The Oracle Against Moab and the Night of Devastating Lament

Isa 15:5-6 The difficult words in which the prophet expresses this sympathy we render as follows: “My heart, towards Moab it crieth out; its bolts reached to Zoar, the three-year-old heifer. ” The Lamed in l'Moab is the same both here and in Isa 16:11 as in Isa 14:8-9, viz. , “turned toward Moab. ” Moab, which was masculine in Isa 15:4, is feminine here. We may infer from this that עד־צער בריחה is a statement which concerns Moab as a land.

Now, berichim signifies the bolts in every other passage in which it occurs; and it is possible to speak of the bolts of a land with just as much propriety as in Lam 2:9 and Jer 51:30 (cf. , Jon 2:7) of the bolts of a city. And the statement that the bolts of this land went to Zoar is also a very appropriate one, for Kir Moab and Zoar formed the southern fortified girdle of the land; and Zoar, on the south-western tongue of land which runs into the Dead Sea, was the uttermost fortress of Moab, looking over towards Judah; and in its depressed situation below the level of the sea it formed, as it were, the opposite pole of Kir Moab, the highest point in the high land itself.

Hence we agree with Jerome, who adopts the rendering vectes ejus usque ad Segor , whereas all the modern translators have taken the word in the sense of fugitives. ‛Eglath sheilshiyyâh , which Rosenmüller, Knobel, Drechsler, Meier, and others have taken quite unnecessarily as a proper name, is either in apposition to Zoar or to Moab. In the former case it is a distinguishing epithet.

An ox of the three years, or more literally of the third year (cf. , meshullesheth , Gen 15:9), i. e. , a three-year-old ox, is one that is still in all the freshness and fulness of its strength, and that has not yet been exhausted by the length of time that it has worn the yoke. The application of the term to the Moabitish nation is favoured by Jer 46:20, where Egypt is called “a very fair heifer” ( ‛eglâh yephēh - phiyyâh ), whilst Babylon is called the same in Jer 50:11 (cf.

, Hos 4:16; Hos 10:11). And in the same way, according to the lxx, Vulg. , Targum, and Gesenius, Moab is called juvenca tertii anni, h. e. indomita jugoque non assueta , as a nation that was still in the vigour of youth, and if it had hitherto borne the yoke, had always shaken it off again. But the application of it to Zoar is favoured (1.) by Jer 48:34, where this epithet is applied to another Moabitish city; (2.)

by the accentuation; and (3.) by the fact that in the other case we should expect berı̄châh (the three-year-old heifer, i. e. , Moab, is a fugitive to Zoar: vid. , Luzzatto). Thus Zoar, the fine, strong, and hitherto unconquered city, is now the destination of the wildest flight before the foe that is coming from the north. A blow has fallen upon Joab, that is more terrible than any that has preceded it.

In a few co-ordinate clauses the prophet now sets before us the several scenes of mourning and desolation. “for the mountain slope of Luhith they ascend with weeping; for on the road to Horonayim they lift up a cry of despair. For the waters of Nimrim are waste places from this time forth: for the grass is dried up, the vegetation wasteth away, the green is gone.

” The road to Luhith (according to the Onom . between Ar-Moab and Zoar, and therefore in the centre of Moabitis proper) led up a height, and the road to Horonayim (according to Jer 48:5) down a slope. Weeping, they ran up to the mountain city to hide themselves there ( bo , as in Psa 24:3; in Jer 48:5 it is written incorrectly בּכי). Raising loud cries of despair, they stand in front of Horonayim, which lay below, and was more exposed to the enemy.

יעערוּ is softened from יערערוּ (possibly to increase the resemblance to an echo), like כּוכב from כּבכּב. The Septuagint renders it very well, κραυγὴν συντριμμοῦ ἐξαναγεροῦσιν - an unaccustomed expression of intense and ever renewed cries at the threatening danger of utter destruction, and with the hope of procuring relief and assistance ( sheber , as in Isa 1:28; Isa 30:26).

From the farthest south the scene would suddenly be transferred to the extreme north of the territory of Moab, if Nimrim were the Nimra ( Beth-Nimra , Talm. nimrin ) which was situated near to the Jordan in Gilead, and therefore farther north than any of the places previously mentioned, and the ruins of which lie a little to the south of Salt, and are still called Nimrin .

But the name itself, which is derived from the vicinity of fresh water (Arab. nemir , nemı̄r , clear, pure, sound), is one of frequent occurrence; and even to the south of Moabitis proper there is a Wadi Numere , and a brook called Moyet Numere (two diminutives: “dear little stream of Nimra”), which flows through stony tracks, and which formerly watered the country (Burckhardt, Seetzen, and De Saulcy).

In all probability the ruins of Numere by the side of this wady are the Nimrim referred to here, and the waters of the brook the “waters of Nimrim” ( me Nimrim ). The waters that flowed fresh from the spring had been filled up with rubbish by the enemy, and would now probably lie waste for ever (a similar expression to that in Isa 17:2). He had gone through the land scorching and burning, so that all the vegetation had vanished.

On the miniature-like short sentences, see Isa 29:20; Isa 33:8-9; Isa 32:10; and on היה לא (“it is not in existence,” or “it has become not,” i. e. , annihilated), vid. , Eze 21:32.

Isa 15:7-9 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. ” Yithrâh is what is superfluous or exceeds the present need, and pekuddâh (lit. a laying up, depositio ) that which has been carefully stored; whilst ‛âsâh , 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 hâ‛arâbim , i. e. , not the desert-stream, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel suppose, since the plural of ‛arâbâh is ‛arâboth , 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 ( Tzaphtzâphâh 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 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; עד 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 dâm , 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, 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, nōsâphōth , 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.

Isa 15:7-9 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. ” Yithrâh is what is superfluous or exceeds the present need, and pekuddâh (lit. a laying up, depositio ) that which has been carefully stored; whilst ‛âsâh , 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 hâ‛arâbim , i. e. , not the desert-stream, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel suppose, since the plural of ‛arâbâh is ‛arâboth , 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 ( Tzaphtzâphâh 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 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; עד 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 dâm , 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, 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, nōsâphōth , 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.

Isa 15:7-9 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. ” Yithrâh is what is superfluous or exceeds the present need, and pekuddâh (lit. a laying up, depositio ) that which has been carefully stored; whilst ‛âsâh , 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 hâ‛arâbim , i. e. , not the desert-stream, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel suppose, since the plural of ‛arâbâh is ‛arâboth , 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 ( Tzaphtzâphâh 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 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; עד 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 dâm , 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, 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, nōsâphōth , 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.

Isa 16:1 But just because this lion is Judah and its government, the summons goes forth to the Moabites, who have fled to Edom, and even to Sela , i. e. , Petra ( Wady Musa ), near Mount Hor in Arabia Petraea, to which it gave its name, to turn for protection to Jerusalem. “Send a land-ruler’s tribute of lambs from Sela desert-wards to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

” This v. is like a long-drawn trumpet-blast. The prophecy against Moab takes the same turn here as in Isa 14:32; Isa 18:7; Isa 19:16. , Isa 23:18. The judgment first of all produces slavish fear; and this is afterwards refined into loving attachment. Submission to the house of David is Moab’s only deliverance. This is what the prophet, weeping with those that weep, calls out to them in such long-drawn, vehement, and urgent tones, even into the farthest hiding-place in which they have concealed themselves, viz.

, the rocky city of the Edomites. The tribute of lambs which was due to the ruling prince is called briefly car mōshēl - 'eretz . This tribute, which the holders of the pasture-land so rich in flocks have hitherto sent to Samaria (2Ki 3:4), they are now to send to Jerusalem, the “mountain of the daughter of Zion” (as in Isa 10:32, compared with Isa 18:7), the way to which lay through “ the desert ,” i.

e. , first of all in a diagonal direction through the Arabah, which stretched downwards to Aelath.

Isa 16:2 The advice does not remain without effect, but they embrace it eagerly. ”And the daughters of Moab will be like birds fluttering about, a scared nest, at the fords of the Arnon. ” “The daughters of Moab,” like “the daughters of Judah,” for example, in Psa 48:12, are the inhabitants of the cities and villages of the land of Moab. They were already like birds soaring about (Pro 27:8), because of their flight from their own land; but here, as we may see from the expression תהיינה ...

והיה, the simile is intended to depict the condition into which they would be thrown by the prophet’s advice. The figure (cf. , Isa 10:14) as well as the expression (cf. , Isa 17:2) is thoroughly Isaiah's. It is a state of anxious and timid indecision, resembling the fluttering to and fro of birds, that have been driven away from their nest, and wheel anxiously round and round, without daring to return to their old home.

In this way the daughters of Moab, coming out of their hiding-places, whether nearer or more remote, show themselves at the fords of the Arnon, that is to say, on the very soil of their old home, which was situated between the Arnon and Wady el-Ahsa, and which was now devastated by the hand of a foe. לארנון מעברות we should regard as in apposition to benoth Moab (the daughters of Moab), if ma‛bâroth signifies the coast-lands (like ‛ebrē in Isa 7:20), and not, as it invariably does, the fords.

It is locative in its meaning, and is so accentuated.

Isa 16:3-5 There they show themselves, on the spot to which their land once reached before it passed into the possession of Israel - there , on its farthest boundary in the direction towards Judah, which was seated above; and taking heart, address the following petitions to Zion, or to the Davidic court, on the other side. “Give counsel, form a decision, make thy shadow like night in the midst of noon; hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderers.

Let mine outcasts tarry in thee, Moab; be a covert to it from before the spoiler. ” In their extremity they appeal to Zion for counsel, and the once proud but now thoroughly humbled Moabites place the decision of their fate in the hands of the men of Judah (so according to the Keri ), and stand before Zion praying most earnestly for shelter and protection. Their fear of the enemy is so great, that in the light of the noon-day sun they desire to be covered with the protecting shade of Zion as with the blackness of night, that they may not be seen by the foe.

The short-sentences correspond to the anxious urgency of the prayer (cf. , Isa 33:8). Pelilâh (cf. , peililyyâh , Isa 28:7) is the decision of a judge ( pâlil ); just as in Isa 15:5 sheilshiyyâh is the age and standing of three years. The figure of the shadow is the same as in Isa 30:2-3; Isa 32:2, etc. ; nōdēd is the same as in Isa 21:14; niddâchai as in Isa 11:12; sēther as in Isa 32:2, and other passages; shōdēd as in Isa 33:1; mippenē as in Isa 21:15.

The whole is word for word Isaiah's. There is no necessity to read nidchē instead of niddâc Mo'âb in Isa 16:4; still less is ay a collective termination, as in Isa 20:4. Nor are the words to be rendered “my outcasts ... of Moab,” and the expression to be taken as a syntaxis ornata (cf. , Isa 17:6). On the contrary, such an expression is absolutely impossible here, where the speaker is alluding to himself.

It is better to abide by the punctuation as we have it, with niddâchai ( zakeph ) closing the first clause of Isa 16:4 , and Moab ( tebir , which is subordinate to the following tiphchah , and with this to athnach ) opening the second as an absolute noun. This is the way in which we have rendered it above: “Moab ... be a shield to it ... ” (though without taking lâmō as equivalent to lō ).

The question then arises, By what means has Zion awakened such reverence and confidence on the part of Moab? This question is answered in Isa 16:4 , Isa 16:5 : “For the extortioner is at an end, desolation has disappeared, treaders down are away from the land. And a throne is established by grace, and there sits thereon in truth in the tent of David one judging, and zealous for right, and practised in righteousness.

” The imperial world-power, which pressed out both marrow and blood ( mētz , a noun of the same form as lētz , like mı̄tz in Pro 30:33, pressure), and devastated and trod down everything (Isa 29:20; Isa 10:6; Isa 33:1, cf. , Isa 16:8), is swept away from the land on this side of the Jordan; Jerusalem is not subject to it now, but has come forth more gloriously out of all her oppressions than ever she did before.

And the throne of the kingdom of Judah has not fallen down, but by the manifestation of Jehovah’s grace has been newly established. There no longer sits thereon a king who dishonours Him, and endangers His kingdom; but the tent-roof of the fallen and now re-erected hut of David (Amo 9:11) is spread over a King in whom the truth of the promise of Jehovah is verified, inasmuch as justice and righteousness are realized through all that He does.

The Messianic times must therefore have dawned (so the Targum understands it), since grace and truth ( chesed ve'emeth ) and “justice and righteousness” ( mishpât ūtzedâkâh ) are the divino-human signs of those times, and as it were their kindred genii; and who can here fail to recall to mind the words of Isa 9:6 (cf. , Isa 33:5-6)? The king depicted here is the same as “the lion out of Judah,” threatened against Moab in Isa 15:9.

Only by thus submitting to Him and imploring His grace will it escape the judgment.

Isa 16:3-5 There they show themselves, on the spot to which their land once reached before it passed into the possession of Israel - there , on its farthest boundary in the direction towards Judah, which was seated above; and taking heart, address the following petitions to Zion, or to the Davidic court, on the other side. “Give counsel, form a decision, make thy shadow like night in the midst of noon; hide the outcasts, do not betray the wanderers.

Let mine outcasts tarry in thee, Moab; be a covert to it from before the spoiler. ” In their extremity they appeal to Zion for counsel, and the once proud but now thoroughly humbled Moabites place the decision of their fate in the hands of the men of Judah (so according to the Keri ), and stand before Zion praying most earnestly for shelter and protection. Their fear of the enemy is so great, that in the light of the noon-day sun they desire to be covered with the protecting shade of Zion as with the blackness of night, that they may not be seen by the foe.

The short-sentences correspond to the anxious urgency of the prayer (cf. , Isa 33:8). Pelilâh (cf. , peililyyâh , Isa 28:7) is the decision of a judge ( pâlil ); just as in Isa 15:5 sheilshiyyâh is the age and standing of three years. The figure of the shadow is the same as in Isa 30:2-3; Isa 32:2, etc. ; nōdēd is the same as in Isa 21:14; niddâchai as in Isa 11:12; sēther as in Isa 32:2, and other passages; shōdēd as in Isa 33:1; mippenē as in Isa 21:15.

The whole is word for word Isaiah's. There is no necessity to read nidchē instead of niddâc Mo'âb in Isa 16:4; still less is ay a collective termination, as in Isa 20:4. Nor are the words to be rendered “my outcasts ... of Moab,” and the expression to be taken as a syntaxis ornata (cf. , Isa 17:6). On the contrary, such an expression is absolutely impossible here, where the speaker is alluding to himself.

It is better to abide by the punctuation as we have it, with niddâchai ( zakeph ) closing the first clause of Isa 16:4 , and Moab ( tebir , which is subordinate to the following tiphchah , and with this to athnach ) opening the second as an absolute noun. This is the way in which we have rendered it above: “Moab ... be a shield to it ... ” (though without taking lâmō as equivalent to lō ).

The question then arises, By what means has Zion awakened such reverence and confidence on the part of Moab? This question is answered in Isa 16:4 , Isa 16:5 : “For the extortioner is at an end, desolation has disappeared, treaders down are away from the land. And a throne is established by grace, and there sits thereon in truth in the tent of David one judging, and zealous for right, and practised in righteousness.

” The imperial world-power, which pressed out both marrow and blood ( mētz , a noun of the same form as lētz , like mı̄tz in Pro 30:33, pressure), and devastated and trod down everything (Isa 29:20; Isa 10:6; Isa 33:1, cf. , Isa 16:8), is swept away from the land on this side of the Jordan; Jerusalem is not subject to it now, but has come forth more gloriously out of all her oppressions than ever she did before.

And the throne of the kingdom of Judah has not fallen down, but by the manifestation of Jehovah’s grace has been newly established. There no longer sits thereon a king who dishonours Him, and endangers His kingdom; but the tent-roof of the fallen and now re-erected hut of David (Amo 9:11) is spread over a King in whom the truth of the promise of Jehovah is verified, inasmuch as justice and righteousness are realized through all that He does.

The Messianic times must therefore have dawned (so the Targum understands it), since grace and truth ( chesed ve'emeth ) and “justice and righteousness” ( mishpât ūtzedâkâh ) are the divino-human signs of those times, and as it were their kindred genii; and who can here fail to recall to mind the words of Isa 9:6 (cf. , Isa 33:5-6)? The king depicted here is the same as “the lion out of Judah,” threatened against Moab in Isa 15:9.

Only by thus submitting to Him and imploring His grace will it escape the judgment.