Isaias xv.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 1. Moab. Which would be visited in three years’ time (chap. xvi. 14.) either by Ezechias, or by Sennacherib, though history be silent on this head. The Moabites had been very cruel, Amos i. and ii. — Night. Suddenly. (Calmet) — Their misery was so much the greater. (Worthington) — Ar. The capital. (Calmet)
Ver. 2. House. Protestants, “he is come up to Baiith,” (Haydock) or the royal family is gone to the temple of their idol, Chamos, to lament. (St. Jerome) (Menochius) (Calmet) — Shaven. As in mourning, Jeremias xlviii. 37.
Ver. 4. Itself. Every one shall deplore his own distress.
Ver. 5. My. A charitable heart will grieve for the misfortune of an enemy. (Worthington) — I shall join in the general lamentations, though Moab has always been so great an enemy of Israel. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “the heart of Moab cries in itself to Segor.” (Haydock) — We will retire thither. (Chaldean) — Bars. Princes. Protestants, “his fugitives shall,” &c. — Heifer. Strong and ungovernable. Hebrew, “to Heglath and to Shelishia for,” &c., though we may as well adhere to the Vulgate, Septuagint, &c.
Ver. 6. Nemrim. Or Nemra, (Numbers xxxii. 3.) to the north of Segor. (Calmet) — The country around hence became barren. (St. Jerome)
Ver. 7. Willows. That is, as some say, the waters of Babylon; others render it a valley of the Arabians, (Challoner) or “of crows,” to which their bodies will be exposed, chap. lvii. 6.
Ver. 8. Cry. Of iniquity, or rather of grief.
Ver. 9. Dibon. Septuagint, &c., read, “Dimon,” which signifies, “blood.” I will give it a better claim to this appellation. — Lion. Nabuchodonosor. (Calmet) — Septuagint, “I will bring the Arabs up on Dimon, and will take away the seed of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Adama.” (Haydock)
Bible Text & Cross-references:A prophecy of the desolation of the Moabites.
1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed in the night, it is silent.
2 The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places, to mourn over Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: *on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.
3 In their streets they are girded with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets all shall howl, and come down weeping.
4 Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard even to Jasa. For this shall the well appointed men of Moab howl: his soul shall howl to itself.
5 My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall flee unto Segor, a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping: and in the way of Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.
7 According to the greatness of their work, is their visitation also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab: the howling thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim the cry thereof.
9 For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I will bring more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall flee of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
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2: Jeremias xlviii. 37.; Ezechiel vii. 18.