Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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.
7. (Jer 48:36.) The fugitives have now reached the border of their own land, and prepare to cross into Edom. The boundary between the two countries was formed by the Wadi el-Ahsa (“valley of water-pits,” the scene of the miracle in 2Ki 3:16 ff. See Robertson Smith, Old Test. in Jewish Ch. p. 147). In all probability this Wadi is identical with the brook of the willows here mentioned. There is, however, some doubt about the correct translation of the name, arising from its similarity to the “brook of the wilderness” in Amo 6:14 (here pl. ‘rbm, there sing. ‘rbh. Cf. 2Ki 14:25 “sea of the ‘rbh ”). Some regard the word here as an irregular pl. of that used by Amos, and render “brook of the wastes.” But the two brooks are not necessarily identical, and even if they are, the translation “willows” (or rather, “poplars”) is perhaps to be preferred. Cf. ch. Isa 44:4; Psa 137:2, &c., for the name of the tree.
the abundance ] is lit. “surplus.” that which they have laid up is in Heb. a single word, meaning something entrusted for safe keeping. Instead of carry away to read carry over.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore, the abundance they have gotten – Their wealth they shall remove from a place that is utterly burned up with drought, where the waters and the grass fail, to another place where they may find water.
To the brook of willows – Margin, The valley of the Arabians. The Septuagint renders it, I will lead them to the valley of the Arabians, and they shall take it. So Saadias. It might, perhaps, be called the valley of the Arabians, because it was the boundary line between them and Arabia on the south. Lowth renders it, To Babylon. The probability is, that the prophet refers to some valley or brook that was called the brook of the willows, from the fact that many willows grew upon its bank. Perhaps it was the small stream which flows into the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and which forms the boundary of Arabia Petrea of the province of Jebal. They withdrew toward the south, where toward Petra or Sela they had their property in herds Isa 16:1, for probably the invader came from the north, and drove them in this direction. Lowth, and most commentators, suppose that they in this verse refers to the enemies of Moab, and that it means that they would carry away the property of Moab to some distant place. But the more probable meaning is, that when the waters of the Nimrim should fail, they would remove to a place better watered; that is, they would leave their former abode, and wander away. It is an image of the desolation that was coming upon the land.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. “Shall perish”] abadu or abadeh. This word seems to have been lost out of the text: it is supplied by the parallel place, Jer 48:36. The Syriac expresses it by aber, praeteriit, “he hath passed;” and the Chaldee by yithbazezun, diripientur.
To the brook of the willows – “To the valley of willows”] That is, to Babylon. Hieron. and Jarchi in loc., both referring to Ps 137:2. So likewise Prideaux, Le Clerc, &c.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shall they, to wit, their enemies, which is plainly implied,
carry away to the brook of the willows; unto some brook or river having great numbers of willows growing by it, by which they might convey them to some eminent and strong city built upon the same river. Possibly he means some such river which ran into Euphrates, and so gave them opportunity of carrying their spoils by water unto Babylon. Though the words may be rendered, into the valley of the Arabians; whither the spoils might be first carried, in order to their transportation into Assyria or Chaldea; for part of Arabia lay between Moab and those countries. But the former translation seems better, because these very words are so rendered, Lev 23:40.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Thereforebecause of thedevastation of the land.
abundanceliterally,”that which is over and above” the necessaries of life.
brook of . . . willowsThefugitives flee from Nimrim, where the waters have failed, to placesbetter watered. Margin has “valley of Arabians”;that is, to the valley on the boundary between them andArabia-Petra; now Wady-el Arabah. “Arabia” means a”desert.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up,…. The great substance which the Moabites had got, and hoarded up:
shall they carry away to the brook of the willows; either the Moabites should carry their substance to some brook, it may be near Nimrim, where many willows grew, and cast it into the brook, or lay it by the brook side, in some private place, or under and among the willows, to preserve it from the enemy; or else the meaning is, that their enemies should take what they had with a great deal of labour got, and with a great deal of care had laid up, and carry it to the brook of the willows, some place without the city, and there divide it; or to the valley of the Arabians q, as some render it, some part of Arabia lying between Moab and Babylon, whither they might carry it, in order to the conveyance of it into their own country at a proper time: it may be observed, that the country of Moab came after this into the hands of the Arabians; and, according to Jerom, the valley of Arabia lay in the way from Moab to Assyria; but it may be rendered “the valley of the willows”, and design the land of Babylon, or Babylon itself, which was built in a plain, or on a flat by the river Euphrates, out of which many canals and rivulets were cut and derived, near to which willows in great abundance grew; as they usually do in marshy and watery places; hence the Jews in Babylon are said to hang their harps upon the willows which were by its rivers; so Jarchi thinks the land of Babylon is meant, and compares it with Ps 137:1 which sense is approved of by Bochart and Vitringa. The Septuagint version is,
“I will bring upon the valley the Arabians, and they shall take it;”
and the Targum is,
“their border, which is by the western sea, shall be taken from them.”
q “in vallem Arabum”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As Moabitis has thus become a great scene of conflagration, the Moabites cross the border and fly to Idumaea. The reason for this is given in sentences which the prophet again links on to one another with the particle ci (for). “Therefore what has been spared, what has been gained, and their provision, they carry it over the willow-brook. For the scream has gone the round in the territory of Moab; the wailing of Joab resounds to Eglayim, and his wailing to Beeer-Elim. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: for I suspend over Dimon a new calamity, over the escaped of Moab a lion, and over the remnant of the land.” Yithrah is what is superfluous or exceeds the present need, and pekuddah (lit. a laying up, depositio ) that which has been carefully stored; whilst asah , as the derivative passage, Jer 48:36, clearly shows (although the accusative in the whole of Isa 15:7 is founded upon a different view: see Rashi), is an attributive clause (what has been made, worked out, or gained). All these things they carry across nachal haarabim , i.e., not the desert-stream, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel suppose, since the plural of arabah is araboth , but either the Arab stream (lxx, Saad.), or the willow-stream, torrens salicum (Vulg.). The latter is more suitable to the connection; and among the rivers which flow to the south of the Arnon from the mountains of the Moabitish highlands down to the Dead Sea, there is one which is called Wadi Sufsaf, i.e., willow-brook ( Tzaphtzphh is the name of a brook in Hebrew also), viz., the northern arm of the Seil el – Kerek. This is what we suppose to be intended here, and not the Wadi el – Ahsa, although the latter (probably the biblical Zered
(Note: Hence the Targ. II renders nachal zered “the brook of the willows.” See Buxtorf, Lex. chald. s.v. Zerad.))
is the boundary river on the extreme south, and separates Moab from Edom ( Kerek from Gebal: see Ritter, Erdk. xv 1223-4). Wading through the willow-brook, they carry their possessions across, and hurry off to the land of Edom, for their own land has become the prey of the foe throughout its whole extent, and within its boundaries the cry of wailing passes from Eglayim, on the south-west of Ar, and therefore not far from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea (Eze 47:10), as far as Beer-elim, in the north-east of the land towards the desert (Num 21:16-18; must be supplied: Ewald, 351, a), that is to say, if we draw a diagonal through the land, from one end to the other. Even the waters of Dibon, which are called Dimon here to produce a greater resemblance in sound to dam , blood, and by which we are probably to understand the Arnon, as this was only a short distance off (just as in Jdg 5:19 the “waters of Megiddo” are the Kishon), are full of blood,
(Note: , with m unach (which also represents the metheg) at the first syllable of the verb (compare Isa 15:4, , with m ercha ), according to Vened. 1521, and other good editions. This is also grammatically correct.)
so that the enemy must have penetrated into the very heart of the land in his course of devastation and slaughter. But what drives them across the willow-brook is not this alone; it is as if they forebode that what has hitherto occurred is not the worst or the last. Jehovah suspends ( shith , as in Hos 6:11) over Dibon, whose waters are already reddened with blood, nosaphoth , something to be added, i.e., a still further judgment, namely a lion. The measure of Moab’s misfortunes is not yet full: after the northern enemy, a lion will come upon those that have escaped by flight or have been spared at home (on the expression itself, compare Isa 10:20; Isa 37:32, and other passages). This lion is no other than the basilisk of the prophecy against Philistia, but with this difference, that the basilisk represents one particular Davidic king, whilst the lion is Judah generally, whose emblem was the lion from the time of Jacob’s blessing, in Gen 49:9.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
7. Therefore what every one hath left. (244) This corresponds to the ordinary expression, ( Ce qu’il aura espargne ,) Whatever he shall have spared. He means the riches that are laid up, and describes what usually happens in countries which are invaded by an enemy. All the inhabitants are wont to convey their riches elsewhere, and to lay them up in some safe place, that they may afterwards bring them back when peace has been restored.
To the brook of the willows. He means that they will have no storehouse, no fortress in which they can lay them up with safety; so that they will be compelled to hide them among the willows. This certainly is the lowest wretchedness, when the enemy is attacking us, and we can find no storehouse for laying up those things which we have collected with great industry. These willows were probably situated in some remote and sequestered place. Others explain it as referring to enemies, that they will bring the fruits of their robbery to the brook, to divide among themselves the general plunder.
(244) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Therefore the abundance . . .The picture of the flight is completed. The fugitives carry with them all that they can collect together of their household goods, and bear them in their flight.
To the brook of the willows.This, which has been variously translated as (1) the torrent of the poplars, or (2) the Arabians, or (3) of the wilderness, was probably the Wady el Achsar, where a stream falls into the Dead Sea, between the territory of Moab and Edom, the brook Zered of Num. 21:12, Deu. 2:13. It is obviously named here as being the point where the fugitives pass the boundary of their own lands. With less probability it has been taken as a poetical equivalent for the Euphrates (Psa. 137:2).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Brook of the willows Probably a wady in the vicinity of Nimrim, where are remains of a former town site; not a place in Edom, as held by some. To this place they take with them in their flight all gathered stores. ( Land of Moab, pp. 72, 82.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Therefore such wealth as they have accumulated,
And that which they have laid up,
They will carry away,
To the Brook of the Willows.’
Their only hope is escape across the border. This is the sad sight of a stream of refugees carrying all their earthly possessions as they stumble on their way to the south hoping to find refuge. The Brook of the Willows (or ‘Ravine of the Poplars’) is probably the Brook Zered on the southern border (compare Amo 6:14 – ‘the Brook of the Arabah’).
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.
Ver. 7. Therefore the abundance they have gotten. ] Here the prophet seemeth to tax the covetousness of the Moabites, qui coacervandis thesauris operam dederint, who made it their work to hoard and heap up riches.
And that which they have laid up.
Shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
a Piscat.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
brook of the willows: or valley of the Arabians. Probably the Wady-el-Ahsy separating Kerek from Djebal, or the brook Zered of Deu 2:13, Deu 2:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the abundance: Isa 5:29, Isa 10:6, Isa 10:14, Nah 2:12, Nah 2:13
to the: Psa 137:1, Psa 137:2
brook of the willows: or, valley of the Arabians
Reciprocal: Job 40:22 – the willows Jer 48:36 – the riches Eze 17:5 – he placed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
15:7 Therefore the abundance they have gained, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the {i} brook of the willows.
(i) To hide themselves and their goods there.