Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 16:9
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.
9. (Jer 48:32) with the weeping of Jazer ] i.e. in sympathy with the weeping of J. I will water thee ] lit. drench thee.
for the shouting fallen ] Render with R.V.: for upon thy summer-fruits (or rather “fruit-gathering”) and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen. The word for “shout” ( hdd) is used both of the joyous shout of the wine-treaders (Jer 25:30) and of the wild war-cry of soldiers in a charge (Jer 51:14). It has the former sense in Isa 16:10, but the latter here. “Harvest” is used for “vintage” ( qr for br) as in ch. Isa 18:5 (see the note).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
9 11. The poet gives vent to his sympathy for Moab. These verses are amongst the most beautiful in the poem.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore, I will bewail – So great is the desolation that I, the prophet, will lament it, though it belongs to another nation than mine own. The expression indicates that the calamity will be great (see the note at Isa 15:5).
With the weeping of Jazer – That is, I will pour out the same lamentation for the vine of Sibmah which I do for Jazer; implying that it would be deep and bitter sorrow (see Jer 48:32).
I will water thee with my tears – Indicating the grievous calamities that were coming upon those places, on account of the pride of the nation. They were to Isaiah foreign nations, but he had a heart that could feel for their calamities.
For the shouting for thy summer fruits – The shouting attending the ingathering of the harvest (note, Isa 9:3). The word used here ( heydad), denotes, properly, a joyful acclamation, a shout of joy or rejoicing, such as was manifested by the vintager and presser of grapes Jer 25:30; Jer 48:33; or such as was made by the warrior Jer 51:14. Here it means, that in the time when they would expect the usual shout of the harvest, it should not be heard, but instead, thereof, there should be the triumph of the warrior. Literally, upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy harvests has the shouting fallen; that is, the shout of the warrior has fallen upon that harvest instead of the rejoicing of the farmer. So Jeremiah evidently understands it Jer 48:32 : The spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy vintage. Lowth proposes here a correction of the Hebrew text, but without necessity or authority.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. With the weeping – “As with the weeping”] For bibechi, a MS. reads bechi. In Jer 48:32, it is mibbechi. The Septuagint read kibeki, as with weeping, which I follow.
For thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen – “And upon thy vintage the destroyer hath fallen.”] veal ketsirech heidad naphal. In these few words there are two great mistakes, which the text of Jer 48:32 rectifies. For ketsirech, it has betsirech; and for heidad, shoded; both which corrections the Chaldee in this place confirms. As to the first,
“Hesebon and Eleale, and
The flowery dale of Sibmah, clad with vines,”
were never celebrated for their harvests; it was the vintage that suffered by the irruption of the enemy; and so read the Septuagint and Syriac. heidad is the noisy acclamation of the treaders of the grapes. And see what sense this makes in the literal rendering of the Vulgate: super messem tuam vox calcantium irruit, “upon thy harvest the voice of the treaders rushes.” The reading in Jer 48:32 is certainly right, shoded naphal, “the destroyer hath fallen.” The shout of the treaders does not come in till the next verse; in which the text of Isaiah in its turn mends that of Jeremiah, Jer 48:33, where instead of the first heidad, “the shout,” we ought undoubtedly to read, as here, haddorech, “the treader.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: so the sense is, I will bewail Sibmah as I did bewail Jazer, which, they say, was destroyed before Sibmah: or,
the weeping of Jazer might be a proverbial expression; for it is used also Jer 48:32, like that of the mourning of Hadadrimmon, Zec 12:11, though the reason of it be now unknown, as it is in many other proverbs. The words are by others rendered, and that more agreeably to the Hebrew text, I will bewail with weeping (which is a usual Hebraism for I will bitterly bewail)
Jazer, and (which particle is oft understood) the vine of Sibmah. But our translation seems to be justified by the parallel place, Jer 48:32, where it is, O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer. The shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen; those joyful shouts and acclamations, which were customary in the time of harvest and vintage, Isa 9:3; Jer 25:30, shall cease, because thy land shall be wasted, and thy people destroyed. Or, as it is in the margin, the shout or alarm is fallen upon thy summer fruits and thy harvest, instead of that joyful shout which was then used, to which he here alludes; which seems to be the truer translation, not only because this Hebrew word is elsewhere used concerning the shout of an enemy falling upon a people, as Jer 25:30; 51:14, but especially by considering the parallel place, Jer 48:32, where, for the shout is fallen, it is, the spoiler is fallen upon, &c. If it be objected, that the next verse speaks of the ceasing of their joyful shouts, and that this Hebrew word is there used for vintage shouting, which at first made me incline to the former interpretation, that seems to be fully answered from Jer 48:33, which speaks likewise of the ceasing of their joy and joyful shouts, but withal adds, in the close of the verse, what may end this controversy, their shouting shall be no shouting; they shall indeed have a shouting, but not such a one as they used to have, a joyful shouting of their own people, but an insulting shout of their enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Iwill bewail for itsdesolation, though I belong to another nation (see on Isa15:5).
with . . . weeping ofJazeras Jazer weeps.
shouting for . . .fallenrather, “Upon thy summer fruits and upon thyluxuriant vines the shouting (the battle shout, insteadof the joyous shout of the grape-gatherers, usual at thevintage) is fallen” (Isa 16:10;Jer 25:30; Jer 51:14).In the parallel passage (Jer48:32) the words substantially express the same sense. “Thespoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah,…. That is, bewail the one, as he had done the other, both places with the fruits about them being destroyed by the enemy; or “therefore with weeping I will bewail” (most vehemently lament, an usual Hebraism) “Jazer”, and “the vine of Sibmah”: the prophet here represents the Moabites weeping for their vines more especially, they being a people addicted to drunkenness, in which their father was begotten; hence Bacchus is said to be the founder of many of their cities, see Jer 48:32. The Targum is,
“as I have brought armies against Jazer, so will I bring slayers against Sibmah;”
I will water thee with my tears: shed abundance of them, see Ps 6:6:
O Heshbon, and Elealeh; perhaps alluding to the fishponds, in the former, So 7:4 of these places,
[See comments on Isa 15:4]:
for the shouting for thy summer fruits, and for thy harvest, is fallen; is ceased, so as not to be heard; namely, the singing and shouting which used to be made by labourers, while they were gathering the summer fruits, or reaping the harvest, with which they amused and diverted themselves, and their fellow labourers, and so their time and their work went on more pleasantly; or else that great joy and shouting they expressed when all was ended, something of which nature is still among us at this day; but now in Moab it was at an end, because the enemy had destroyed both their summer fruits and harvest; though Jarchi and Kimchi interpret this shouting of the enemy, of the spoilers and plunderers, upon their summer fruits and harvest, when they destroyed them; and so the Targum,
“upon thy harvest, and upon thy vintage, spoilers have fallen;”
so Noldius g renders the words, “for upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy harvest, the shouting shall fall”; that is, the shouting of the enemy, spoiling their fruits and their harvest; and this seems to be the true sense, since it agrees with Jer 48:32 and the ceasing of the other kind of shouting is observed in the next verse
Isa 16:10.
g Ebr Concord. Part p. 253.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The beauties of nature and fruitfulness of the land, which come into the possession of any nation, are gifts from the riches of divine goodness, remnants of the paradisaical commencement of the history of man, and types of its paradisaical close; and for this very reason they are not matters of indifference to the spirit of prophecy. And for the same reason, it is not unworthy of a prophet, who predicts the renovation of nature and the perfecting of it into the beauty of paradise, to weep over such a devastation as that of the Moabitish vineyards which was now passing before his mind (cf., Isa 32:12-13). “Therefore I bemoan the vines of Sibmah with the weeping of Jazer; I flood thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, that Hdad hath fallen upon thy fruit-harvest and upon thy vintage.” A tetrastich, the Hebrew equivalent, in measure and movement, of a sapphic strophe. The circumstantiality of the vision is here swallowed up again by the sympathy of the prophet; and the prophecy, which is throughout as truly human as it is divine, becomes soft and flowing like an elegy. The prophet mingles his tears with the tears of Jazer. Just as the latter weeps for the devastated vines of Sibmah, so does he also weep. The form , transposed from = (cf., Ewald, 253, a, where it is explained as being a rare “voluntative” formation), corresponds to the elegiac tone of the whole strophe. Heshbon and Elealeh, those closely connected cities, with their luxuriant fields ( sh e demoth , Isa 16:8), are now lying in ruins; and the prophet waters them with tears, because hedad has fallen upon the fruit-harvest and vintage of both the sister cities. In other instances the term katzr is applied to the wheat-harvest; but here it is used in the same sense as batzr , to which it is preferred on account of Isaiah’s favourite alliteration, viz., with kaytz (compare, for example, the alliteration of mistor with sether in Isa 4:6). That it does not refer to the wheat-harvest here, but to the vintage, which was nearly coincident with the fruit-harvest (which is called kaytz , as in Isa 28:4), is evident from the figure suggested in the word hedad , which was the shout raised by the pressers of the grapes, to give the time for moving their feet when treading out the wine (Isa 16:10; Jer 25:30). A hedad of this kind had fallen upon the rich floors of Heshbon-Elealeh, inasmuch as they had been trodden down by enemies – a Hedad, and yet no Hedad, as Jeremiah gives it in a beautiful oxymoron (Jer 48:33), i.e., no joyous shout of actual grape-treaders.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
9. Therefore I will bewail. The Prophet here takes upon him the character of another person, as we have formerly remarked; for in the name of the Moabites he laments and groans. It is undoubtedly true that believers always shudder at the judgments of God, and cannot lay aside the feelings of human nature, so as not to commiserate the destruction of the wicked. Yet he does not describe his own feelings; but his intention is to give additional weight to his instruction, that no one may entertain a doubt as to the accomplishment. He therefore represents in the person of a Moabite, as on a stage, the mourning and grief which shall be felt by all after that calamity, in order to hold out to the Jews a confirmation of this promise, which otherwise might have been thought to be incredible.
Because on thy summer-fruits and on thy harvest a shouting shall break forth, or shall fall. (267) This last clause of the verse is variously explained by commentators. נפל, ( naphal,) signifies to fall, or to burst forth. Those who translate it, to burst forth, consider the word הידד, ( hedad,) shouting, to refer to the enemies themselves; as if he had said, “ The shouting of enemies bursts forth on thy harvest;” so that there is an implied contrast between this shouting and the joy of which he will afterwards speak. Others explain it to mean, that the shoutings will be laid; that is, “there shall be no more shouting, and no longer shall the glad and merry voices of the reapers be heard, cheering themselves after the harvest.” But I would rather refer it to the shouting of enemies; and on this point I follow a most faithful interpreter of this passage, the Prophet Jeremiah, who says that the spoiler bursts forth, (Jer 48:32,) where Isaiah speaks of the shouting of the enemy; as if he had said, “When thou shalt make preparations for gathering in thy harvest and thy vintage, the enemies will rush in, and, instead of joy and cheerful song, their shouting shall be heard, which shall drive thee far away.”
(267) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer . . .The prophet, in his sympathy with the sufferings of Moab (see Isa. 15:5), declares that he will weep with tears as genuine as those of Jazer itself over the desolation of its vineyards.
The shouting for thy summer fruits . . .Better, as in the margin, on thy summer-fruits, and on thy harvest a shout is fallen, i.e., not the song of the vintage gatherers and the reapers, but the cry of the enemy as they trample on the fields and vineyards. The force of the contrast is emphasised, as in Jer. 48:33 (a cheer which is no cheer, Cheyne), by the use of the same word (hedad) as that which in the next verse is employed for the song of those that tread the grapes. (Comp. Jer. 25:30.) Possibly the word for harvest is used generically as including the vintage.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9, 10. I will water thee with my tears The prophet turns to mourning again for the woes of Moab, with a sorrow, however, not patriotic. It is because the wrath of Jehovah falls thus on that guilty people. He joins the people of Jazer in their weeping for their loss of rich vintages by means of the enemy. The loss upon Heshbon and upon Elealeh (near to “Heshbon”) is shown by the fact that the shout of the harvesters has ceased. In times of harvest and grape gathering joyous shouts are heard in all Oriental lands. Now all is silent in fields and at wine-presses in the land of Moab, and tears of sympathy gush from even the eyes of a denouncing prophet.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 16:9. For the shouting, &c. For, upon thy summer-fruits, and upon thy vintage, the destroyer hath fallen. Lowth. The meaning of the phrase, I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer, or, I will lament with the lamentation of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah, is, “I mingle my tears with the tears of the citizens of Jazer and Sibmah, for the devastation which shall happen to their fields and vineyards.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 16:9 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.
Ver. 9. Therefore I will bewail with the weeping. ] Defleo fletum (Paronomasia), that is, the misery of Jazer; or, I will with weeping bewail Jazer, and the vine of Sibmah.
For the shouting for thy summer fruits,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
water thee = make thee drunk.
Elealeh. See note on Isa 15:4.
the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen = on thy summer fruits and thy harvest a war-cry hath fallen,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will bewail: Isa 15:5, Jer 48:32-34
O Heshbon: Isa 15:4
for: Isa 9:3, Jdg 9:27, Jer 40:10, Jer 40:12
the shouting for: or, the alarm is fallen upon, etc
Reciprocal: Num 21:25 – in Heshbon Num 21:32 – Jaazer Num 32:1 – Jazer Num 32:3 – Heshbon Jos 13:19 – And Kirjathaim Jos 21:39 – Jazer 2Sa 24:5 – Jazer 1Ch 26:31 – Jazer Isa 15:6 – the grass Isa 16:8 – the vine Isa 21:3 – are Jer 9:1 – General Jer 25:30 – give Jer 48:2 – Heshbon Jer 48:33 – joy Eze 27:31 – they shall weep Eze 32:18 – wail Mic 1:8 – I will wail
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:9 Therefore I will {k} 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 {l} harvest is fallen.
(k) He shows that their plague was so great that it would have moved any man to lament with them, as in Psa 141:5 .
(l) The enemies are come upon you, and shout for joy when they carry your conveniences from you as in Jer 48:33 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Again the Lord grieved over Moab (cf. Isa 15:5-9). Even when He must judge people, the Lord has pity on them and grieves over the destruction that He must send (cf. Hos 11:1-9). Joy would end because the national product, grapes, would be unavailable due to hostile invaders. God’s heart would break for these proud Moabites. When the Moabites would pray to their idols there would be no response, no help. How foolish, then, it was for the Judeans to trust in Moab for help.
"In Moab everyone went to ’the church of his own choice.’" [Note: Ibid., 1:467.]