occurs only here in Isa.: elsewhere Jer 25:36; Zep 1:10; Zec 11:3.
Isa 15:9. In the first clause of this verse the Prophet accumulates the sound of m; hence Dimon for Dibon, which change might happen the more easily as Jerome informs us that usque hodie indifferenter et Dimon et Dibon hoc oppidum dicitur.So far as I can see, all expositors refer to what follows, which they think justified especially by additamenta. But in that case and not must stand before . By the phrase is connected with the foregoing. with like Rth 3:15; Exo 21:22; Num 12:11. occurs only here in this sense.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet portrays the desolation of the territory of Moab, pointing out the fate of many particular localities, and what the inhabitants experience, say and do (Isa 15:1-4). Therewith he does not conceal his own sympathy (Isa 15:5 a), and signifies that the Moabites shall be driven out of their land, and be crowded out over their borders on every side (Isa 15:5 b8). But alas, flight will not help them much, for a mournful fate will overtake also those that escape, who will either become a prey to wild beasts, or lie unburied on the bare ground (Isa 15:9).
2. The burdensilence.
Isa 15:1. The superscription is like Isa 13:1, which see. In the night: i.e., at an unfavorable hour. For night adds increased terrors to the storming of a city. The city Ar-Moab, according to most recent investigations (comp. Schlottmann, l. c. p. 608 and Dietrich in Merx Archiv. III. 320 sqq.), lay close by, indeed (according to Num 22:36; Jos 13:9; Jos 13:16) partly in Arnon. In the last named passages it is also by the Hebrew writers called , a city. From the Moabitic Ar comes the Greek name (Jerome, in loc., in the L. V. p. 184 sq. Ed. Vallars.). The name Rabbat-Moab does not occur in the Old Testament. It may be that this designation, which was not a name but an official title, was transferred to the later Rabbah, which lies several [German] miles south of Arnon, and was a bishops residence in the 5th and 6th centuries (comp. Ritter, Erdk. XIV. p. 115 sq.; XV. p. 1210 sqq.)Kir-Moab (to distinguish it from the Assyrian Kir, Isa 22:6) is mentioned by Isaiah under this name only here. Yet Kir-Haresh or Kir-Haresheth (Isa 16:11; Isa 16:7) are identical with it. The place was a strong fortress, on a high, steep mountain, visible from Jerusalem. It lay about three hours south of Rabbat-Moab, and about the same distance from the Dead sea. In the Chaldee it is called , i.e., castle, wall of Moab. The Greeks called the city (so probably 2Ma 12:17), (Ptol. Isa 5:17; Isa 5:5), , , (Steph., Byz., and Theodoret in loc., who moreover appears to identify Ar-Moab and Kir-Moab). The name is preserved in the form Kerek until the present day.
3. He is gone upgrievous unto him.
Isa 15:2-4. In Isa 15:1 Moab entire is indicated in its two halves, represented by a northern and a southern city. From Isa 15:2 on follow specifications. For on the desolation of Moab, the great theme, are rung manifold changes: by most numerous facts the truth of it is exhibited. In Jos 13:17 Dibon and Bamoth-Baal ( , the high places of Baal) are mentioned together, and the latter is mentioned Num 22:41. Jer 48:35 speaks of , the ascent of the elevation; and in the inscription of Mesa, line 27, it reads: . [I built Beth-Bamath (a house on high) because it was elevated.]. Therefore Dibon and another locality, which in full was called Beth-Bamoth-Baal, appear to have been elevated places of worship. Dibon lay to the north of Arnon and not very far distant. It was king Mesas birth-place, for he calls himself in his inscription , the Dibonite. The city is elsewhere mentioned Num 21:30; Num 32:2; Num 32:34; Jos 13:9; Jos 13:17; Jer 48:18; Jer 48:22; Neh 11:25. for to weep, in order to lament to the gods with tears the distress of the land (Isa 22:12). before Nebo and Medeba is to be construed locally, for before and after there is only the description how each place gives expression to its grief. Moreover Nebo and Medeba are elevated spots. Of Nebo this is in itself probable. For if it even does not mean the mountain, it does the city that was situated on top of, or on that mountain: as in Num 32:3; Num 32:38; Jer 48:1, and in the inscription of Mesa line 14. That Medeba was situated on a hill is testified by the site of ruins which Burkhardt (2:625) found a little distance southeast of Heshbon. Medeba is also mentioned in the inscription of Mesa, line 8, under the name , Mo-Debah, as a city conquered by Omri.
Isa 15:3. Wearing sacks or sackcloth as a badge of mourning and distress is often mentioned by Isa 3:24; Isa 20:2; Isa 22:12; Isa 37:1 sq.; Isa 50:3; Isa 58:5. It has been overlooked that , descending with weeping [see in Text, and Gram.] should form an antithesis to , goeth up to weep, Isa 15:2. They went up on the high places at Dibon and Beth-Bamoth to weep; they howled on the high places of Nebo and Medebah; but they came down also from these high places with weeping; they weep because imploring the gods with tears availed nothing. [See Margin of Eng. Bib.: Also J. A. A., has the same rendering as Dr. N.]. This construction is the more necessary because immediately after, Isa 15:5, , is undoubtedly used in the sense: with weeping.
Isa 15:4. And Heshbon, etc. Ar-Moab and Kir-Moab are chief city, and chief fortress; Dibon and Beth-Bamoth are especially holy places of worship, Nebo and Medebah, too, belong to the latter, for there also the weeping was meant to propitiate the gods. Now that the centres of the power and of the national religion are shaken to pieces, and men flee from these in despair, so, naturally, dreadful terror seizes on the cities of inferior rank. Thus Heshbon (Num 21:23 sqq.), cries, and Elealeh (Num 32:37; Jer 48:34), the two sister cities, the second of which is never mentioned without the first. They lay only a Roman mile distant from one another on limestone elevations in a fruitful plain. Their united cry of woe is heard as far as Jahaz. This fact is not opposed to the assumption that Jahaz is identical with (Num 21:23; Deu 2:32; Jdg 11:2 in pausa), (Jos 13:18 out of pause), (Hitzig, Keil). For Jahaz need not on this account, like Elealeh, have lain in the closest neighborhood. But the ancient rampart that lay on the east border toward the desert, where of old Sihon, king of the Amorites, opposed Israel, is named for this reason because the Prophet would indicate that the terrific intelligence shook the very bulwarks of the kingdom. If now all the strong cities of Moab so raise the cry of despair, how shall the men at arms of the nation not chime in? The choice of the expression , armed men of Moab, seems to me to be explained by the idea that the information concerning the occupation of the land east of Jordan (Numbers 32 and Deu 3:16 sqq.), comes before the Prophet. For in these chapters just cited, the expression occurs relatively the oftenest in the entire Old Testament, i.e., six times: Num 32:21; Num 32:27; Num 32:29-30; Num 32:32; Deu 3:18.
4. My heartno green thing.
Isa 15:4-6. The Prophet hitherto had in mind northern Moab, the territory that the Amorites took from the Moabites, then the Israelites from the Moabites, and finally the Moabites from the Israelites, after the inhabitants had been carried into Assyrian captivity (2Ki 15:29). Almost all the cities that have been named in the foregoing passages were, according to Num 32:34 sqq., built by the Gadites and Reubenites, or at least rebuilt with a change of name (Num 15:38). In what follows the Prophet turns his regards chiefly to the south. But in making this turn, he feels the need of giving expression to the impression made. The cry he has heard, though that of an enemy, has found in his heart an echo of compassion. Therefore he cries out from his innermost bosom () and turning himself toward Moab (Isa 16:11; Isa 14:8-9). Thus shall cry of Isa 15:5, corresponds to shall cry Isa 15:4. But his cry of terror is at the same time a watchmans alarm to southern Moab. We see this in the anxious flight in which southern Moab is represented to be by the following context. is taken by most expositors to be the same as fugitives (Isa 43:14, comp. Isa 27:1; Job 26:13). Delitzsch alone decides in favor of vectes, bars. But the thought that the bars, i.e., the fortresses of the land extend to Zoar finds nothing in the context to suggest it: whereas the thought that the Moabites flee from the enemy advancing from the north till they find shelter in a strong fortress, corresponds very well with the context.
A heifer of three years, (see in Text, and Gram.), is one not yet brought under the yoke, whose strength is still entirely intact. Gesenius cites Pliny, Isa 8:4, Isaiah 5 : damitura bonum in trimatu, postea sera, antea praematura. Columella de re rest. Isa 7:2. It is therefore a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Jer 31:18, the contrary of which is a heifer that is taught Hos 10:11. Comp. Isa 10:11; Jer 46:20; Jer 1:11. Now Zoar was a fortified place. Jerome says: praesidium in ea positum est militum romanorum. Eusebius calls it a , Steph. Byzantinus a . It was perhaps, in Isaiahs time a city that had never been captured, what we call eine jungfruliche Festung (a virgin fortress), and if in the notion of indomitum, jugo non assuetum esse prevails, then this would explain why Zoar is so named, and why the flight of the Moabites tends thither. They thought themselves secure in the strong fortress that had never been taken. [For an extensive comparison of views on the foregoing point see J. A. A., in loc.]. That Zoar is the point to which men flee is evident because the ways leading thither are full of fugitives. Regarding the site of Zoar opinions differ, varying between the southern point of the Dead sea to the mouthing of the Wadi Kerek on the east side. But wherever it was, Luhith and Horonaim were certainly localities that lay in the road that led from the north thither. Luhith (from tablet, board,) which according to Eusebius and Jerome, lay between Ar-Moab and Zoar, is mentioned only here, and Jer 48:5. , a stair, declivity of a mountain which the road traverses, is found in connection with many names: Num 34:4; Jos 10:10; Jos 18:7; Jdg 1:36; 2Sa 15:30, etc.Horonaim is mentioned only here and Jer 48:3; Jer 48:5; Jer 48:34. In Jos 10:10, we read the Lordchased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron. Did this passage perhaps come into the Prophets mind? A third matter that explains the flight of the Moabites, the Prophet makes to be the stopping up and drying up of the waters of Nimri. It is to be noticed that stopping up the fountains is described (2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:25) as a form of hostility practised by the Israelites against Moab. If by the waters of Nimrim we understand that Bet-Nimra, that is mentioned (Num 32:3; Num 32:36; Jos 13:27) as a Gadite locality with a brook emptying into the Jordan, then the Prophet would suddenly transport us out of the south into the extremest north.
Therefore Knobel very fittingly has called attention to the fact that the more recent travelers, Burkhardt, de Saulcy, Seetzen, mention a Wadi Nemeyra, and a spring brook Mojet Nimmry (i.e. little waters of Nimri) near the southern border of Moab, and that the Onomasticon names under a place , Benamerium, north of Zoar. This locality suits our context very well. In three short sentences the Prophet sets forth why he calls the waters of Nimrim desolations. is grass proper; sward in general; all green things. The discourse thus contains a climax, it proceeds from what withers most easily (Psa 90:5; Psa 103:15) to the totality of all vegetation.
5. Thereforeof the land.
Isa 15:7-9. The fugitives of Moab have concentrated in the south of the land. But there, too, they do not feel safe: for the enemy presses incontinently after. Therefore they flee with their valuables across the Willow-brook that formed the boundary between Moab and Edom into the latter country. , which occurs only here and in Jer 48:36 that borrows from this, is provision on hand not yet used up (Psa 17:14). is more: it is the costly possession that is cherished as the treasure of the house: the word occurs only here in this sense. The thought of the Prophet is evidently, that Moab, when no longer safe in its extreme southern strongholds, flees across the border. It is therefore certainly more agreeable to the context to understand the stream referred to by to mean the southernmost boundary brook of Moab, rather than some stream farther north. Delitzsch understands the Willow-brook to be the northern branch of the Seil-el-Kerek, that actually bears the name of Wadi Safsf, i.e. Willow-brook. But that does not hinder that in Isaiahs time the southern boundary brook was also called Willow-brook, especially since among its various names (Wdi el–Karhi, el–Achri, el–Hssa, el–Hossan, likely Sared too), is found the name es–Sfijeh. (See under Text, and Gram.).
In Isa 15:8 the need of fleeing over the border is renewedly set forth by the statement that the cry (Isa 15:4 sqq.) has gone about on the entire border of Moab. Eglaim is likely identical with the Eneglaim, Eze 47:10, which according to Jerome, lay in principio maris mortui, i.e. at the south end of the Dead Sea. It is doubtful if it be the same with () which Eusebius describes as , i.e. eight Roman miles, somewhat more than three hours. Comp. Herz. R. Encycl. XIV., p. 741.If Beerelim is the same fountain mentioned, Num 21:16-18, that the princes opened up, and that thereafter was called Heroes fountain (for so, or Terebinth fountain the word may be translated), then the locality lay in the northeast of Moab, and thus directly opposite to the southwestern Eglaim (comp. Num 21:13 sqq.). Accordingly the cry is gone around, etc., would express that the cry went out on all sides along the borders of Moab, because the inhabitants fled on all sides. If they dispersed on every side to the periphery of their land, that sufficiently indicates that the centre had suffered a heavy blow. Such a centre was Dibon, moreover, it is represented as a city in Isa 15:2 and in the inscription of Mesa, as being at that time a city of importance. The waters of Dibon are full of blood, therefore there is fearful, murderous work there.As Dibon lies not far from Arnon, the waters of Dibon can, of course, indirectly mean the Arnon, like the waters of Megiddo, Jdg 5:19, mean the Kishon (Rosenmueller, Hendewerk), but directly must still be meant the tributaries that lead out from Dibon to Arnon; for otherwise the latter could not receive blood shed in Dibon. The fearful blood-bath at Dibon shows that it is fated to receive full measure, poured, shaken down and running over. Perhaps the Prophet has in mind Gods threat in Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21, that if the first chastisement failed of its effect on Israel He would add to it seven times more for their sins. Moabs great and repeated transgression had also such additions as its consequence. If we are not referred by the second clause of Isa 15:9 a to what follows, then we are not necessitated to regard what is contained in 9 b, as the aggravation indicated by = additamenta, things superadded (See Text. and Gram.). Then Isa 15:9 b has reference to a part of Moab not coincident with that before mentioned. It is fugitives that succeeded in escaping the sword of the enemy. Shall these be rescued? No. These escaped ones shall become a prey to lions, and as many as escape these shall at last have nothing more than the bare ground, whereon to leave their unburied bodies. The thought is therefore similar to Isa 24:18, comp. Amo 5:19. And how should the remnant of the nation be called ? The expression is unexampled. We would look for , or at least .
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 15:1. Although the Prophets belonged to the Jewish people, and were sent especially for the sake of the Jewish people, yet as God would that all men should come to repentance and the knowledge of the truth, therefore at times also the Prophets were called on to go out of these limits, and preach to other nations for a sign against them, that they might have nothing whereby to excuse themselves.Cramer.
2. On Isa 15:2 sqq. Against the wrath of God, neither much money and land, nor a well equipped nation, nor great and strong cities, nor flight from one place to another avail anything, but true repentance (Psa 33:16 sq.). Whoever forsakes God in good days, He will forsake again in misfortune, and then they can find nowhere rest or refuge (Pro 1:24 sqq.).Starke.
3. On Isa 15:7. What a man unjustly makes, that another unjustly takes.Starke.
4. On Isa 15:8 sq. God is wont, in His judgments, to proceed by degrees, to begin with lesser punishments, and proceed to the sorer (Lev 26:18; Lev 26:21; Lev 26:24; Lev 26:28). Although the godless escape one misfortune yet they soon fall into another.Starke.
5. On Isa 16:1 sqq. God can quickly bring it about that the people that once gave us sheltering entertainment must in turn, look to us for entertainment and a lurking place. For in the famine, Naomi and her husband and sons were pilgrims in the land of Moab (Rth 1:1). David procured a refuge for his parents among the Moabites (1Sa 22:3). Now their affairs are in so bad a case that they, who were able to afford shelter to others, must themselves go wandering among others; for human fortune is unstable.Cramer.
6. On Isa 16:4. God therefore threatens the Moabites, at the same time winning them to repentance, for He seeks not the death of the sinner (Eze 18:32). Thus it was still a season for repentance. For had the Moabites once again used hospitality, then again had mercy been extended to them.Cramer.
7. On Isa 16:5. Light arises to the pious in the darkness from the Gracious, Merciful and Just One. His heart is of good courage and fears not, till he sees his desire on his enemies (Psa 112:4; Psa 112:8). And as it went well with Jerusalem, while it went ill with the Moabites, thus shall Christs kingdom stand, and the enemies go down. For it is an everlasting kingdom, and the set up tabernacle of David shall surely remain (Amo 9:11)Cramer.
8. On Isa 16:6 sqq. Moab was a haughty nation, for it was rich and had everything abundant. For it commonly goes thus, that where one is full, there the heart is lifted up, and the legs must be strong that can bear good days.Cramer.
9. On Isa 16:9 sqq. Such must be the disposition of teachers and preachers, that for the sake of their office, they should and must castigate injustice for Gods sake, but with those that suffer the punishment they must be pitiful in heart. And therefore they must be the sins enemy, and the persons friend. Example: Micah announces the punishment to Jerusalem yet howls over it, testifies also his innermost condolence by change of clothing (Mic 1:8). Samuel announces destruction to Saul and has sorrow for him (1Sa 15:26; 1Sa 16:1). Likewise Christ announces every sort of evil to the Jews, and yet weeps bitterly (Luk 19:41). Paul preaches the frightful rejection of the Jews, and yet wishes it were possible to purchase their salvation by His eternal hurt (Rom 9:3).Cramer.
10. On Isa 16:14. Exceeding, and very great is the grace and friendliness of God, that in the midst of the punishments that He directs against the Moabites, He yet thinks on His mercy. For the Lord is good unto all and has compulsion on all His works (Psa 145:9).Cramer.
11. On Isa 16:12. Hypocritae, ubi, etc. Hypocrites, whose souls are filled with impious notions of God, are much more vehement in their exercises than the truly pious in the true worship of God. And this is the first retribution of the impious, that they are wasted by their own labor which they undertake of their own accord. Another is that those exercises are vain in time of need and profit nothing. Therefore their evils are born with the greatest uneasiness, nor do they see any hope of aid. On the contrary true piety, because it knows that it is the servant of Christ, suffers indeed externally, yet conquers the cross by the confidence which it has in Christ.Luther.
12. On Isaiah 16. Genuineness. [Barnes in loc. forcibly presents the argument for the gennineness of these prophecies afforded by the numerous mention of localities and the prediction of the desolations that would overtake them. In doing so he quotes also the language of Prof. Shedd. (Bib. Repos. Vol. VII., pp. 108 sq.). Barnes says: That evidence is found in the particularity with which places are mentioned; and in the fact that impostors would not specify places, any further than was unavoidable. Mistakes, we all know, are liable to be made by those who attempt to describe the geography of places which they have not seen. Yet here is a description of a land and its numerous towns, made nearly three thousand years ago, and in its particulars it is sustained by all the travellers of modern times. The ruins of the same towns are still seen; their places in general can be designated; and there is a moral certainty, therefore, that this prophecy was made by one who knew the locality of those places, and that, therefore, the prophecy is ancient and genuine.Every successive traveller who visits Moab, Idumea or Palestine, does something to confirm the accuracy of Isaiah. Towns bearing the same name, or the ruins of towns, are located in the same relative position in which he said they were and the ruins of once splendid cities, broken columns, dilapidated walls, trodden down vineyards, and half demolished temples proclaim to the world that those cities are what he said they would be, and that he was under the inspiration of God. See Keith on Prophecy, whose whole book is but the amplification of this argument. The modern traveller, who explores those regions with Isaiah in one hand and Robinsons Researches or Murrays Guide in the other, has a demonstration that Isaiah was as surely written with the accurate knowledge of those regions in their day of prosperity and populous cities, as that the accounts of Robinson, Tristram or Murrays Guide were written by those who only had a knowledge of their ruins and desolations.Tr.].
Footnotes:
[1]Or, cut off.
[2]They go up to the house.
[3]they howl on Nebo and Medeba-Moab.
[4]In his streets they gird.
[5]their (public) squares.
[6]Heb. Descending into weeping, or, coming down with weeping.
[7]cries.
[8]soul.
[9]Or, To the borders thereof, even as an heifer.
[10]raise.
[11]Heb. breaking.
[12]Heb. desolations.
[13]grass.
[14]omit shall.
[15]Or, valley of the Arabians.
[16]Heb. additions.
[17]And to the remnant the ground.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The prophet here enters upon the subject of history: and a woeful account it is. Not a word of comfort through the whole.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Here is a sad account of Moab! And in order to enter into a full apprehension of the history, we must consult the scripture account concerning this people. If we look back to the original settlement of Israel, we shall find that this was a nation descended from Lot, Gen 13:10-11 ; and the very Moab which, by Balak, called an idolatrous enchanter, even Balaam, to curse the people of God, see Num 22 and Num 23 . Israel had many times power to destroy them, but did not; yet Moab perpetually harassed Israel. In all ages, the people of God suffer persecution. The Reader will see more of their history, by consulting those scriptures, Isa 16:14 ; Jer 28:1 ; Eze 25:8 . Here the Lord describes the day of Moab’s visitation, and the effects of it.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Core of Prophecy
Isaiah 15-16
The fifteenth and sixteenth chapters give “the burden of Moab;” then follow the burdens, or oracles, of Damascus, Ethiopia, and Egypt. We have thus to deal with a vision which looks out upon all directions with a judgment which permits nothing to escape its scrutiny and verdict. The principle of prophecy is the same throughout; for want of applying this doctrine many men have become lost in prophetic detail and colour which really have next to nothing to do with the very core of the prophecy. All prophecy must be reduced to the action of a common principle, namely, that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” and that sin is a disgrace to any people. This message will of course be delivered by the various prophets with such illustrations as express individuality of genius, culture, and situation. We are apt, however, to be lost in the midst of the illustrations, and to forget that every one of the prophets has but a single message to deliver. It is the same also with all theological discourses and exhortations. All the sermons that have ever been preached are reducible to a few pages of written matter. The preacher really has nothing to say except that God wishes men to return to him, and that men, having returned to him, will be cultivated and strengthened in all righteousness and beneficence of disposition. We thus understand the meaning of the statement, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” That is to say, all criticism, all experience, all religious reflection may be summed up in this practical discipline. The same principle may be discovered in the economy of nature. We look out upon the landscape and see trees and flowers and meadows in a thousand various colours and forms, yet the whole of that abundance is reducible to a handful of seeds. It is important to remember all this, because we may actually miss the very point of the prophecy in the act of looking too closely into it. As we have often seen, this is the continual temptation, namely, that men are drawn away to the study of phenomena, illustration, or outward adornment, and thus are likely to neglect the inner and central meaning of the very things on which they are expending so much care. Take the parable of the Prodigal Son: we do not find the meaning of that parable in the fatted calf, the best robe, the ring for the hands or the shoes for the feet, or in the music and dancing; behind all these things lies the real meaning of the parable, namely, that a heart has accused itself of sin, and has come back to make its supplication to the offended father. That is all. That, indeed, is enough. It admits of amplification as an acorn does, but the amplification is not the parable in its kernel or essence; and it is perfectly possible to be looking at all the decoration, and admiring it from a merely literary aspect, and yet wholly to overlook the evangelical purport of the portrayal. When all prophecy is stripped of its accessories it simply comes to this: Say ye unto the righteous, It shall be well with him; and say unto the wicked, It shall be ill with him. God charges every prophet and apostle to deliver this message, but he allows prophet and apostle to choose their own way of doing so: they may amplify, or colour, or enlarge, or assert themselves in any legitimate way, so as to increase their emphasis; but they are never to forget that they have only one thing to say, and that is that God approves righteousness, and regards sin as an abominable thing. Thus the subject divides itself into two parts, first, the thing that is said, which is all-important; and, secondly, the manner in which it is said, which is secondary, though most useful. The prophets sought to impress the people through the medium of the imagination; the apostles sought to turn conscience into an instrument by which they could most effectively deliver the divine message, or discharge themselves of their holy responsibilities. Memory may be worked upon; all the images and interests of childhood may be summoned to the prophet’s aid; imagination may be so fired as to see ruin upon ruin coming swiftly in the track of sin; or persuasion may be employed for the purpose of luring the mind and heart back again to forsaken ways. In the choice of instruments, in the method of working, God allows the largest liberty to his prophets and apostles; but they are never to forget that they have only one thing to say, and that is, with the righteous it shall be well, and though hand join in hand the wicked shall not prosper. Looked at in the light of this principle, all these burdens or oracles are greatly simplified. We have next to nothing to do with the mere detail, yet even that detail may in some instances be useful for illustrative or confirmatory purposes. When we have read the pompous rhetoric, we have to ask ourselves the question, What does it all come to? and the answer to that enquiry is direct and simple, namely, it comes to this, that he who honours God shall be honoured, and whoso despises God shall be lightly esteemed, that is to say, shall be cut off, and driven away as with a whirlwind of contempt.
Let us now turn to the words of the prophet, and see how God acts in the matter of judgment and doom, so far as his method is revealed, or is illustrated by these most striking instances.
“The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence” ( Isa 15:1 ).
Here we see what havoc is wrought in the night-time. In the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; Mesha, king of Moab, boasted that he had taken Nebo by a night attack. The prophet refers to a castle on a hill which rises a thousand feet above the Dead Sea, and which was recognised as the strongest of the Moabite fortresses, and that castle is represented as having been attacked at night when resistance was most hopeless. We have seen again and again how God works in the night-time. Man has but a little day to work in, but God’s working hours never cease; man becomes weary with his day’s work, and lies down to rest, and whilst he is in slumber destruction swiftly overtakes him, so that the morning looks out upon a branch cut off, a city laid to waste and brought to silence. These are the perplexing events of life. What we can see and measure and understand may afford us an opportunity of treating with some measure of success; but when the darkness closes upon us, and we are imprisoned within its boundless walls, we know not from what quarter the enemy may come, or at what rate the dart is flying. Men should diligently consider this in musing upon the judgments of providence. They cannot always be awake, they cannot always be upon the walls defending the fortress; they must retire for a time to renew their strength, and whilst they are resting the enemy acquires additional power, and comes down upon their boasted masonry, and hurls it to the dust. Only the Christian man has confidence in the night-time. He says, He that keepeth me will not slumber nor sleep. God is against evil-workers, and it delights him to trouble them by nightly visits, so that in the morning they cannot recall their own plans and purposes, or give an account of that which has happened whilst their eyes have been closed in sleep. Are we only safe so long as we can use our own eyes and hands? Have we any safety in the darkness? Have we made no provision for the night-time? If not, then woe will fall upon us, and when the morning comes it will rise upon a scene of desolation. Remember what God said to the fool in the parable who was counting his riches, and forecasting the happy years which his soul was to enjoy “Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Ponder deeply upon the moral of Night; the darkness should instruct us, remind us of our exhaustion, helplessness, and dependence upon others for security and rest, and should above all things lead us to put our confidence in him to whom the darkness and the light are both alike.
“He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly” ( Isa 15:2-3 ).
We have a picture of men going to old altars, and finding there nothing but silence. Bajith may be regarded as the temple of the Moabite god. The prophet sees men terror-stricken joining in solemn procession, and going up to the temples of their gods that they may seek relief for their heartache and bewilderment The Nebo which is mentioned in the text is not the mountain which bore that name, but a city named after the same deity. Mesha boasted of having taken Nebo, and slain there some seven thousand men. The point, however, with which we have to deal is that men go up to temples and altars, and where they expected companionship and music they find desertion and silence. The sorrow of those who mourn is represented by a very graphic figure “on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.” The primary reference is probably to some sacrificial ceremony. At a very early period baldness was regarded as a symbol of intensest sorrow amongst Eastern nations. Baldness was forbidden to Israel, for the probable reason that it was identified with the sacrificial worship of heathen deities. The picture of lamentation is continued in the third verse. In Eastern countries, when men were afflicted with great sorrow, they betook themselves to the flat roofs of their houses, and there publicly and loudly wailed on account of their agony. So they were reduced to a state of helplessness; their very gods had forsaken them, and had thus revealed their own character as deities. It is under such circumstances namely, of desertion and sorrow that men find out what their religion is really worth. The Lord taunts all the heathen nations because their gods forsook them in the hour of calamity. One prophet exclaims, “Thy calf hath cast thee off, O Samaria.” The Lord himself is represented as going up and down throughout the temples of heathenism, mocking and taunting the gods with which they were filled, because they were merely ornamental or decorative gods, and were utterly without power to assuage the sorrow of the human heart. Whilst, however, all this is true of heathenism, there is a sense in which even Christian men may go back to old altars and find them forsaken. The Lord, the living One, the Father of the universe, is not pledged to abide at the altar for ever to await the return of the prodigal. In the very first book of the Bible we read, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.” There is a day of grace, so measurement can be determined with sufficient nearness to excite alarm, lest its golden hours should be lost. When the door is once shut it will not be opened again. Men may so live that when they go to the sanctuary itself, where the sweetest gospel is preached in all its purity and nobleness, they find no comfort in the place that is devoted to consolation. The fault is to be found in themselves; they have sinned away their opportunities, they have enclosed themselves within walls of adamant, they have betaken themselves to the worship of their own vanity and the pursuit of their own selfish purposes, so that when they return to the house of God they find that the Lord has abandoned his temple. A graphic and humiliating picture is this, that men shall go up and down the church, and it shall be unto them as common ground; they shall call unto God out of their distress, and shall be answered only as with a burden of silence; they shall cry for light, and in reply to their invocation the darkness shall become sevenfold. None can withdraw so far as God. When he goes no one can cause him to return; the soul is, so to say, afflicted with a sense of vacancy, and the very emptiness into which it pours its prayer becomes an aggravation of its mockery and distress: “They shall call upon me, and I will not answer.” This is more than silence; it is silence aggravated, silence intensified, silence increased into burdensomeness. Preachers have no pleasure in dwelling upon these most distressing judgments; they only use them as the terrors of the Lord ought always to be used, as the basis of persuasive exhortation: Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?
“Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim” ( Isa 15:7-8 ).
The picture is one of increasing distress. Abundance itself is made into a sign of poverty. The picture is that of men who are flying for their lives, and the fugitives take with them all they can gather together of household goods and other property, and bear it away in their trembling hands. This they were to carry away to the brooks of the valleys, to the torrent of the poplars some say, to the Arabians others, and to the wilderness others again. This was the point at which the fugitives passed the boundary of their own lines. Certain critics have said that the allusion to the Euphrates, which some have supposed to find here, is merely poetical. Whatever the particular local interpretation may be, we have to deal with the fact that God causes sorrow upon sorrow to fall upon those who have broken his covenant and neglected his altar. The prophet represents the cry as having gone round about, reaching on the one side to Eglaim (two pools), and on the other to Beerelim (the well of the Terebinths). The meaning would seem to be that the cry filled the whole circuit, and was indeed a wail of utterest distress and loneliness. The cry of the heart in its bitterest hours may be said to reveal an aspect of religious instinct which is characteristic of human nature. A sense of orphanage afflicts the soul, and overwhelms it: the universe seems to be empty: the very largeness of the liberty which is thus given to the creature to roam through an empty universe distresses him beyond endurance; could he but find a companion, could he overtake a friend, could he awaken an echo; but on he goes through world after world, and finds nothing but forsakenness, silence, desolation!
“Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion” ( Isa 16:1 ).
The peculiar expression of this verse has been regarded as referring to the practice of the Moabites in the days of Mesha, their king. This king of Moab had paid a tribute of sheep and lambs to the king of Israel, of which we read in 2Ki 3:4 ; when Mesha revolted the tribute ceased. The prophet is here regarded as calling on the Moabites to renew their tribute, but not to the northern kingdom, which was on the point of extinction, but to the king of Judah, as the true ruler of the land: “Send ye the lamb” send ye the tribute restore the custom of ancient times. The word “Sela” means rock, and may refer either to the city called Petra, or generally to the rock district of Edom and the confines of Moab. One critic has said, “In either case the special direction implies that the presence of the invaders described in chapter xv. would make it impossible to send the tribute across the fords of the Jordan, and that it must accordingly be sent by the southern route, which passes through Sela and the desert country to the south of the Dead Sea.”
“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” ( Isa 16:2 ).
The margin renders the expression, “as a wandering bird cast out of the nest” “the forsaken nest.” “The daughters of Moab” may either mean the women who were driven from their homes, or the whole population of towns and villages fluttering like birds in terror because their nests are spoiled, or like fledglings, not knowing, when their nest has been disturbed, whether to attempt to return to it or seek for themselves a new home. The picture represents the distress and bewilderment of the wrong-doer. He does not know whether to go back to the old door and knock at it in the hope that it may be opened to him again by some kindly hand, or to flee away into the land of darkness and silence: “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” When the wicked man sits down, he fears that he may fall into perdition; when he goes abroad, he is alarmed lest a lion should confront him; when he speaks, he is afraid that he should awaken a foe; when he holds his tongue, he is sure that his silence will be interpreted as a token of guilt: he lives a troubled life: all nature is against him, in its countless ministries and criticisms and judgments; and this is because the man is against himself, not having a friend in his own heart or a sympathiser in his own memory.
“Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness” ( Isa 16:3-5 ).
The moral purpose of judgment is never concealed in the divine writings. God is always seeking to bring about the time when in mercy his throne shall be established, and when there shall sit upon it in truth one who will represent the ideal judgment and blessing of God. The fifth verse might be rendered, “In mercy shall a throne be established, and one shall sit upon it in truth.” The prophet has constantly kept before his mind the image of an ideal king. The ideal was partially fulfilled in Hezekiah, yet only partially; the prophet was sure one was coming who would fulfil it in its utmost meaning, and he steadfastly kept his eye on the bright day when God’s throne should be established among the nations, and his sceptre should be extended over all. God does not exist merely to destroy, nor does he rule only in order that he may humble and crush; his purpose is one of equity, righteousness, blessing, cultivation; he seems to edify the universe, to build it up, and make it stronger and stronger, and not to exercise his almightiness in merely changing its relations and humbling its ambitions. God may be said to be presiding over a complicated process of evolution, the purpose of that evolution being not to destroy, but to complete, to bring to maturity, and ripeness, and fruition, although in the process there must be a good deal of loss and off-shedding; but the great object of even that aspect of the divine economy is that that which remains shall be purer and stronger. Let us take this view of revolutions, tumults, wars, and all manner of national and international uproar and dislocation. When we count the killed and the wounded, when we estimate the cost of the battle, and the losses of all kinds which it inflicts, never let us withdraw our vision from the sublime purpose which providence is assuredly bringing about; the process is indeed disastrous in many instances, indeed, it is simply diabolical; in nearly all its aspects it ought to awaken horror and shame, and indeed it would be intolerable but for the assured confidence that the end will show that God has been in the matter establishing a kingdom of righteousness, and destroying an empire of darkness. It is long to wait for the issue; the night always seems longer than the day when men are in trouble and perplexity; if we lose our religious faith under such circumstances, then we shall never see the morning of explanation and peacefulness, but shall go down amid the darkness and thunders of the night My soul, hope thou continually in God: clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne: in all things he is making a way for himself; terrible, indeed, are the disasters which follow upon wickedness, yet if they could be lessened by one, or could be mitigated by any consolation that impaired the righteousness of God, they would be increased sevenfold.
“Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh” ( Isa 16:9-11 ).
All gladness is stopped. The prophet himself begins to weep “with the weeping of Jazer” that is, with tears as genuine as Jazer itself. There is to be a “shouting for thy summer fruits” better rendered, “on thy summer fruits and on thy harvest a shout is fallen”; that is to say, not the shout of those who gather the vintage, and delight in the abundance of the wheatfields, but the malignant shout of the foe as he rushes upon the property of those against whom he is fighting, and rejoices to have captured their bread and their wine from them. The word “harvest” may be regarded as used comprehensively as including the vintage. Note the disastrous picture “gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting; the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.” The work of desolation, though carried out by human hands, is represented as having been accomplished by God himself. The prophet is given to understand, and indeed he himself avows the fact, that whilst he cries over the desolation of others with true human sympathy and pity, the divine righteousness is revealed in that very desolation. We cannot even accept the terrible judgments of God without evincing human emotion. We are nowhere called upon so to exhibit religion as to rejoice in the judgments of others, and withhold our tears from their sufferings.
We have all this vividly and pathetically set forth in the case of Jesus Christ in his relation to Jerusalem: “When he came near the city he wept over it.” His tears did not interfere with the issue and consummation of judgment, yet the man could not look upon the scene without a sense of heartbreak, for Jerusalem had killed the prophets, and stoned them that were sent unto her, and she knew not the day of her visitation. When we see men taken away by the hand of the law, sentenced to lifelong imprisonment or sentenced to death, we may know that the sentence is just, and that no other sentence could have been equitably pronounced; and yet we follow them with unutterable painfulness of heart, because of what they might have been had they known the day of their visitation, had they seen the door of their opportunity, and had they been faithful to their divine stewardship. Thus God himself may be said to be weeping over those upon whom he has pronounced the sentence of eternal punishment. These are great mysteries, and are not to be explained adequately in words; we can only see somewhat of their meaning in the deepest experiences of our own life.
How awfully the judgments of God fall upon one another! Even whilst God’s heart sounds like a harp, because of his pity for those who suffer, still the judgment is not withheld, for it is due to the rest of the universe as well as to Jehovah himself that righteousness should be vindicated. The glory of Moab was contemned. History is silent as to the manner of the fulfilment of the prophecy. We know that the armies of Shalmaneser, or Sargon, swept as those of Pul and Tiglath-pileser had done over the region east of the Jordan, and so invaded Moab. The remnant was to be very small and feeble. It was not to be like the remnant of Israel which was the pledge of renewed strength; it was to be rather a symbol of utterest destruction and contempt; a reduction which meant a humiliation, a bringing-down to the extremest point of depletion, and leaving it there as a continual type of divine indignation. In the case of Damascus ( Isa 17:6 ), gleaning grapes were to be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches. The glory of Jacob was to be made thin, that is to say, was to be impoverished. The conqueror was to plunder the cities of Israel, after the manner in which the reaper cuts off the ears of corn. The prophet had probably often looked upon the reapers’ work in the valley of Rephaim or the valley of the Giants, a valley famous for its fertility, and therefore often attacked by the Philistines, and as he looked upon the Philistines cutting down the ample harvest, he found in their action a type of the way in which the Assyrian invader would accomplish his unholy purposes. Yet the prophet cannot give up the idea of a remnant. Something was to be left out of which a renewal was surely to come. First there was a beating, and then there was a shaking; but even after that he saw a few berries on the topmost bough. Then come words which are at once pregnant with warning as well as promise “At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.” The prophet prophesied their return to the true faith of Israel, but that was to be brought about by a bitter experience of the results of idolatry; men were to see how helpless were the idols they had worshipped, and yet how exacting, and in their distress and confusion were to cry out for the living God. The people were reminded in words full of pathos of their unfaithfulness “Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips…. But the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.” Thus God mocks the labours of those who imagine that nature is on their side, and that nature will after all supply them with a bountiful harvest God allows men to toil in the seedtime, to plough the land and sow the seed, and make all preparations for a rich return; and for a time it seems as if nature would be genial and kindly, and reward the toil of their hands; but in the day when there should be a harvest they find grief, and in the time when there should be shouting because of the vintage they find desperate sorrow. Thus we come upon fundamental principles once more: say ye to the righteous, It shall be well with him; say ye to the wicked, It shall be ill with him: though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not prosper: there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked: the way of transgressors is hard; these are the simple sententious truths which are amplified by poetic genius, and which are enforced by many a noble appeal. It does us good to revel in the sublime rhetoric of prophetic imagery and expostulation, and it also does us good to come back from all the thunder of eloquence, and to listen to the judgments of God in their simplest and sternest tones.
Prayer
Almighty God, we are all thine, for thou didst make us, and not we ourselves. We are the work of thy hands, we embody the thought of thy wisdom and love: are we not all made in the image and likeness of God? Thou knowest us altogether, and thou hast made replies to our need, for thou didst first create the hunger: blessed are they who hunger and thirst after the right things, after God, after rest; for they shall be filled; thou hast so made thy universe as to fill those who love thy law. Oh that we had hearkened to thy commandments! oh that we had walked in thy precepts, and made thy statutes our songs in the house of our pilgrimage! for then had our peace flowed like a river, and our righteousness had been as the waves of the sea. We bless thee that we know our shortcomings; thus we begin our penitence. Shame us into contrition; show us, thou Holy Spirit, what we might have been if we had followed in obedience and trust all the way of the living God; break us into utterest humiliation, and when thou hast thus subdued us and overwhelmed us and made us feel the agony of shame, then begin to comfort us with the Cross, with the gospel, with the agony of Christ, with the triumph and majesty of God the Son. Work in us all the good pleasure of thy will; give us to feel the thong of discipline, the laceration of judgment, and then leave us to healing and recovery and redemption, and all that is meant by motherliness and new birth and growth in life and love. Thou knowest us altogether, our need, our ambition, our desire, our hope; thou knowest the roots of our prayer, thou understandest the motive of our worship; yea, before our thought is shaped into speech, thou knowest it altogether. Then dwell with us according to thine own knowledge; judge us not with great rebukes, for who can stand before frowning heaven? but draw us near to the Cross, near to thyself, thou ever-healing Christ, and speak comfortably to us that we may become young and glad again. Make us all like little children; may we look wonderingly up into heaven until the star guides us to Bethlehem; when we are there we shall not stop short of Calvary. Let the Lord hear our prayer, and send us great answers of peace. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIV
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 6
Isaiah 13-23
This section is called “The Book of Foreign Prophecies,'” because it treats of the foreign nations in their relation to Judah and Israel.
There are ten foreign nations here mentioned, as follows: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, and Tyre, with second prophecies against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon, and one thrown in against Israel, Judah) Jerusalem, and Shebna, each. This Shebna was probably a foreigner. He was to be degraded from his high office and Eliakim was to take his place.
The radical critics assign to this section a much later date because of the distinctly predictive prophecies contained in it. There is no question that it reflects the condition of Babylon long after the time of Isaiah, and unless one believes heartily in supernatural revelations, the conclusion that it was written much later than the time of Isaiah, is unavoidable. The author accepts it as a prophecy of Isaiah and holds tenaciously to the theory of the unity of the book.
In Isaiah 13-23 the prophet gives us a series of judicial acts on various surrounding peoples, each of whom embodied some special form of worldly pride or ungodly self-will. But Asshur-Babel was conspicuous above all the rest. After fourteen centuries of comparative quiet, she was now reviving the idea of universal empire, notwithstanding the fact that Nimrod’s ruined tower stood as a perpetual warning against any such attempt. This was the divine purpose, that God might use it for his own instrument to chastise, both the various Gentile races, and especially his own people, Israel. This was the “hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa 14:26 ), to break up the fallow ground of the world’s surface, and prepare it for the good seed of the kingdom of God. Not only are these chapters (Isaiah 13-23) thus bound together inwardly, but they are also bound together outwardly by a similarity of title. We cannot detach Isaiah 13-14 from what has gone before without injury to the whole series, because
1. It is only in these chapters that we have the full antithesis to the mighty overflowing of the Assyrian deluge in Isaiah 7-8, and Isa 10 .
2.Isa 12 is a fit introduction to Isaiah 13-14, in that the deliverance of Zion, so briefly alluded to in Isa 12 , requires a further view of the enemies’ prostration, which these chapters supply. In Isa 14:2-27 we find the song of triumph analogous to Exo 15 , rather than in Isa 12 .
3.Isa 14:27 seems to be a fit termination of the section which began with Isa 7:1 .
4. There are many verbal links that connect these chapters with the preceding chapters. For example, take Isa 10:25 and Isa 13:3 ; Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:5 ; Isa 9:18 and Isa 13:13 , et multa al.
5. The complete cutting off of Ephraim foretold in Isa 7 requires a fuller revelation of the divine purpose concerning Asshur-Babylon, as its counterpoise and this is found in Isaiah 13-14.
From Isa 14:28 we infer that this prophecy was written toward the end of Ahaz’s reign. At that time spiritual darkness had won the conquest of the whole world. The “lamp of God” was now dark in his tabernacle. Hoshea, king of Israel, was the vassal of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Ahaz had long ago surrendered himself to Tiglath-pileser. So the light of prophecy, with such a background, was very luminous now. Assyria was at this time at the height of her power, but Isaiah tells with distinctness that Assyria shall be broken in pieces in the Holy Land, and it is certain that Assyria received just such a blow in the defeat of Sennacherib’s army.
The prophet also saw the doom of Babylon, the city which was at this time the real center of the empire. He even mentions the instruments of the destruction, commencing with the Medes, who were not at this time an independent nation. Nothing can be more definite than Isaiah’s statements as to the absolute ruin of the “Golden City,” which prediction at the time must have seemed to violate all probability. Yet we have abundant evidence that it was all fulfilled, both regarding the nearer event of its capture by the Medes and also the ultimate desolation of its site.
The significant word with which each of these prophecies opens is the word “burden” which has here its original and ordinary meaning. This original meaning of the word seems to be supplied from 2Ki 9:25 , where it is used to mean the divine sentence on Ahab: “Jehovah laid this burden upon him.” The appropriateness of its use here is in the fact that the prophecy to which it is prefixed is usually denunciatory in character, and always so in Isaiah. It is easy to see that it here means a grievous threatening oracle. It is claimed by some that this word is used elsewhere in a good sense, as in Zec 12:1 and Mal 1:1 , but upon close examination of these passages in their connection it will be seen that they are denunciatory and that the word has its primary meaning in these instances also.
The reason that Babylon was given first consideration among the enemies of God’s people seems to be the fact that a divine revelation came to Isaiah at this early date (725 B.C.) showing that Babylon was to be the great enemy to be feared, as the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity. The main points of the denunciation against her are as follows:
1. The instruments of God’s destruction of Babylon are the far-away nations, which God himself will assemble for this work of destruction (Isa 13:2-5 ).
2. The vivid description of the sweeping devastation, which is all inclusive in the objects of its vengeance (Isa 13:6-16 ).
3. The Medes are named as the instruments to begin this work, and the permanent effects of the desolation to follow (Isa 13:17-22 ).
4. The reason for all this is God’s favor to Jacob who had been oppressed by these foreigners (Isa 14:1-2 ).
5. Israel’s parable of exaltation over Babylon reciting their oppressive work and God’s intervention which humbled Babylon and exalted Israel (Isa 14:3-20 ).
6. The final announcement of Babylon’s doom and the permanency of its desolation (Isa 14:21-23 ).
The prophecy against Assyria under this first burden consists of God’s oath of assurance to his people that his purpose already foretold concerning Assyria should stand. Babylon in the first part of the prophecy is presented as the most formidable enemy of God’s people, but it had not yet become so fearful then. But Assyria was their dread at this time. So Isaiah comes nearer home to meet their present need and assures them that they need not fear the Assyrian for God’s purpose concerning him should stand.
There are several things in this burden that call for special consideration:
1. In Isa 13:2-5 the prophet speaks of the mustering of the host to battle as if it were then in the process of assembling, indicating the vividness of it all to the prophet’s mind as present, though it was only a vision of the future.
2. In Isa 13:3 Jehovah speaks of his “consecrated ones,” clearly referring to the Medes and Persians. Now in what sense were they “consecrated ones”? It means that they were the instruments of his purpose, set apart for the specific work of executing his judgment. They were consecrated, or set apart, by the Lord for this work though they themselves were ungongcious of the function they performed. There are many illustrations of such use of men by the Lord recorded in the Scriptures, two notable examples of which are Cyrua and Caesar Augustus.
3. In Isa 13:10 there is a reference to the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. This is an expression of Nature’s sympathy with the Lord. When he is angry, the lights of the heavens grow dark, as at the crucifixion of our Lord, and as it will be at the end of the world. So it is often the case in the time of great judgments. There seems also to be a special fitness in the expression here in view of the importance attached to the signs of the heavenly bodies by the Chaldeans at this time.
4. The desolation described in Isa 13:20-22 is witnessed by every traveler of today who passes the site of this once glorious and proud Babylon.
5. In Isa 14:9-11 we have the glad welcome given to these Babylonians in their entrance into the lower spirit world. The inhabitants of this region are represented as rising up to greet and welcome these unfortunate Babylonians. The idea of personal identity and continued consciousness after death is here assumed by the prophet.
6. In Isa 14:12 there is a back reference to the fall of Satan who, before his fall, was called Lucifer. Here Babylon in her fall is represented as Lucifer) the bright star of the morning from heaven. Our Saviour refers to the incident of Satan’s falling also in Luk 10:18 , and we have a like picture of him in Rev 12:7-9 , all of which must be considered in the light of the analogue of Satan’s fall when he sinned and was cast out of heaven.
7. In Isa 14:25 Jehovah says he will “break the Assyrian in his land,” which refers to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host from which Assyria never recovered. In Isa 14:26 the Lord explains that Assyria was the hand that he had stretched out for chastisements upon the nations of the world as they were related to Judah and Israel.
The series of burdens from Isa 14:28-23:18 may be viewed as an unrolling of the “purpose concerning the whole earth,” just mentioned in Isa 14:26 . Though the prophet stands on his watchtower and turns his eye around to the different points of the horizon and surveys the relation in which each nation stands to the advancing judgment, his addresses to the nations must be thought of as chiefly meant for the warning and comfort of Israel, which had too often adopted the sins of those whom she was meant to sanctify.
The burden of prophecy against Philistia is a warning to Philistia, following closely upon the death of Tiglath-pileser which brought great rejoicing to Philistia, because they thought the rod that smote them was broken. The prophet here reminds them that out of the serpent’s root there would come forth the adder. In other words, there would arise from Assyria an enemy far more deadly than the one who had been cut off, and instead of being a mere serpent he would be a fiery flying serpent. The reference is, probably, to Sargon who took Ashdod, made the king of Gaza prisoner and reduced Philistia generally to subjection. At this time the poor of Israel would feed safely, but Philistia was to be reduced by famine and the remnant slain by the Assyrians who are here referred to as “a smoke out of the north.” Then God’s people will answer Philistia’s messengers that Jehovah had founded Zion and in her the afflicted would take refuge.
Some critics say that the bulk of the prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there. To this we answer that speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain and lead to no results of any importance whatever. What matters it whether Isaiah quoted or not? There is no proof that he did and it makes no difference if be did. The author will contend that Isaiah was the original author of these two chapters until the critics produce at least some proof that he quoted from an earlier author.
A brief outline of these two chapters is as follows:
1. A vivid picture of Moab’s overthrow (Isa 15 ).
2. Moab exhorted to flee to the house of David for shelter, but refuses to make the right use of his affliction (Isa 16:1-12 ).
3. A confirmation of the prophecy and its speedy fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14 ).
For the picture of Moab’s overthrow the reader may read Isa 15 . It is a vivid account of this overthrow and cannot be well improved upon.
In Isa 16:1-5 we have an exhortation to Moab to take refuge with the house of David. Perhaps there is here an implication that Moab is not safe in his relation to Israel but that there would be safety for him if he would take shelter under the wings of Judah. Anyhow, there is a promise to Moab that he might find shelter and security, if only he would comply with the conditions herein set forth. But the pride of Moab was the cause of his downfall, which was utterly complete and accompanied by great wailing (Isa 16:6-8 ).
The prophet was moved to pity and tears for Moab upon witnessing such desolation and sadness as should come to this people. No gladness, no joy, no singing, and no joyful noise was to be found in his borders (Isa 16:9-12 ). Such a prophetic sight of Jerusalem made Jeremiah the weeping prophet and moved the blessed Son of God to tears. “Your house is left unto you desolate” is the weeping wail of our Lord as he saw the sad fate of the Holy City.
The time set here by the prophet for the humiliation of Moab is exactly three years, strictly measured, as a hireling would measure the time for which he would receive his pay, the fulfilment of which cannot be determined with certainty because we do not have the exact date of the prophecy, nor do we know which one of the different invasions that would fulfil the conditions is really meant. Considering the date given in Isa 14:28 we may reasonably conclude that the date of this prophecy was in the first or second year of Hezekiah’s reign, and may have had its fulfilment by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria in the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, sending a detachment to these eastern parts of the country.
It is said that Damascus has been destroyed and rebuilt oftener than any other Eastern city. This may account for the fact that Damascus, treated so severely by Tiglath-pileser, was again in a position to attract the attention of Shalmaneser when he advanced against Samaria. In the time of Jeremiah the city had been rebuilt, but we do not hear of any more kings of Damascus.
The burden of prophecy against Damascus includes two prophecies concerning Israel and Judah and one concerning Ethiopia, and the main points of this prophecy are the ruin of Damascus (Isa 17:1-3 ) ; only a remnant left to Jacob who would look to Jehovah, because he had forgotten the God of his salvation (Isa 17:4-11 ) ; the multitude of the heathen invaders suddenly destroyed (Isa 17:12-14 ) ; Ethiopia’s interest in these movements, and her homage to Jehovah according to which she sends a present to him (Isa 18:1-7 ).
There are several things in this burden that need special attention:
1. The language referring to the overthrow of Damascus is not to be pressed too far. Damascus was besieged and temporarily destroyed, but it revived. See Jer 49:23-27 ; Eze 27:18 ; and the New Testament references. Damascus is still a city of importance.
2. In Isa 17:12-14 we have an account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army which was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s host (2Ki 19:35-37 ).
3. There is some controversy as to what nation is referred to in Isa 18:2 ; Isa 18:7 , but it is surprising that there should be such controversy, since the evidence is overwhelming that the nation here mentioned was Ethiopia. This is a region south of Egypt and far up the Nile. The inhabitants, though black, were not ignorant and weak, but a nation of vigor and influence in the days of Isaiah. Cf. the Abyssinians.
4. The act of homage to Jehovah by Ethiopia as mentioned in Isa 18:7 is not given and therefore not easily determined and can be ascertained only with some probability. There is evidence that Ethiopia was intensely interested in the downfall of Sennacherib which is prophesied in this connection, therefore, it is probable that the present was sent to Jehovah in connection with Ethiopia’s alliance with Israel which existed at this time. It is true that the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it were not favorable. The government and idolatry were most securely established and the things predicted seemed most improbable, from the human point of view.
Then what the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this? The men of Ephraim and some in Judah were at this time bent on throwing themselves upon Egypt for protection against Assyria. This was both wrong in itself and impolitic. So Isaiah was hedging against such alliance by showing the coming humiliation of the power to which they were looking for aid.
There was an element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites. The tender sympathy expressed for penitent Egypt in Isa 19:20-23 must have assured the Israelites that if they would return to their God, he would be entreated of them and heal them.
The prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 is a prophecy relating to the political condition of Egypt, in which Jehovah will cause civil strife and confusion, destroying the power of their idols and the wisdom of their wise, and will place over them one who is a “cruel Lord” and a “fierce king.”
The fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the internal strife in Egypt during the days of Tirhakah and Psammetichus iii the early part of the seventh century B.C. and the conquering of Egypt by Esar-haddon, who was decidedly a “cruel prince” and treated Egypt with severity, splitting it up into a number of governments, yet this prophecy has been referred to Sargon, to Cambyses, and to Darius Ochus, and some think it is applicable to the successive rulers of Egypt, generally, viz: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish. But this is not probable.
The picture in Isa 19:5-10 is a picture of the distressful condition of Egypt while passing through the trying ordeal just prophesied. Then follows (Isa 19:11-15 ) a picture of the confusion of the wise men of Egypt as their wisdom is turned into folly.
There are five happy effects of this judgment on Egypt, in stages which reach a happy climax:
1. The Egyptians are stricken with fear because of Jehovah and because of the land of Judah, similar to the fear that came upon them when they were visited with the ten plagues (Isa 19:16-17 ).
2. Egypt shall learn the language of Canaan and swear unto Jehovah. The language here referred to is the Hebrew which was spoken largely in the country after the introduction of so many Jews there. The “five cities” represents, perhaps, the low and weakened condition of Egypt after the judgment is visited upon it (Isa 19:18 ).
3. The worship of Jehovah is established in Egypt (Isa 19:19-22 ). This was literally fulfilled in the building of the temple at Leontopolis by Onias IV, with special license from Ptolemy Philometor, to whom he is said to have quoted this passage from Isaiah. Here was offered sacrifice to Jehovah and the oblation, according to this prophecy. Through the Jewish law and influence the idolatry of Egypt was overthrown and they were prepared for the coming Saviour, whom they received through the evangelization of the missionaries in the early centuries of the Christian era.
4. The consequent union of Egypt and Assyria in worship (Isa 19:23 ).
5. The unity and equality of the nations in blessing. This and the preceding stage of this happy effect finds a primary fulfilment in the wide-spread influence of the Jews over Syria and the adjacent countries under the Syro-Macedonian kings, as well as over Egypt under the Ptolemies. But a larger fulfilment is to be found in the events at Pentecost, which sent devout men back from Jerusalem into Egypt and Libya on one side, and into Parthis, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, on the other, to tell how God, having raised up his Son Jesus (the Prince and Saviour), had sent him to bless the Jews first, and in them all nations.
The prophecy of Isa 20 is a prophecy against Egypt and Ethiopia, who were the hope of Israel in alliance, to be delivered from Assyria, which the prophet labored to prevent. It consists, (1) of the historical circumstance. This is related in Isa 20:1 which gives the date at the year in which Tartan came to Ashdod, etc. (2) Isaiah’s symbolical action and its meaning (Isa 20:2-4 ). This was a common occurrence with the prophets. Here the action symbolized the humiliating captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia which was fulfilled either by Sennacherib or by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. (3) The reason for this visitation upon Egypt and Ethiopia, viz: Israel looked to these powers instead of Jehovah and they could not be blessed while they were in alliance with backslidden Israel. So the Lord was taking care of Israel in his dealings with Egypt and Ethiopia.
“The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), is a prophecy against Babylon and contains a vivid description of the marshalling of forces against Babylon for her destruction, the overwhelming sympathy of the prophets, the expelling of sensual security, instructions to the Lord’s watchman, the fulfilment, and the final declaration. The forces marshalled for her destruction are the Medes and Elamites under Cyrus and the prophet leaves us not in doubt that the reference here is to Babylon. There can be no mistake that this prophecy has its fulfilment in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. All this is because of her relation to Israel and therefore the encouragement of God’s people and the glory of the one eternal Jehovah.
“The burden of Dumah” is generally conceded to be a prophecy against Edom, because the word “Seir” occurs in it as the place from which the one is represented as calling to the prophet. The word “Dumah” means silence and is used allegorically, “of the Silent Land” of the dead (Psa 94:17 ), and refers here, perhaps, to the silent or low state of Edom at this time. In this burden someone is represented as calling to the prophet out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?” To which the watchman replied, “There is a brighter day ahead, but it is to be followed by a period of darkness for you; if you will repent, you may do so.”
The prophecy against Arabia is a prophecy of the desolation to come upon Arabia and her borders, deranging their commerce and causing flight and privation, which would be accomplished in one year. The date of the prophecy is not very well determined but the fulfilment is found in Sargon’s expedition into Arabia during which the caravans had to leave their regular routes and “take to the woods.”
“The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ) is a prophecy against Jerusalem in which we have set forth a vivid picture of the revellings of the city (Isa 22:1-4 ) ; then a description of an outside foreign army threatening the city, causing surprise, and a hasty preparation for the siege (Isa 22:5-11 ); instead of humbling themselves, putting on sackcloth and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they try to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12-14 ) ; then follows the degrading of Shebna from his high office and the placing of Eliakim in his position (Isa 22:15-25 ). The events herein described were fulfilled either in Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem or in that of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some difficulties in fitting this prophecy to either siege and in matters where we have such limited knowledge it does not become us to be dogmatic. Some parts fit one better, and other parts fit the other better, but all things considered, the author is inclined to believe that this prophecy refers to the Assyrian invasion.
There are three distinct paragraphs given to the burden of Tyre (Isa 22:13 ): (1) The greatness of Tyre as a city of commerce and the wail of distress for the fate of the city; (2) Jehovah’s purpose to cause this destruction and stain the pride of all her glory; (3) Babylon, an example of what will come to Tyre and the promise of Tyre’s returned prosperity after seventy years. After this period Tyre will revive and be of service to Jehovah’s people. The first part of the prophecy fits into the history which shows the many reverses of this city and may refer to the Babylonian siege specifically. The last part of the prophecy may have its fulfilment in the orders of Cyrus to the Tyrians to rebuild the Temple, and the Tyrian ships were of incalculable aid in disseminating Judaism before Christ and Christianity since Christ.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the section (Isaiah 13-23) called and what the appropriateness of the title?
2. What the foreign nations mentioned in this book of prophecies and what additional prophecies thrown in?
3. What the position of the radical critics relative to this section?
4. What the connection between the parts of this section?
5. What the special connection between Isaiah 13-14 and the preceding section?
6. What the date of the prophecy in Isaiah 13-14, what the conditions both in Israel and Judah, and also in the other nations, at this time, and what the sure light of prophecy in this dark hour?
7. What the significant word with which each of these prophecies opens, what its meaning, and what its appropriateness in this connection?
8. Why was Babylon given by the prophet first consideration among the enemies of God’s peoples and what the main points in this denunciation against her?
9. What the prophecy against Assyria under this first burden and why put in here?
10. What the special things to be noted in this burden?
11. How may the series of burdens from Isa 14:28 and Isa 23:18 be viewed and what the object of the warnings?
12. What the burden of prophecy against Philistia and how is the destructive work upon the country here described?
13. What say the critics of this prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) and what the reply?
14. Give a brief outline of these two chapters.
15. Give the picture of Moab’s overthrow?
16. What the exhortation and promise to Moab in. Isa 16:1-5 ?
17. What the cause of the downfall that was to follow?
18. How did this sight of the future destruction of Moab affect the prophet and what examples of other such sympathy in the Bible?
19. What the time fixed for the humiliation of Moab and when its fulfilment?
20. What is a remarkable characteristic of Damascus, and for what does it account?
21. What does this burden against Damascus include and what the main points in it?
22. What are the things in this burden that need special attention?
23. What the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it?
24. What is the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this?
25. What element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites?
26. What the prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 and when was it fulfilled?
27. What the picture in Isa 19:5-10 ?
28. What is set forth in Isa 19:11-15 ?
29. What the important and happy effects of this judgment on Egypt?
30. What the prophecy of Isa 20 and what its contents?
31. What “The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), and what its striking points?
32. What is “The burden of Dumah” and what its interpretation?
33. What the prophecy against Arabia and when the fulfilment?
34. What “The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ), and what the salient points in the prophecy?
35. What the outline of the burden of Tyre and what the salient points of the interpretation?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 15:1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence;
Ver. 1. The burden of Moab. ] A “burden,” saith Jerome, ever betokeneth sad things to follow. A “vision” doth joyful, at last howsoever. The Chaldee paraphraseth thus: The burden of a cup of cursing for Moab to drink off. Moab was the brat of an incestuous birth, as his name also, De Patre, declareth. There is now no such nation; their very name is rooted out, ever since they were destroyed, first by Shalmaneser, as is here forethreatened, and then by Nebuchadnezzar as Jer 48:1-47 – where we meet with many like passages as here – so that they live but by fame only, as they are mentioned in Holy Scripture, but never for any good. Their destruction is foretold for a comfort to the poor afflicted Jews, to whom they were near allied, but very ill-affected.
Because in the night.
a Piscat.
b Plutarch.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 15
In chaps. 15 – 16. we have “the burden of Moab,” the neighbour of Israel among the surrounding races as a pastoral people and outwardly prosperous hitherto. What a picture of desolation and woe; and so much the more felt, because so unexpected and sudden! The Philistines were not more offensive to God because of the pleasure they took in the calamities of Israel, than the Moabites in their excessive self-security and pride. They were among the neighbouring races which were allowed to harass Israel for their unfaithfulness during the Judges, till David reduced them. Afterwards they took advantage of the revolt of the ten tribes to shake off their subjection, first to Judah, and finally to Israel; but they, like others, fell under the Babylonish conqueror, as we may gather from a comparison of Jer. 10: 58, which adopts and enlarges these very predictions of the older prophet, and serves thus to fix the epoch of their application. “For in a night of laying waste, Ar of Moab is undone; for in a night of laying waste, Kir of Moab is undone!” [Dr Henderson prefers to render it thus: “Assuredly in the night of assault Ar-Moab is destroyed assuredly in the night of assault Kir-Moab is destroyed.” They were the two main defences of Moab the city and the castle a few miles off the storming of which decided the fate of the people] (v. 1). Ar-Moab is the more forcible a phrase, because it was not only the capital, but the only real city that Moab possessed. Ar means city, and Kir means a wall and thence a walled fortress. It was not far from the city on the S.E.
Broken thus in their city and stronghold, one after another surprised to their dismay, the people are supposed to go to their places to weep, with deep and universal signs of mourning in public and in private; and this, to the extremities of their land, the very soldiers crying out like the weaker sex. “He is gone up to Bayith, 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. In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one howleth, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard unto Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him” (vv. 2-4).
The prophet, or whosoever is personated by him, cannot but feel for the disasters of Moab; and the graphic sketch of desolation and want and carnage is continued to the end of the chapter. “My heart crieth out for Moab; their nobles [flee] unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up by it; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land” (vv. 5-9). Even the escaped should find fresh disaster and destruction from Jehovah. Extreme humiliation is the chastening of excessive pride. But the intense feeling of the prophet, which was assuredly no less in Jeremiah, is the most complete disproof of the heartlessness which unbelieving critics ascribe to Isaiah, or at least to these “burdens” assigned to him. Ewald had too much sense of taste to overlook it. There is no doubt as marked a difference in tone between the deep pathos over Moab’s fall and the ode of triumph before the Babylonish potentate. This is as it should be; but vindictive and sarcastic in an evil sense it is not. Even the Christian, who is heavenly, is called to abhor evil, and cleave to good. And heaven resounds with hallelujahs over God’s true and righteous judgement of the Great Harlot, though her smoke goeth up for ever and ever (Rev 19:1-6 ). How suited for a Jewish prophet to triumph over the last holder of the impious power allowed to rise When Judah was swept away, and whose fall at length ushers in Israel delivered for ever! Here in chaps. 15, 16. he can yield to the most impassioned feeling over kindred but proud Moab brought low.
We may note among the places named which share in the national grief that the Dibon of ver. 2 appears to be called Dimon in ver. 9, a play on the word in order to associate it with the Hebrew for “blood,” which was to be its portion. Jerome records that the place in his day was called both. Death and disasters yet more impended. What a contrast was Beer-elim to Moab and Israel! There Moab’s howling was to reach; there Israel sang their song of triumph as they drew to the end of their journeying, where for the refreshing of all the well sprang up under the staves of the chiefs and nobles (Num 21:16-18 ). So the true end with enduring joy yet awaits the people after a far longer wandering. But judgements accompany and distinguish “that day,” judgements on all the enemies of Israel small and great; judgements that begin with the ancient people of God, and with Judah first of all. For there is no unrighteousness with God. And if it be a day of sifting for all the nations of the earth, He must begin at His house, before Israel can say in truth of heart, His mercy for ever!
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 15:1-9
1The oracle concerning Moab.
Surely in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;
Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
2They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, even to the high places to weep.
Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;
Everyone’s head is bald and every beard is cut off.
3In their streets they have girded themselves with sackcloth;
On their housetops and in their squares
Everyone is wailing, dissolved in tears.
4Heshbon and Elealeh also cry out,
Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
His soul trembles within him.
5My heart cries out for Moab;
His fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,
For they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping;
Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their ruin.
6For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.
Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass died out,
There is no green thing.
7Therefore the abundance which they have acquired and stored up
They carry off over the brook of Arabim.
8For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,
Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.
9For the waters of Dimon are full of blood;
Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,
A lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.
Isa 15:1 Notice how Isaiah’s contextual marker of a new message or vision oracle (BDB 672 III) appears in Isa 15:1. See note at Isa 13:1 (cf. Isa 14:28; Isa 17:1; Isa 19:1; Isa 21:1; Isa 21:11; Isa 21:13; Isa 22:1; Isa 23:1; Isa 30:6). This term denotes a divine revelation.
Moab This is one of Israel’s relatives from Lot and one of his two daughters after their flight from Sodom (cf. Genesis 19). Moab, Ammon, and Edom (i.e., the trans-Jordan nations) are first mentioned as receiving domination by Judah in Isa 11:14.
Chapters 15-16 form a literary unit dealing from Moab’s judgment (cf. Jeremiah 48; Eze 25:8-11; Amo 2:1-3; Zep 2:8-11). Moab is mentioned often in Numbers because Israel had to travel through their land to get to Canaan. Moses was buried there (cf. Deuteronomy 34).
Surely in a night This phrase is repeated twice and emphasizes the suddenness and completeness of the coming judgment of Moabite cities.
The two VERBS devastated (BDB 994, KB 1418) and ruined (lit. cut off, BDB 198, KB 225) are both PERFECTS, also denoting a complete destruction. Isaiah used the VERB ruined to describe himself in Isa 6:5.
The Assyrian armies invaded Canaan/Palestine several times.
1. Sargon II in 715 B.C.
2. Sargon II in 711 B.C.
3. Sennacherib in 701 B.C.
Ar The term (BDB 786 I) can refer to a city (it is the general name for city in the Moabite language) or a region (i.e., Deu 2:9; Deu 2:29).
Since Kir (BDB 885 II) also means wall (cf. LXX, i.e., walled city) in Hebrew, it is possible that Ar and Kir refer to the capital of Moab in parallel poetic lines.
Isa 15:2 Dibon. . .Nebo. . .Medeba There are also cities of Moab listed in Numbers in relation to the Wilderness Wandering Period as Israel finally approached Canaan from the eastern side of the Jordan Rift Valley.
Isa 15:2-3 wails. . .bald. . .beard cut off. . .mourning. . .girded with sackcloth. . .wailing These all refer to mourning rites of the ANE (cf. Isa 22:12; Ezr 9:3; Job 1:20; Jer 7:29; Jer 16:6; Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5; Jer 48:37; Eze 7:18; Eze 27:31; Mic 1:16). The population tries to turn to their gods (cf. Isa 15:2); they try to repent and seek help, but there is no help from lifeless idols!
SPECIAL TOPIC: GRIEVING RITES
Isa 15:4 Heshbon. . .Elealeh. . .Jahaz These are also cities on the eastern side of Jordan, close to and often identified with Moab (or Ammon, i.e., Mesha Stone, 9th century B.C.).
cry out This is the VERB (BDB 277, KB 277, Qal IMPERFECT) that was used in its Qal IMPERATIVE form in Isa 14:31 (Philistia). Here it denotes Moab and in Isa 15:5 it denotes YHWH or Isaiah. Note its use in Jer 48:20; Jer 48:31.
NASBthe armed men
NKJV,
PESHITTAthe armed soldiers
NRSV, LXX,
JB the lions
NJBwarriors
REBstoutest warriors
The difference between soldiers and lions in Hebrew is vocalization, not a consonantal change.
His soul trembles within him This VERB (BDB 438, KB 440, Qal PERFECT) appears only here. There are several Hebrew words translated tremble. They denote fear and lack of action in the face of God’s judgment. They characterize holy war. This one may have been chosen for poetic reasons to sound like the VERB cry out.
Isa 15:5-9 The Jewish Study Bible sees these verses as referring to Moabites fleeing to Edom (p. 815). This is possible because the exact location of these cities mentioned is uncertain, though all are east or southeast of the Jordan River.
Isa 15:5 My heart cries out for Moab The my in context must refer to YHWH Himself (cf. Isa 15:9). Although it could be the prophet himself, cf. Isa 16:9; Isa 16:11. YHWH hears the cries of Moab’s people and is moved. They still receive judgment, but not from a thoughtless, uncaring God! They are even offered help/refuge in Isa 16:1-4. What an amazing text!
The Septuagint changes the referent to the heart of the region of Moab cries within her (cf. NJB).
NASB, NRSV,
TEV, NJB,
REBEglath-shelishiyah
NKJV, LXX,
PESHITTAlike a three-year-old heifer
This could be a city or a phrase (cf. Jer 48:34).
His fugitives The MT has her bars (BDB 138, from ), but most translations change the vocalization to his fugitives from (BDB 138).
Isa 15:6 In the OT God controls the weather (cf. Deuteronomy 27-29). He brings abundance for covenant obedience, but withholds agricultural production in the face of evil, wickedness, and rebellion. Moab faces both invasion (cf. Isa 15:9 a) and lack of food.
Isa 15:7 Moab was located on a major trade route from Egypt to Syria. She taxed all the caravans and became wealthy.
Isa 15:9 A lion This could be (see Special Topic: Lions in the Old Testament )
1. literal, God uses wild animals to judge (i.e., 1Ki 13:24-28; 2Ki 17:25)
2. a symbol of the Assyrian army (cf. Isa 5:29; Jer 50:17)
3. figurative of invasion from Judah (cf. Isa 11:14, the lion [ruler] of Judah).
The JPSOA significantly changes the translation of this verse (esp. lines 2-4) to make it positive (cf. Isa 15:5, my).
For I pour added (water) on Dimon
I drench it – for Moab’s refugees – with soil (footnote, ‘tears’) for its remnant
The LXX of Isa 15:9, lines 2-4, are also very different, but decidedly negative.
For I will bring Arabs upon Remnon,
and I will remove the offspring of Moab and Ariel
and the remnant of Adama.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
burden. The first of the seven burdens.
Because = Surely.
Moab. Had been subdued by Saul (1Sa 14:47) and David (2Sa 8:2); and paid tribute to Ahab (2Ki 1:1; 2Ki 3:4, 2Ki 3:5). Ar = Rabbah (Num 21:28; Deu 2:9, Deu 2:18, Deu 2:29).
brought to silence = cut off or destroyed.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 15
Now in chapter 15, he turns his attention against Moab, that area that lies just east of the Jordan and of the Dead Sea. And he begins to speak of the destruction of Moab and of some of the major cities in Moab. The cities that are destroyed at night.
Ar is laid waste, and brought to silence; Kir is laid waste, and brought to silence ( Isa 15:1 );
And these other cities, Bajith and Dibon, and so forth. Howling then over the mountains. Mount Nebo and Medeba, which is just east and south from Nebo.
on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off ( Isa 15:2 ).
This when they went into great weeping or mourning over the dead, they would shave their heads and their beards. It was a sign of great mourning. They would usually put on sackcloth, shave their head and beard. So everyone’s head is shaved. Their beards are all cut off because of the slaughter that has come upon the inhabitants of Moab, the howling over the destruction.
In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth ( Isa 15:3 ):
The garment of mourning worn over the bare skin.
on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh ( Isa 15:3-4 ):
These are the cities.
their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz ( Isa 15:4 ):
From one end of the nation to the other.
therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him. My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction ( Isa 15:4-5 ).
And then speaking of the rivers and so forth that will be desolate. Nimrim was a river towards the south, but it’s going to be dry.
the hay is withered ( Isa 15:6 ).
They’ll flee down that way, but
the grass fails, there is no green thing ( Isa 15:6 ).
So there will be a drought in that area. And thus, God predicts and describes His judgment against Moab and the inhabitants of that land.
Now even as God describes the judgment against Moab, yet Moab is to figure yet in the future, and as we get into chapter 16, we find the place of Moab, which, of course, today is Jordan. We find its place during the Great Tribulation. And you’ll find some very interesting things in chapter 16 where, this is where we locate the rock city of Petra as the place where the children of Israel will flee in the middle of the Great Tribulation when the antichrist comes to Jerusalem and sets himself up in the temple. And chapter 16, the word Sela is rock or petra, the rock. So the rock city of Petra is named here, the city of Sela. And as you read it, see if you can put it together in your mind, and then we’ll seek to put it together for you next Sunday night as we see God’s preservation of a remnant of His people from the Great Tribulation who flee to the rock city of Petra for refuge when the antichrist moves to Jerusalem in his great sacrilege against God.
So next week, sixteen. And your chapters next week are rather short. And so sixteen through twenty, but some interesting things. Chapter 19, the prediction of the Aswan Dam, and just a lot of people, not a lot of people, some people see the United States in chapter 18. If you can see the United States in chapter 18, you’ve got better eyes than I have. But some people make quite a bit out of chapter 18 being a prophecy concerning the United States.
As far as I’m concerned, the United States doesn’t appear in prophecy except for one area where there’s a possibility. And that is when Russia invades Israel, the merchants of Tarsus. Tarsus is thought to be England. And the young lions thereof shall say, “What are you doing invading this defenseless little land?” Now if the United States appears anywhere in prophecy, that’s where it appears, and it is when we file a complaint to the Security Council of the United Nations asking them to soundly condemn Russia for invading the Middle East, Jerusalem. So outside of that, I really do not see the United States in prophecy, because as John tells us in the book of Revelation, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
God isn’t interested in prophesying about the whole world and the nations of the world as such. He’s interested in one person. And all prophecy centers around Jesus Christ. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So as nations relate to Israel, as Israel relates to the Messiah, so these nations will come into the light of prophecy. But the purpose of prophecy is not to give us an unfolding of the whole world scheme, but to center on one person, the person of Jesus Christ in His first and in His second coming.
The nations that try to destroy Israel before the Messiah came, God deals with them in prophecy. How He is going to destroy those who are trying to destroy the nation before the Messiah could come. And then, of course, all of these prophecies that deal now with the return of Jesus Christ, the establishing of His kingdom and all. But they all really center around Jesus. So you may be disappointed that the United States doesn’t show up, but when you read some of the things that are said about some of these nations that do show up, that’s sort of nice that He doesn’t detail what might happen here.
But come what may, my life is secure in Jesus Christ. And that’s the main thing, that you be found in Him, not clothed in your own righteousness, but the righteousness which God has given you through your faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the only way I want to be found. Praying that I’ll be accounted worthy to escape these things that Walter Martin wants to go through.
Now he’ll take issue with that statement. I’m wrong. He says he doesn’t want to. He hopes that he’s wrong in this point. Well, I know he’s wrong so what difference does that make? Shall we stand. But I respect his right to be wrong.
May the Lord be with you, give you a beautiful week. And may His Word sustain you as you walk with Him in fellowship. May God really begin a powerful work in your life. May the Spirit of the Lord just really rest heavy upon you. And may you really have a chance to share the love of Jesus Christ with someone else this week. May God make you effective in your witness for Him. May your life be like a light shining in a dark place. That others might be drawn to that light and find the source of the light, even Jesus. So God bless you and give you a rich week in fellowship with Him. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 15:1-9
Isa 15:1-9
We shall treat Isaiah 15 and Isaiah 16 together, both of them being devoted entirely to the “Burden of Moab.” All of the commentators speak of the difficulties connected with interpreting this prophecy, but despite many questions that remain without certain answers, the overall picture is clear enough. The doom of Moab is announced, first by quoting a prophecy that Isaiah (perhaps) had already written, and then pinpointing the fulfillment of it within an exact period of only three years time.
Cheyne divided the prophecy (both chapters) into three divisions: (1) Isa 15:1-9; (2) Isa 16:1-5; and (3) Isa 16:6-14.
The time prophesied here for the fulfillment of the doom of Moab is nearly impossible to decide. As Hailey said, “If we knew the date of this prophecy, we could determine whether it was fulfilled by Shalmanezar, Sargon, or Sennacherib”; but Lowth is one of the few who assign a date. He wrote: “The most probable dating is that it was delivered in the first year of Hezekiah’s reign, and that the fulfillment was accomplished in Hezekiah’s fourth year, when Shalmanezar invaded Israel. Lowth’s guess is as good as anyone’s.
One feature of this prophecy is the number of place-names, some twenty-three in all, only about ten of them being identified as to their exact location.
The Moabites, of course, were kinsmen of Israel. Lot was a nephew of Abraham who lived in Sodom when the city was destroyed. His wife was lost in the destruction of Sodom; and, while living in a cave with his two daughters, Lot fathered a child by each of them; and from that incestuous union came the two nations of Ammonites and the Moabites (See Genesis 19).
Despite this kinship, the nation of Moab developed as an enemy, both of Israel, and of Israel’s God. The arrogant pride of the people is mentioned in this prophecy. It will be remembered from Numbers 26, that the daughters of Moab seduced Israel in the orgy associated with the pagan god Baal-Peor, entitling them thus to having been one of the very worst influences upon Israel.
Scholars have had a field day trying to figure out who wrote the prophecy which Isaiah here says was given “in time past” (Isa 16:13). Some think Isaiah wrote it; others believe it is quoted from an earlier prophet, etc., etc. “But speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain, and moreover lead to no results of the slightest importance.
THE BURDEN OF MOAB
Isa 15:1-9
“The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to naught; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought. They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Meleba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off. On their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; from their housetops, and everyone waileth, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; for his soul trembleth within him. My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles flee unto Zoar, to Eglathshe-lishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the wailing thereof unto Eglai, and the wailing thereof to Beerelim. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon them of Moab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land.”
What a scene of desolation and destruction, of helpless flight before the forces of an invader, of a whole population shaving off their hair and their beards as a sign of national mourning, of citizens salvaging whatever they can carry away from their homes in their flight for refuge, of the pitiful confusion of the people when no safe refuge appears, of the weeping, wailing, sorrow and distress that rose like a dismal cloud over all of Moab!
What a sad picture of the mined people of Moab! Note their going up to the high places of Moab’s false gods, where all the cries and supplications of suffering peoples are poured out in vain. No wonder, Isaiah said, “My heart crieth out for Moab” (Isa 15:5). Moabites were kin to Israel; but not even one’s closest of kin can intervene against the judgment of God. Incidentally, this line in which the first person singular is used indicates that Isaiah himself is the author of this prophecy given in “time past” (Isa 16:13).
There are seventeen place-names in this brief little chapter referring to places literally all over Moab. Eerdmans New Bible Dictionary (1962) does not even mention six of these, but here is that source’s information on most of the others:
Ar……..Chief city of Moab, location unknown.
Kir…….Fortified city at elevation 3,370 feet, 11 miles east of the Dead Sea, and 15 miles north of the Arnon River.
Dibon…..The modern Dhiban east of the Dead Sea and 4 miles north of the Arnon River.
Nebo……The mountain from which Moses saw the Holy Land, one of the Moabite gods, and a small city of Moab (perhaps a local shrine of Nebo).
Heshbon…The capital of Sihon, king of the Ammonites, which fell to Moses (Num 21:24), and was later allotted to Reuben (Num 32:37).
Elealeh…Small town east of Jordan, always mentioned in connection with Heshbon. It is identified as modern el-Al, 1 mile north of Heshbon.
Zoar……City near the Dead Sea (southern extremity) from which Lot and his two daughters fled to a cave in the mountains (Genesis 19).
Luhith….Eusebius placed it between Zoar and Areopolis, but it has not yet been surely identified.
Nimrim….A place in south Moab some ten miles from the southern tip of the Dead Sea.
Some of these cities, however, have proved to be important historically. For example, Kir was the site where, “A heathen prince built a strong castle in the year 1131 A.D. (in the times of the crusades), which was very serviceable to the Franks, who in the year 1183 A.D. held it successfully against a very formidable siege of a month by Saladin.
“The brook of willows …” (Isa 15:7). This was apparently a boundary between Moab and Edom, the Wadi el-Hesy.
“Waileth …” (Isa 15:3). Older versions translated this word as “shall howl” … In earlier times in the United States, such loud howling often took place at funerals. Barnes noted that, “In times of calamity in the East, it is common to raise an unnatural and forced howl, or long continued shriek. Persons were often hired for this purpose.
“Unto Beer-elim …” “This word literally means, `the well of the princes’; and it is perhaps the same as that mentioned in Num 21:14-18, as being in the land of Moab.
The most delightful thing in this chapter is the compassion that seems to well up in the heart of Isaiah as he contemplates the massive sorrow and distress that always result from people’s disobedience of the Lord. The reason for Isaiah’s repeating this prophecy here is for the sake of confirming the truth of it and of setting a specific frame of reference in time when the complete fulfillment of it would take place.
“A lion upon them of Moab that escape …” (Isa 15:9). “Perhaps this should be understood literally (2Ki 17:25), or it may stand metaphorically for invading foes (Jer 4:7 and Jer 5:6).” Some have suggested that “the lion” here was such an invader as Nebuchadnezzar, or Ashurbanipal.
Severe as this prophecy is, there are other prophecies in God’s word just as devastating. For example, Amos has this:
“Thus saith Jehovah: for three transgression of Moab, yea, for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet; and I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith Jehovah” (Amo 2:1-3).
Other prophecies of similar import are to be found in Isa 11:14; Isa 25:10; Jeremiah 48; Eze 25:8-11; and Zep 2:8-11. The first part of the next chapter states the reason for God’s judgment of Moab.
Isa 15:1-4 DESOLATION: Moab the arrogant, the insolent, will be overtaken by a destroyer in such suddenness it will transpire in only a night, as it were. Moab was a grandson of Lot by incest with his elder daughter (Gen 19:30-38). Israel, on its march to the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, was seduced when Balaam a prophet of God advised Balak, king of Moab, how best to resist Israel. Moab dominated and exploited Israel for 18 years during the reign of Eglon, king of Moab, but was delivered by the Israelite judge, Ehud (Jdg 3:30).
God, through His prophets, pronounced Moabs doom for her pagan sins and atrocities (human sacrifice, etc.). Isaiahs prediction of complete desolation was fulfilled by Shalmanezer of Assyria and his successors (Cf. also Eze 25:8-11; Jer 48:1 ff; Zep 2:8-11). A vivid picture of Semitic or Oriental demonstrativeness is portrayed, When peoples of these races mourn they do so in a highly emotional state and make a public display of it by shaving their heads and beards, by tearing their clothes, by wearing sackcloth, and by weeping and wailing so abundantly they literally exhaust themselves emotionally over it all and collapse in tears. The bloody destruction of the Assyrian hordes in this territory was awful to behold.
Isa 15:5-9 DESPERATION: The speaker in this verse is no doubt Isaiah himself. He is a man of God, tender in his regard for human beings. He is not oblivious to the great suffering of this neighbor nation, (Cf. Isa 16:9; Isa 16:11). There were racial and social ties between Israel and Moab, as well as hostilities. In the days of the judges Elimelech of Bethlehem took his family to Moab to sojourn during a famine; there his two sons married and died, and Ruth, the Moabitess returned with Naomi, married Boaz and became an ancestress of David. David, when in difficulty with King Saul, took his father and mother to the king of Moab for his protection (1Sa 22:3-4).
So Isaiahs heart is touched with this prediction of the desperation of the Moabites. Isaiah paints a picture of thousands of weeping refugees fleeing their homes and cities, carrying what possessions they could hastily snatch up in a moments desperation. They flee southward for asylum in Edom. The slaughter by the Assyrian armies rampages until the waters of Dimon are stained red with human blood! Those that remain in Moab, and even those that flee, have still more slaughter and destruction to come upon them. God will send a lion (probably the Babylonians and Persians to come) to hunt them down. Such is the destiny of proud and inhuman Moab !
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTERS FIFTEEN AND SIXTEEN
THE BURDEN OF MOAB
IN THE SHORT FIFTEENTH CHAPTER the prophet predicts the eventual destruction of Moab. The country bearing this name lay to the north of the land of Edom and was bounded on the west by the Dead Sea and on the east by the Arabian desert. The north boundary ordinarily was the River Arnon though, owing to frequent strife with the Ammonites, the border changed from time to time so that occasionally it extended some miles north of this river.
The Moabites were descended from the illegitimate son of Lot and his eldest daughter by incestuous relationship. Moab, therefore, might picture for us those who make a profession of being children of GOD while actually with no legitimate claim to that name. In other words, Moab may represent to us the easy-going religious profession with which many are contented who fail to recognize the importance of the new birth. Generally speaking, Moab was somewhat friendly toward Israel but when the nation was first passing through their borders on the way to their inheritance in the Promised Land, Balak was fearful of being destroyed by them and so hired Balaam, the son of Beor, to curse them, but as we know, GOD turned the curse into a blessing.
The book of Ruth tells us of the visit of Elimelech and his family to Moab in the time of famine and the unhappy results of that period of sojourn. When David was pursued by Saul he took his parents to the country of Moab and put them under the protection of its king, but as the years went on Moab, like Edom, became an enemy of Israel, for no matter how friendly religious professors may seem to be at times to the true children of GOD, the day always comes when they resent what seems to them to be the assumed superiority of those who really know the Lord. So from time to time we find Moab allied with the enemies of Israel and Judah.
Isaiah here depicts most graphically the day of their destruction.
“The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; he is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off. In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every
one shall howl, weeping abundantly. And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him. My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shallll.ee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up: for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim. For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land” (chapter 16).
When or how all these predictions had their initial fulfillment in the past we may not be familiar enough with history to know, but the day came when Moab was utterly destroyed as a nation and for centuries their land has been inhabited by the Arabians of the desert. Their destruction evidently came about to a great extent through the armies of Assyria and, later, of Babylonia. Their doom may be looked upon as a solemn warning of the judgment that will fall at last upon those who have a name to live but are dead toward GOD and are content to go on with an empty profession instead of turning to GOD in repentance and finding new life in CHRIST.
The following chapter continues the subject, bringing before us first of all an earnest entreaty on the part of the Lord Himself for Moab to turn from its enmity against His people and meet their ambassadors In a spirit of friendliness.
“Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. 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. Take counsel, execute Judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land” (16:1-4).
Moab was devoted largely to the raising of sheep and cattle, and during the reigns of David and Solomon and even later, paid tribute to Israel and Judah by sending annually a specified number of their flocks and herds. In Isaiah’s day they had revolted and refused to continue to pay this tribute. The prophet, speaking by divine inspiration, pleads with them to send the lamb again to the ruler of the land, that is, the land of Israel, and to cease acting vindictively toward those who fled across the Jordan for refuge when in terror of invading armies.
By thus manifesting friendliness to the Lord’s people Moab might, at least for the time being, avert her judgment. To what extent the prophet’s words influenced this nation at that time, we do not have any way of knowing. The prophecy goes on to emphasize the authority given to the prince who sat upon David’s throne, but looks on to the coming of the Messiah, GOD’s anointed King, who was to sit upon this throne and rule the nations in righteousness.
“And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the
tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness” (verse 5).
It would seem, however, that there was no response to the plea made above. Instead, the Moabites met the pleadings of the prophet with coldness and arrogance, therefore judgment must take its course.
“We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so. Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken. For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea. Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh. And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail” (verses 6-12).
Like many another people with whom GOD has pleaded earnestly through His prophets, beseeching them to turn from their evil ways and submit to His authority, the leaders of Moab met the prophet’s entreaties with defiance and refused to give heed to the call to be subject to the GOD of Israel. Therefore there was no hope of recovery but they were to be exposed to the ravages of the armies of Assyria; first of all under Sennacherib and then under other leaders, till their national existence was brought to an end.
The language used by the prophet is stirring indeed and indicates how deeply he, himself, yearned for the deliverance of Moab and longed to see them yield to the commands of the Lord.
A preliminary judgment is predicted in the last two verses of the chapter.
“This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now the Lord hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble” (verses 13, 14).
Just when or how these words were fulfilled we may not know because of lack of familiarity with the ancient records – records which have, to a great extent, now been destroyed – but we may be certain that the prophecy was fulfilled as predicted and Moab’s destruction began in Isaiah’s day.
~ end of chapter 15, 16 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTER 15
The Burden of Moab
The Destruction Announced (Isa 15:1-9)
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Moab
This “burden” had a precursive fulfilment in Sennacherib’s invasion, B.C. 704, three years after the prediction Isa 16:14 but the words have a breadth of meaning which includes also the final world-battle. (See Scofield “Rev 19:17”), Isa 16:1-5 which is a continuation of this “burden,” shows the “tabernacle of David” set up, the next event in order after the destruction of the Beast and his armies. Cf. the order in; Isa 10:28-34; Isa 11:1-10; Act 15:14-17; Rev 19:17-21; Rev 20:1-4.
burden See note 1; (See Scofield “Isa 13:1”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
burden: This and the following chapter form one entire prophecy; which was most probably delivered, as Bp. Lowth supposes, soon after the foregoing – Isa 14:28-32, in the first year of Hezekiah, and accomplished in his fourth year when Shalmaneser invaded Israel. Isa 13:1, Isa 14:28
Moab: Isa 11:14, Isa 25:10, Jer 9:26, Jer 48:1-47, Eze 25:8-11, Amo 2:1-3, Zep 2:8-11
in the: Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30, 1Th 5:1-3
Ar: Num 21:28, Deu 2:9, Deu 2:18
brought to silence: or, cut off
Kir: Isa 16:7, Kir-hareseth, Isa 16:11, Kir-haresh, 2Ki 3:25, Kir-haraseth, Jer 48:31, Jer 48:36, Kir-heres
Reciprocal: Num 21:15 – Ar Jos 13:16 – General Neh 13:1 – the Ammonite Job 34:25 – in the Isa 17:1 – burden Isa 22:6 – Kir Isa 23:1 – for it is Jer 25:21 – Moab Jer 48:2 – cut down Jer 48:20 – confounded Jer 51:55 – destroyed Nah 1:1 – burden Zep 2:9 – Surely Zep 3:6 – cut Zec 5:7 – talent
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
It is clear that, when God acts in judgment, He begins at the innermost circle. It was so in the days of Jerusalem, as we see in Eze 9:6 and the same principle holds good in New Testament times, as stated in 1Pe 4:17. In Isaiah we have seen the predictions of judgment first uttered against Israel, though with promises of restoration and glory in their Messiah. After this follows the judgment of the nations surrounding Israel.
We have seen Babylon head the list, to which judgment is prophetically meted out without any promise of restoration. Now in Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14, Moab comes into view, a people that in its origin stood in a distant relationship with Israel. Against them too judgment is pronounced but with a note of sympathy (see, Isa 15:5) which is altogether absent in the case of Babylon. The Moabites were a pastoral people but dwelling on high ground east of the Dead Sea and strongly fortified. In verse Isa 15:1, Ar is the city and Kir the fortress. All should be laid waste.
The prophecy refers to judgment which would speedily fall on Moab in view of their haughty pride, as the last verse of Isa 16:1-14 shows. The opening verse of that chapter also refers to the tribute that Moab used to pay, as we see in 2Ki 3:4. Yet in part the prophecy also refers to the last days, for verse Isa 15:5 looks on to a King “in the tabernacle of David,” whose throne will be established, and who will be “hasting righteousness” Before that hour strikes God will have a people whom He calls His, though they are “outcasts” in the earth, and Moab will do well to give them shelter. That Moab will exist in the last days is made clear in Dan 11:41 as we saw also in our prophet, when considering Isa 11:14.
In the days of Isaiah, Damascus had been allied with the ten tribes. Its “burden” fills the three verses that open Isa 17:1-14. The prophetic strain however quickly passes from Damascus to the children of Israel for disaster was to come on both, since both had united in alliance against Judah. The figure is used of harvest, whether of corn or of grapes, which would leave them poor and thin, yet a remnant would be left, like a gleaning of grapes or a few berries on an olive tree, and that remnant will turn their eyes to “the Holy One of Israel,” and away from the idolatrous things that formerly held them.
All this found a fulfilment in days immediately ahead, yet will have an ampler fulfilment in the last days yet to come. The prediction about the “pleasant plants,” or “plantations,” and the “strange slips ” is often referred to in connection with the recent doings of Jewish immigrants in Palestine. They have indeed been busy with plantations in their agricultural colonies and have imported vast quantities of vine cuttings from other lands in order to re-establish vineyards.
But look at verse 11, which predicts that, though this work will have a promising beginning, it will suffer a crushing blow. And, how? By a great and antagonistic uprising among the nations, of which the rest of the chapter speaks. Here doubtless we have a brief yet comprehensive sight of the final convulsions among the nations, when God will make Jerusalem “a cup of trembling” and a “burdensome stone” to all the peoples round about, and “gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle” (Zec 12:2, Zec 12:3; Zec 14:2). Jerusalem and the Jews will indeed be heavily chastised, but the proud nations themselves will meet ultimately the fury of God and be scattered before Him, like chaff or thistle-down is blown away by a whirlwind. As we view present doings in Palestine let us not forget this solemn prediction.
Isa 18:1-7 opens with a call to a distant land that is to serve God’s purpose in the last days, helping to re-gather Israel. Verses Isa 15:4-6, appear to be parenthetical, so that verse Isa 15:7 is connected with verse Isa 15:3. Both verses Isa 15:2; Isa 15:7 speak of a people “scattered and peeled [or ravaged],” who without a question are those we now know as Jews. Our chapter indicates that, when in the last days God gives the signal for their re-gathering, there will be a distant people with ships who will do what they can to help them. But the parenthetical verses show that, though God overrules this, He is not directly acting in it. He retires, as it were, saying, “I will take My rest,” observing what is taking place, but ultimately bringing disaster upon it all, as we saw in the previous chapter.
And yet, in spite of all this, the scattered and ravaged people will be recovered and brought as a present unto the Lord. Verse Isa 15:7 does not tell us how this is to be accomplished after the failure of the earlier attempt. When we read Mat 24:31, we find the Lord shedding light on this matter. The people who will be brought thus as a present to the Lord, will be “His elect,” and not just an assortment of patriots and fugitives, as we see at present. And they will be brought “to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, the mount Zion.” Alas! Jerusalem as it is at present cannot be designated thus. It is the place where Jews are reassembling, hoping to display the greatness of their own name, while still rejecting their Messiah.
The Jew has yet to discover the meaning of “the mount Zion;” namely, grace flowing out from God, rather than merit through law-keeping, achieved by themselves. The Apostle Paul realized this, as we see at the end of Rom 11:1-36. They have been shut up in unbelief, “that He might have mercy upon all.” The contemplation of this over-abounding mercy to Israel moved Paul to the doxology, concerning God’s wisdom and ways, with which that chapter closes.
We resume the “burdens” on the surrounding nations, as we read Isa 19:1-25. Egypt, that had so much to do with Israel and its history, now comes before us. Again we notice the feature so common in these prophecies: the predictions soon pass from more immediate judgments to those that will mature at the end of the age. History tells us that soon after Isaiah’s day Egypt did fall from her former high estate, and things recounted in verses 1-10, came upon them. The princes of Zoan did become fools, though in the days of Moses long before “the wisdom of Egypt” was highly regarded.
Yet in the latter part of this chapter the terms of the prophecy go beyond anything that has transpired in the past, and so look on to the end of the age. This is corroborated if we turn to the closing part of Dan 11:1-45, where “the king of the south” represents Egypt, and we are told how Egypt will yet be overrun and plundered by “the king of the north” in the last days. In those days “the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt,” and this certainly has not taken place yet, though it may do very soon.
Out of all this discipline, which yet is to fall on the land of Egypt, some spiritual good will come. Egypt has been in the past well filled with altars to their false gods and with pillars erected in honour of their despotic kings. It is going to have an altar to the Lord in its midst and a pillar to the Lord on its border. Not many of either, you notice, but one only, for by then they will acknowledge the one true God. Though He smites them for their sins, He will heal them and send them a deliverer, At the last Egypt will know and do homage to Jehovah.
The three closing verses of this chapter are a remarkable prophecy, for Assyria – the king of the north, of Dan 11:1-45 – was the great oppressor of Israel in the days of their kingdom, just as Egypt was the oppressor in the days of their early servitude. In the last days all the enmity will be banished. An highway with free communication will extend between them, and Israel will be in the centre. Egypt will be blessed as “My people:” Assyria as “the work of My hands;” Israel acknowledged as “My inheritance.” To be Jehovah’s inheritance is something greater than to be His people or His handiwork, yet all here is connected with God’s purpose for earthly blessing. What is stated does not rise to the height of Eph 1:18, or Col 1:12, yet it does enhance our sense of the mercy of God as we note that finally He will act in blessing to both peoples, who have been in the past, and will yet be, Israel’s inveterate enemies.
The short Isa 20:1-6 brings us back to events that were to happen, shortly after Isaiah was bidden to enforce his prophecy by a peculiar action. He foretold the coming overthrow of Egypt by his walking naked and barefoot. Other prophets, such as Hosea, were instructed to support their words by actions. The object in view was to bring home to the inhabitants of this “isle,” or “coast,” that is, Palestine, that it was folly to put their trust in Egypt for deliverance from Assyria. It will doubtless be the same in the last days, as we see in Dan 11:36-45, where “the king” of verse 36, who will evidently be in Jerusalem, will find no help in “the king of the south against the assault of “the king of the north.”
In Isa 21:1-17 we return to the doom of Babylon. It is to be “the desert of the sea.” In Jeremiah’s prophecy against the city he says, “The sea is come up upon Babylon” (Jer 51:42), which helps to explain the expression. Babylon would be swamped by the sea of nations and become a desert. In verse Isa 15:2 the call comes to Elam and Media to go up and besiege, helped to the spoil by treachery. Verses Isa 15:3-5, prophetically describe in the most graphic language the scenes of revelry, turning into confusion and terror, which are described for us in Dan 5:1-31. Then the prophet foresees a watchman, who from an oncoming chariot gets the tidings of the fall of Babylon, and announces it with a voice like the roar of a lion.
The burden of Dumah is compressed into very few words. He was, as Gen 25:14 shows, of the stock of Ishmael, and Seir was a dwelling-place of the sons of Esau. These “burdens” on the various peoples were bringing upon them a “night” of Divine displeasure. What was the prospect that lay before them? The answer was indeed prophetic. A morning was surely coming, but a night was coming also. The morning will be for those who fear God and are subject to Him: the night for those who are His foes.
In other scriptures very strong judgment is pronounced against Seir, but verse 12 here indicates that a door of mercy will open to them. If any have a desire to enquire of God they may do so. And if, as the result of enquiry, any desire to return, they may do so. They are even invited to “come.” In these words we discern an indication and forecast of that grace, which comes to light so fully in the New Testament Gospel.
At the close of the chapter Arabia comes under judgment. Disaster should overtake them too, but not in such overwhelming “fashion as in the case of Babylon. Their mighty men should be “diminished,” and there should be a “residue,” and not a complete destruction. It is striking that of all these burdens the one upon Babylon is the most complete without any hope of recovery. So also in Rev 17:1-18; Rev 18:1-24, the “Mystery” Babylon is going to be completely destroyed and not a trace left.
But Jerusalem too must come under judgment, as we see in Isa 22:1-25; and here again, as is so often the case, and particularly when Israel is in view, we find a double fulfilment contemplated. The prophet sees the city, once full of joy, now full of misery and sorrow. It was “the valley of vision,” but now the vision had perished, and the valley was full of besieging chariots. And in this dire emergency instead of turning to God in repentance and seeking His mercy, they busied themselves in taking all the measures of defence that they knew, and then settled down to enjoy themselves, even if death came on the morrow.
“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die” is the reckless cry of men who know there is danger ahead, but are determined to have their fling before it arrives. The Apostle Paul quoted these words in 1Co 15:32, showing that if this transient life were all, and there were no resurrection of the dead, such a reckless attitude might be justified. We have come to an age in the world’s history when men are aware of awful dangers ahead, and with no real faith in the resurrection world, this ancient saying is in control of their lives. With no fear of God before their eyes, millions are determined to get all the pleasure possible out of life with the hope that death ends all. We are to be marked by a spirit which is exactly the opposite of this, and to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that there is the resurrection world, and that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Let us also remember that in an emergency it would be quite natural for us to do in principle what Israel was doing, as the enemy threatened them. They adopted what looked like wise military strategy instead of turning to God, which would have involved weeping, sackcloth and repentance, such as marked Nineveh in Jonah’s day. The flesh in us would prefer policy, that appears so wise, rather than penitence, that costs so much to our pride.
This thought is emphasised by the episode regarding Shebna and Eliakim, recorded at the end of the chapter. Shebna was a man with much riches passing through his hand for he was the treasurer. Thus he had distinction in this life and building for himself “a sepulchre on high,” he desired to perpetuate his memory when his life was over. Self-exaltation was evidently his aim. He was rejected, and God would dispossess him so effectively that the chariots of his glory would turn out to be the shame of his lord’s house, as we see at the end of verse 18.
Shebna then was rejected and Eliakim, whose name appears to mean, “God is setting up,” was to take his place. This transfer actually took place during the reign of Hezekiah, according to the word of the prophet, but we see in it a parable of what will take place at the end of the age, when the self-exalting “man of sin” will be violently turned and tossed to destruction, and the once rejected Christ shall be exalted and established. Of Him Eliakim, in this incident, was a faint type.
This is evident when we read Rev 3:7, and note how our Lord claims for Himself the very things that are said of Eliakim in verse 22 of our chapter. He it is who is worthy to have the government laid upon His shoulder not only of Jerusalem and Israel but of the whole universe. He it is who will hold the key of David and will unlock and bring to light and establish “the sure mercies of David,” of which we read in Isa 55:1-13. Eliakim doubtless had a place of much authority under Hezekiah, but the graphic and conclusive figures, we find here, go far beyond him.
Notice three things. First, the key and the opening or shutting of the door, which no man can reverse. No such door has ever yet been found under the control of mere man. The authority and power indicated is Divine.
Second, “the nail in a sure place.” What place on earth is sure? Where has such a nail been found? The nail moreover is to be “for a glorious throne to his father’s house,” and to have “all the glory of his father’s house” hung upon him. Great statements these! They only find proper fulfilment in our Lord Jesus Christ, for indeed, not only the glory off the house of David hangs upon Him, but also the glory of God that is found in redemption.
But now, third, there comes the paradox. The nail that is fastened in the sure place is to “be removed, and be cut down and fall.” Here surely we have one of those partly hidden references to the rejection and death of the Messiah, which the Old Testament furnishes. In the light of the New Testament all becomes clear. He will be manifested as the Master of every situation, and as the One upon whom everything hangs in the coming age, just because,
“By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown.”
So in the end of our chapter we have a reference prophetically to the removal of the man of sin and the establishment of God’s Man – the Son of Man – in His excellence, maintaining the glory of God and the blessing of men.
The series of burdens ends in Isa 23:1-18 with “The burden of Tyre.” In those days this very ancient city was the great centre of trade and commerce. This is quite evident in verse Isa 15:8 of our chapter. In the days of David and Solomon its kings had been very favourably disposed and helpful, but its great wealth and prosperity had wrought corruption, as seems always to be the case in this fallen world. In this chapter Isaiah predicts a period of disaster and eclipse that should come upon the city, but with some respite at the end of seventy years.
The great Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Tyre and this is referred to in Eze 29:18, which speaks of his having “no wages” for the long years he spent over it, for the Tyrians had time to remove all their treasure. Still judgment from God did come on the proud and rich and joyous city, and her glory departed.
The comparative mildness of the burden on Tyre is accounted for, we believe, by the fact that it was not an oppressor of Israel. It presents to us a picture, not of the world as oppressing and enslaving the people of God, but as the scene of man’s successful and opulent activities in forgetfulness and independence of God.
Thus, in the chapters we have been considering, we have seen the world in all its aspects, both secular and religious, brought under the judgment of God. Yet in the midst of the judgments are a few bright flashes of light, which direct our thoughts to the One in whom is found the centre of all blessing – CHRIST.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Isa 15:1. The burden of Moab A prophecy of the destruction of the Moabites, the inveterate and implacable enemies of the Jews, begun by the Assyrian, and finished by the Babylonian monarchs. This prophecy, which occupies this and the next chapter, very improperly separated from each other, makes the third discourse of this second part. The time of the delivery, and consequently of the completion of it, (which was to be in three years after,) is uncertain, neither of them being marked in the prophecy, nor recorded in history. But the most probable account is, that it was delivered soon after the foregoing, in the first year of Hezekiah; and that it was accomplished in his fourth year, when Shalmaneser invaded the kingdom of Israel. He might probably march through Moab; and, to secure every thing behind him, possess himself of the whole country, by taking the principal strong places, Ar and Kir-haresh. Jeremiah has introduced much of this prophecy of Isaiah into his own larger prophecy against the same people, (chap. 48.,) denouncing Gods judgments on Moab, subsequent to the calamity here foretold, to be executed by Nebuchadnezzar. Bishop Lowth. In the night Or, in a night, suddenly and unexpectedly, Ar of Moab is laid waste The chief city of Moab, Num 21:28. Kir of Moab is laid waste Another eminent city of Moab, called more largely and fully, Kir-hareseth and Kir-haresh, Isa 16:7; Isa 16:11; Jer 48:31; Jer 48:36.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 15:1. The burden of Moab. Joshua had spared this nation by divine command, being, as descendants of Lot, relatives of the Hebrews. Deu 2:9. But they made no returns: Eglon king of Moab oppressed them for eighteen years. Josephus remarks, that when the affairs of the Israelites were prosperous the Moabites claimed kindred with them, but disowned them in times of adversity. Moab had now dwelt at ease from her youth; partial wars had not destroyed her cities. At length her pride, her blood, her idolatries had provoked the Lord to make her drink the bitter cup. By advice of Balaam, she had laid an insidious snare for the Hebrews, drawing them to apostasy, to feasting and dancing to her gods; for which she received a curse, Deu 23:3; and the Israelites the pestilence; for the first violators of a new law, fly in the immediate face of the legislator. She had been chastised by David for joining the conspiracy against him, as Psalms 83., and when she fell under the power of the ten tribes, and rebelled, she was again vanquished; but now she must drink the bitter cup from the Assyrian army. This was effectuated, as is not doubted, when Shalmanezer had war with the ten tribes, whose army seems to have made a circuitous route from Samaria to Moab, to Ammon, and back to Nineveh across the Euphrates.
Three years before the visitation, the burden of Moab was laid on Isaiah, to call the haughty daughter to repentance. He perfectly knew the country, and the cities, and they could not be unacquainted with his character. His addresses are clothed in the sublime of eloquence, and the boldest figures of rhetoric. Thus he boldly begins:In the night, Ar of Moab is laid waste. This was the more terrific; the city being on the river Arnon, the Assyrians must have surprised Moab on the east. Babylon also was surprised in the night, and taken by storm.
Isa 15:2. Gone up to Bajith; to the house of his idol, or Baal-Meon. Isaiah would not name this idol because of its obscenity. Dibon was on a hill, but overlooked by mount Nebo. This is irony. Moab in her trouble is gone to weep and pray to gods unmoved by tears, deaf to all cries, and regardless of her blood.
Isa 15:4. Heshbon shall cry. This city is often named. Num 21:25; Num 32:3; Num 32:37. Jos 13:17; Jos 13:21. It was situate on a hill, and still subsists; it was visited by Burckhardt, a German traveller. It had two fishpools, whose rural beauty is noticed by Solomon. Son 7:4.
Isa 15:5. The mounting up of Luhith with weeping. This city was also on a hill, which in the warmer climates is preferred for salubrity. It lay on the road to Babylon, and the farewel-views of their country caused their cries to resemble a bereft heifer of three years old.
Isa 15:7. The brook of the willows. This was a common name for countries watered by the river Euphrates. Prideaux.
REFLECTIONS.CHAP. 15, 16.
We have in these two chapters the warning voice, and subsequent elegy of our princely prophet. Grieved for the sins of Moab, he satirized her pride, but seeks at the same time to save her from ruin. And what could do it but opening her eyes to the impending storm, and pouring contempt on the helpless character of her gods.
The prophet displayed to Moab the tremendous army of the Chaldeans, overspreading the country; an army whose character was to despise every strong hold. The strokes of heaven awaken the power of conscience. The spoilers were coming against a spoiler. Their staining the waters of Dimon with blood, was to visit for the abundance of blood which Moab had shed, when she, both vile and weak, had joined Philistia and Amalek in their wars. Her pride, the proverb of nations, should be brought low. Ah, in vain, oh Moab, shalt thou go up to the house of Bajith; thy long- boasted temple of Baal-Meon. Thy gods shall be blind to thy misery, and deaf to thy cries. Thy king shall fly to the desert, thy counsellors shall be confused, thy soldiers without strength. Alas, alas, the joy of harvest and the shouts of the vintage shall he heard no more. Profit therefore by these warnings; hide thyself under Jehovahs wings, and bow to the shadow of Davids throne.
But why does the illustrious prophet of the Hebrews talk in words so strange? Is there any thing in the tablets of universal history which can justify those sombrous discoveries? Nay; Is there any thing else in the tablets but slaughter, burning, and destruction? Are not all great conquerors like great rivers, which sometimes drown and ravage the country which they ought only to water and enrich.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 15:1-9. The Overthrow of Moab.A sudden catastrophe has overwhelmed Ar (Num 21:15*) and Kir in one night. The daughter (read bath for Bayith; cf. Jer 48:18) of Dibon (Num 21:30*) has gone up to the high places to lament; everywhere are signs of mourning. The cry of distress is heard from Heshbon (Num 21:25*) and Elealeh (Num 32:37*) in Jahaz (Num 21:23*). The fugitives (mg.) flee to Zoar (Gen 19:22*) and the third Eglath. They mount the ascent of Luhith (between Rabba and Zoar), and lament in the way of Horonaim. The waters of Nimrim have been stopped by the enemy, the pastures are parched. The Moabites carry their goods across the brook of the willows, apparently into Edom; from one end of the land to the other the howling of anguish is heard. All bloody are the waters of Dimon. A more terrible enemy (? Assyria) is to come on the remnant which has escaped.
Isa 15:1. Kir: probably Kerak, a very strong fortress about 17 miles S. of the Arnon.
Isa 15:2. Baldness and cutting off the beard are signs of mourning (p. 110).
Isa 15:5. Probably there were three places named Eglath, near together; the third would be intended here. The sense of mg. is that Moab (or Zoar) is a vigorous power hitherto unconquered, but now to be crushed into servitude.Nimrim: probably not Bath-nimrah (Num 32:36*), which is too far N., but the Wadi Numeirah, S. of Kir.
Isa 15:8. Eglaim: probably at the S. extremity of Moab, Beer-elim (Num 21:16*), in the N.
Isa 15:9. Dimon: probably the same as Dibon, the change securing an assonance with the word for blood (dm).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
15:1 The {a} burden of Moab. Because in the night {b} Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to silence;
(a) Read Geneva “Isa 13:1”
(b) The chief city by which the whole country was meant.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Isaiah began by announcing Moab’s certain ruin. The two main cities, Ar on the Arnon and Kir in central Moab, would fall quickly.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
32
CHAPTER XVII
ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS
736-702 B.C.
Isa 14:24-32; Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14; Isa 17:1-14; Isa 18:1-7; Isa 19:1-25; Isa 20:1-6; Isa 21:1-17; Isa 23:1-18
THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiahs day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypts canals or Phoenicias harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy.
But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them.
First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiahs time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V)
All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiahs own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.
1. Isa 14:24-27 -OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.
2. Isa 14:28-32 -ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning to Philistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: “Out of the serpents root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand.” The inscription to this oracle (Isa 14:28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon.
3 Isa 15:1-9 – Isa 16:12 -ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isa 16:13-14 : “This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.” The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacheribs invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a “remnant” of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity “to the mount of the daughter of Zion”; {Isa 16:1} for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: “Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;” for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times (Isa 16:4-5). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moabs arrogance. “We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud,” {Isa 16:6, cf. Jer 48:29; Jer 48:42; Zep 2:10} which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary (Isa 16:12)-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah.
4. Isa 17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiahs prophecies. Of the time of Syrias and Ephraims league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.
5. Isa 17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacheribs rush upon Jerusalem. Isa 17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and “retreat from Moscow” of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as “nations,” as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. {Isa 22:6; Isa 29:7} But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacheribs invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiahs confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isa 8:9 : “Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces”-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.
6. Isa 18:1-7 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, “land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed.” The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, “to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion.” It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargons or Sennacheribs? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt.
7. Isa 19:1-25 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses (Isa 19:1-15) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and “missionary” of all Isaiahs prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be “a pale reflection” of Isaiahs own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiahs “missionary” opinions, see Cheynes introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smiths notes in “The Prophets of Israel” (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacheribs advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, “We can hardly imagine a more swan-like end for the dying prophet.”
8. Isa 20:1-6 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.
9. Isa 21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709.
10. Isa 21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence – Psa 94:17; Psa 115:17, “the land of the silence of death,” the grave – is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. “Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again.” What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.
11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: “in the forest, in Arabia,” or with the same consonants, “in the evening.” In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads “in the evening to lodge in the thickets.” There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the “grievousness of war,” which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that “within a year” shall waste the “children of Kedar,” for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nations God.
12. Isa 23:1-18 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us.
These, then, are Isaiahs oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria.
We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are-
1. “Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind.” {Isa 17:12-13}
2. “What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people.” {Isa 14:32}
3. “In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel”. {Isa 19:24-25}
I.
The first of these texts shows all the prophets prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His peoples refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, “but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.” These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiahs obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.
The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargons victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargons death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiahs attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophets later life-his field is the world.
How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the worlds watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermons snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old worlds highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiahs day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.
But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiahs reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiahs descriptions: “tall and shiny” figures of Ethiopians {Isa 18:2}, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets {Isa 21:14} -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north.
We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophets style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-“Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide”; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-“And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.” What expanses of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high warehouses!
Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches the height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts, which we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign nations. Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms, and breaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are wonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In Isa 17:12 we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy Bs, to five Ns, five Hs, and four sibilants. But in Isa 17:13 the sibilants predominate; and before the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of Isa 17:12 scatters out into a long yish-sha oon. The occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. “Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh it”-a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it-“and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a whirlwind.”
So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of such language nothing need be added upon the prophets view of the politics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that was in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon Zion in the year 701.
II.
But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second of our representative texts: “What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people”. {Isa 14:32} This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes, and alliances. They got their answer, Alliances are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, here alone, is safety, because the Lord hath decreed it.
With what light and peace do Isaiahs words break out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and have been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before them-these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her a refuge for the afflicted.
The world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which neither force can harm nor fear enter.
This then was Isaiahs Interim-Answer to the Nations-Zion at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.
III.
Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for-had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem of Isaiahs generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as universal.
Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the nations: “The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He rules the world.” These prophecies to the foreign nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down. {Isa 18:4} Egypts statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: “they shall tremble and shudder”. {Isa 19:16} Egypt shall obey His purposes (chapter 17). Confusion may reign for a time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather itself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiahs faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the forces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was. no experience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his people be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.
How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and willingly Gods. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, which is today our privilege, shall be tomorrow the blessing of the whole world.
When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old Testament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are told that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than the Mohammedans zeal to force their tenets on men at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.
Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every particular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to their own faith.
Firstly then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiahs treatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon-nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation-and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure-lying diplomats and dishonest rulers-you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.
But, secondly, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he anticipates the same experience and education which have made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, “In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel Mine inheritance.”