Isaiah 15

This is the message of doom about Moab. In one night the city of Ar in Moab is destroyed and silenced. In one night the city of Kir in Moab is destroyed and silenced.

1The 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;

NoteMoab was a small kingdom on the high plateau east of the Dead Sea, in what is now western Jordan. Israelite tradition traced the Moabites to Lot, Abraham's nephew, so they counted as distant kin (but they were also long-standing rivals, and this chapter is one of a series of oracles Isaiah delivers about the nations surrounding Judah. "Burden" in the King James is a technical term for a prophetic pronouncement, from a Hebrew word meaning something lifted) either a heavy load or a voice raised to speak. Ar and Kir were two of Moab's principal cities; Kir (later called Kir-hareseth) was its fortress capital.

2The people go up to the temple, and Dibon goes up to the worship sites on the hills, to cry. Moab wails over the town of Nebo and over the town of Medeba. Every head is shaved bare, and every beard is cut off.

2He 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.

NoteThe King James "Bajith" is simply the Hebrew word for "house," here meaning a temple, which is why the rendering says "the temple." The "high places" were open-air worship sites, typically on hilltops or raised platforms, with an altar and a standing stone (the normal form of local worship throughout the region. Dibon, Nebo and Medeba were towns on the Moabite plateau; Dibon was a royal city, and Nebo stood near the mountain of the same name. Shaving the head bald and cutting off the beard were public mourning rites across the ancient Near East. A full beard was a mark of adult male dignity, so cutting it was a deliberate act of self-disfigurement) Israelite law actually forbade these particular practices to its own people.

3In their streets they put on rough cloth to show their grief. On their flat rooftops and in their open squares, everyone wails and weeps hard.

3In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.

NoteSackcloth was coarse dark cloth woven from goat hair, the material of grain sacks, worn next to the skin as a sign of grief or distress. Roofs in this region were flat and reached by an outside stair; they were used for sleeping, drying crops and, as here, for public lamenting where everyone could see and hear.

4The towns of Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, and their voices carry as far as Jahaz. So the soldiers of Moab cry out too, and each man is shaking inside.

4And 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.

NoteHeshbon and Elealeh were northern Moabite towns about a mile and a half apart; Jahaz lay some distance to the south or east, so the point is that the cry carries across the whole territory. The King James "his life shall be grievous unto him" translates an idiom about the inner self trembling or recoiling, the soldiers are the ones who should be steady, and they are not.

5My own heart cries out for Moab. Her people run for their lives as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah. They go up the slope of Luhith weeping as they climb, and on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry over their ruin.

5My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an 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.

NoteZoar sat at the southern end of the Dead Sea, so the refugees are fleeing the length of the country. "Eglath-shelishiyah" is genuinely uncertain: the Hebrew can be read as a place name meaning "the third Eglath" or, as the King James took it, as the phrase "a heifer three years old", a young cow at full strength, used elsewhere as an image for a nation bellowing in distress. Luhith and Horonaim were on the ascent and road leading south out of Moab toward Edom.

6The waters of Nimrim have dried up. The grass is dried out, the plants are gone, and nothing green is left.

6For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.

NoteNimrim was a stream valley whose name suggests running water; its drying up means the pasture and irrigated land are gone. In a country that depended on a few reliable watercourses, this is not scenery but the loss of the food supply.

7So they pick up the wealth they earned and the goods they stored away, and carry it all across the Brook of the Willows.

7Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

NoteThe Brook of the Willows is most likely the deep ravine on Moab's southern border, the Zered, marking the frontier with Edom. Carrying their savings and stored goods across it means the survivors are leaving the country altogether, taking what they can lift.

8Their crying has gone all around the borders of Moab. The wailing reaches Eglaim, and the wailing reaches Beer-elim.

8For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.

NoteEglaim and Beer-elim are otherwise little known, but the pairing works as a merism: the cry has reached one end of Moab and the other.

9The waters of Dimon are full of blood, and I will bring even more on Dimon: a lion for those who escape from Moab, and for whoever is left in the land.

9For 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.

Note"Dimon" is probably the town Dibon named in verse 2, spelled here so that it echoes the Hebrew word *dam*, "blood", a grim pun that the English cannot carry. Lions still lived in the thickets along the Jordan and its side valleys in this period, so a lion hunting down those who got away is both a literal hazard of flight and an image of a disaster that finds even the escapees. "Remnant" is the standard term for the survivors left after a catastrophe.