I
S A I A H
CHAP. XV.
This
chapter, and that which follows it, are the burden of Moab--a prophecy of some
great desolation that was coming upon that country, which bordered upon this
land of Israel, and had often been injurious and vexatious to it, though the
Moabites were descended from Lot, Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though
the Israelites, by the appointment of God, had spared them when they might
both easily and justly have cut them off with their neighbours. In this
chapter we have, I. Great lamentation made by the Moabites, and by the prophet
himself for them, ver. 1-5. II. The great calamities which should occasion
that lamentation and justify it, ver. 6-9.
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The
Burden of
Moab.
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B.
C. 725.
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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. vii. 14; Amos viii. 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, Josh. xvi. 3, 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?
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The
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C. 725.
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6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate:
for the hay is withered away, the 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 to the brook of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof
unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim. 9 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.
Here the prophet further describes the woeful and piteous lamentations that
should be heard throughout all the country of Moab when it should become a
prey to the Assyrian army. "By this time the cry has gone round about
all the borders of Moab," v. 8. Every corner of the country
has received the alarm, and is in the utmost confusion upon it. It has reached
to Eglaim, a city at one end of the country, and to Beer-elim, a
city as far the other way. Where sin has been general, and all flesh have
corrupted their way, what can be expected but a general desolation? Two things
are here spoken of as causes of this lamentation:--
I. The waters of Nimrim are desolate (v. 6), that is, the
country is plundered and impoverished, and all the wealth and substance of it
swept away by the victorious army. Famine is usually the sad effect of war.
Look into the fields that were well watered, the fruitful meadows that yielded
delightful prospects and more delightful products, and there all is eaten up,
or carried off by the enemy's foragers, and the remainder trodden to dirt by
their horses. If an army encamp upon green fields, their greenness is soon
gone. Look into the houses, and they are stripped too (v. 7): The
abundance of wealth that they had gotten with a great deal of art
and industry, and that which they had laid up with a great deal of care
and confidence, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
Either the owners shall carry it thither to hide it or the enemies shall carry
it thither to pack it up and send it home, by water perhaps, to their own
country. Note, 1. Those that are eager to get abundance of this world, and
solicitous to lay up what they have gotten, little consider what may become of
it and in how short a time it may be all taken from them. Great abundance, by
tempting the robbers, exposes the owners; and those who depend upon it to
protect them often find it does but betray them. 2. In times of distress great
riches are often great burdens, and do but increase the owner's care or the
enemies' strength. Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator--The penniless
traveller will exult, when accosted by a robber, in having nothing about him.
II. The waters of Dimon are turned into blood (v. 9), that is,
the inhabitants of the country are slain in great numbers, so that the waters
adjoining to the cities, whether rivers or pools, are discoloured with human
gore, inhumanly shed like water. Dimon signifies bloody; the
place shall answer to its name. Perhaps it was that place in the country of
Moab where the waters seemed to the Moabites as blood (2 Kings iii. 22,
23), which occasioned their overthrow. But now, says God, I will bring more
upon Dimon, more blood than was shed, or thought to be seen, at that time.
I will bring additions upon Dimon (so the word is), additional plagues;
I have yet more judgments in reserve for them. For all this, God's anger is
not turned away. When he judges he will overcome; and to the roll of
curses shall be added many like words, Jer. xxxvi. 32. See here what is
the yet more evil to be brought upon Dimon, upon Moab, which is now to
be made a land of blood. Some flee, and make their escape, others sit still,
and are overlooked, and are as a remnant of the land; but upon both God will
bring lions, beasts of prey (which are reckoned one of God's four
judgments, Ezek. xiv. 21), and these shall glean up those that have escaped
the sword of the enemy. Those that continue impenitent in sin, when they are
preserved from one judgment, are but reserved for another.
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