Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 15:8
For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.
8. Summing up the effect of the previous description and explaining the forsaking of the land.
the cry (of destruction, Isa 15:5) is gone round ] We should expect the two places in the second half of the verse to mark the extreme limits of the country the “Dan and Beersheba” of Moab. Eglaim is probably the village mentioned by Eusebius as lying 8 Roman miles S. of Rabba. Beer-elim (“well of the mighty ones”?) is unknown, but has been plausibly identified with the “well” ( B’ r) of Num 21:16-18, in northern Moab.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the cry is gone round about … – The cry of distress and calamity has encompassed the whole land of Moab. There is no part of the land which is not filled with lamentation and distress.
The howling – The voice of wailing on account of the distress.
Unto Eglaim – This was a city of Moab east of the Dead Sea, which, Eusebius says, was eight miles south of Ar, and hence, says Rosenmuller, it was not far from the south border of Moab. It is mentioned by Josephus (Ant. xiv. 1), as one of the twelve cities in that region which was overthrown by Alexander the Great.
Unto Beer-elim – literally, the well of the princes. Perhaps the same as that mentioned in Num 21:14-18, as being in the land of Moab, and near to Ar:
The princes digged the well,
The nobles of the people digged it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Their cry fills all the parts of the country.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Eglaim (Eze47:10), En-eglaim. Not the Agalum of EUSEBIUS,eight miles from Areopolis towards the south; the context requires atown on the very borders of Moab or beyond them.
Beer-elimliterally,”the well of the Princes”(so Nu21:16-18). Beyond the east borders of Moab.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the cry is gone found about the borders of Moab,…. The cry of destruction and howling because of it; the places mentioned, as is observed by some, being upon the borders of the land. Heshbon was on the north east, Elealeh on the north west, Jahaz on the south west, Horonaim further west, Zoar the utmost west, and the places following seem to be upon the borders likewise:
the howling thereof unto Eglaim; which word signifies a border, and so the Arabic word Agalon; some take it to be the same with the brooks of Arnon, Nu 21:13 said so be the border of Moab:
and the howling thereof unto Beerelim; the same with Beer,
Nu 21:16 called Beerelim, or “the well of the mighty ones”, being dug by the princes of Israel, Nu 21:18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. The cry is gone round about the borders of Moab. (245) כי, ( ki,) for, is added for the sake of ornament. He means that every part of that country all around shall be full of crying and howling; because that destruction reaches from one extremity to another. Besides the crying he twice mentions the howling, to denote the excess of grief, as men who are in despair surrender themselves entirely to lamentation.
(245) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) The cry is gone round about . . .The extent of the lamentation is emphasised by naming its farthest points. It reaches (1) Eglaim (two pools), probably the same as the En-Eglaim of Eze. 47:10, as near the Dead Sea. Eusebius (Onomast.) names it as eight miles south of Areopolis or Rabbath Moab. Josephus mentions a town Agalla as near Zoar (Ant. xii. 1, 4); (2) Beer-Elim (the well of the terebinths), perhaps the same as the well on the borders of Moab of Num. 21:16.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(8) The waters of Dimon.Probably the same as Dibon, the name being slightly altered (m and b, as labial letters, are closely connected in all languages) so as to resemble the Hebrew word for blood (dam), or dum (silent). Men should call the stream no more by the name of Dimon, but by that of the blood, or the silent river. (See Note on Isa. 21:11.)
I will bring more . . .i.e., sorrow upon sorrow. The lions are either literally such, as in 2Ki. 17:25, prowling through the streets of the deserted city (see Notes on Isa. 13:21), or symbols of Assyrian or other invaders (Jer. 4:7; Jer. 5:6).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8, 9. The cry is gone round about Moab becomes in this picture the prey of the enemy throughout. The wail extends from one extreme of the land to the other.
Eglaim A double fountain. Eusebius says it was eight Roman miles south of Ar. The place was probably a town site.
Beer-elim Was to the northeast, if Num 21:16-17, be an indication to judge from.
Waters of Dimon By easy change of labials, for , this was Dibon, already noticed. So Gesenius. But this is scarcely better than the theory which makes Dimon come from , blood, the same word, less the final letter, appended, perhaps, to mean place of blood, and so named, it may be, from the facts in the scene described in third chapter of 2 Kings. There it is shown what part blood played in the defeat of Moab by the allied kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom, who swept around the south end of the Dead Sea to attack Moab, and how appropriately the place of attack was called Dimon. The waters of
Dimon shall be full of blood The morning sun-glare upon newly-opened waters on the plain below, led the Moabites to suppose the confederate enemy had broken with and fallen upon each other, with pools of blood as the consequence. This gave courage to Moab to dash after booty into a supposed abandoned camp rather than an ambush, which it was. Thus Moab met the lions (allied kings, or at least Judah and its government; see 2Ki 3:21-26) and was driven back to his stronghold, on the walls of which he desperately sacrificed to his god Chemosh his son and heir. Such a horror was too much for the invaders, and they retired from the contest.
Does not the celebrated Moabite inscription found in Dibon, in 1870, refer to this scene? Tristram believes the Moab stone, or the monolith of Mesha, to have been brought from the south and walled into the latter structure at Dibon, and thus the ancient Phoenician record was so long preserved from being effaced. (See Land of Moab, page 149.)
It is worthy of note, that the description in these latter verses is apparently of scenes about to occur, if not of some, also, already past, and quoted from the ancient prophecy before assumed as the basis for this prophecy, and of that in Jeremiah, chap. 48.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For the cry is gone round the borders of Moab,
Its howling to Eglaim, and its howling to Beer-elim.
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood,
For I will bring yet more on Dimon,
A lion on him who escapes of Moab,
And on the remnant of the land.’
The whole of the border area with its different cities is filled with weeping people as they stream to the border for what they hope will be safety. Dimon may be a local variant of Dibon (Dibon is read by the Isaiah scroll Qa at Qumran). There is to be no let up. The waters of Dimon will flow with blood, and more and more so as the advance continues.
‘I will bring yet more on Dimon.’ God allows the Assyrian action to build up. He does not prevent it. He does not intervene in world affairs. He allows them to follow a direction based on the way He has made the world. Thus in that sense it is seen as God’s action. The ‘lion’ represents lion-like soldiers, eager for the prey. They will attack the fleeing refugees and those who have remained to fight a rearguard action.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 15:8-9. For the cry is gone round, &c. The prophet contemplating, with the most lively imagination, the motion and consternation of all Moab, as if present to his view, scarcely satisfies himself in painting the scene: he repeats again in this place the proposition, and supplies by a general declaration what he might seem not to have expressed with sufficient perfection before: he therefore declares, that this lamentation of which he speaks shall not be private, and peculiar to one place, or to a few, but common to all; and that the tempest should not break upon this or that part of the country only, but should afflict all Moab, every corner and boundary of it; for this cry, this sorrowful howling, is said to go round, to encompass all the borders and extreme boundaries of Moab, and to take in the whole from Eglaim to Beer-elim, two cities in the extremities of Moab. He adds in the 9th verse some additional reasons for this lamentation; the first of which is, the great slaughter of the people, which the enemy should make in Moab, expressed in these words, The waters of Dimon shall be full of blood, for I will bring more upon, or add accessions to, Dimon; that is to say, the waters of Dimon should be increased by the rivers of the blood of the slain which should flow into them, and so should add accessions, or increase to them. Those waters should increase, and become even a torrent, from the blood of the slain. The expression is strong and elegant. It is uncertain where this river was, which is thought to have had its name from dam, blood, and there is an elegance in this allusion. See 2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:22. The other evil, the completion of all the rest, and the severest cause of their lamentation, is, that God would not even spare a remnant to restore hereafter, and renew this fallen state. God should find a lion upon them that escaped out of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land: by which is commonly understood, that God would not spare any of them, but would pursue them with his judgments to the last extremity, and send upon them, and on their desolate country, lions and wild beasts to destroy entirely all that remained. Yet I am persuaded, says Vitringa, that something farther is here intended, and that Nebuchadnezzar is manifestly pointed out, who, after the Moabites, reduced extremely low by the Assyrians, began to recruit themselves, should give the remnant of the nation to destruction, and complete the judgment which the Assyrian had begun. Compare what Jeremiah says of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer 4:7 and this will appear more probable. Our prophet also himself has used this figure. See ch. Isa 5:26-27 and compare Jer 5:6; Jer 48:40. The Chaldee paraphrast certainly so understood it, translating the word which we read lion by king: A king with his army to destroy the Moabites. See Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.1st, This prophesy is either the same with that of chap. Isa 16:14 and was to be quickly accomplished, within three years, when Salmanezer ravaged the country; or distinct from that, and relative to the final destruction of Moab by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 48 or, as observed in my critical annotations, inclusive of both.
We have here a picture of the most affecting distress.
1. Sudden and terrible would be the stroke: some of their cities surprised in the night, sacked, and demolished; others, in terror at the expectation of the same fate, with tokens of the bitterest anguish upon them, disfigured with baldness, and girt with sackcloth, and every place full of weeping and tears, loud as the heifer bellows, and reaching to the distant cities, whither they fly for shelter from the approaching ruin. Note; (1.) Death often seizes the sinner in the night with terrible surprise. (2.) When we lie down on our beds, our bed may be quickly made our grave by some unexpected stroke: let us therefore be always ready. (3.) It will be too late for those to cry, when God’s wrath overtakes them, who before never cried to avert it.
2. All help should fail them: their mighty warriors should faint under their fears, and their life be a burden to them. Or it will bear to be read, His soul shall cry out for himself each bemoaning his wretched case; nor shall their idols afford them relief. Though they go up to their high places to weep, no answer shall be given them, and weeping they shall descend. Note; Creature-confidences, like idol-gods, will utterly fail us in time of trouble.
3. The prophet himself in pity drops a tear over their desolations, though enemies. Such tender and compassionate hearts should ministers possess, and, like their divine Lord, weep over those sinners that will not be warned.
2nd, From one corner to the other of the land, the cry of Moab should be heard; and no wonder, when her desolations were so great.
1. The country should be devoured and wasted by drought, or eat up as forage by these invaders; so that not a blade of grass should remain; and their abundance, with so much care collected and laid up, be carried away to the brook of the willows; either by themselves to hide it, or rather by their enemies to Babylon, so called from its marshy situation. Note; This world’s riches are often a short-lived possession, so soon do they make themselves wings and fly away.
2. The waters of Dimon shall be full of blood; the numbers of the slain so great, that her streams should be died thereby: and more, or additions, of trouble be brought upon them; the lions shall glean those who escape from the sword. Note; When God in just vengeance begins with sinners, he will make an end; and while they continue hardened, he will not be weary in smiting them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 15:8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
Ver. 8. For the cry is gone round about, &c. ] When the prophet thus describeth the mourning of the Moabites as excessive, and as a fruit of their unbelief, we must learn to moderate our mourning for outward losses and crosses, and that out of hope of God’s mercy promised to his penitent suppliants.
The howling thereof unto Eglaim.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eglaim. Not identified; probably the En-eglaim of Eze 47:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the cry: Isa 15:2-5, Jer 48:20-24, Jer 48:31-34
Eglaim: Eze 47:10, En-eglaim, Eglaim is called Agallim by Eusebius, who places it eight miles south from Ar or Areopolis.
Reciprocal: Exo 11:6 – General Isa 23:1 – Howl Jer 47:2 – then the Amo 5:16 – Wailing