Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Burden of Moab
Isaiah 15:1-9
1 The burden of Moab. For in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing. For in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing. · WEB
An oracle against an enemy nation in which the prophet's own heart cries out for it.
The burden of Moab. For in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing Isaiah 15:1.
Moab lay east of the Salt Sea, descended from Lot Genesis 19:37, and had been Israel's enemy on and off for six centuries. The oracle against it is unlike any other in this section.
The chapter is a list of place names — Ar, Kir, Dibon, Nebo, Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh, Jahaz, Zoar, Luhith, Horonaim, Nimrim, Eglaim, Beer Elim, Dimon — and most of them are small towns nobody outside Moab would have heard of. The effect is of a casualty list read out slowly, and the accumulation is the point.
Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off Isaiah 15:2.
The mourning customs of the region, and both are things done to the body in grief.
In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails Isaiah 15:3.
The grief is public and it is on the roofs, where families slept in the heat. There is nowhere in the town it is not happening.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them Isaiah 15:4.
The soldiers are weeping too, which in an oracle against an enemy is not the expected note.
My heart cries out for Moab! Isaiah 15:5.
The verse that changes the chapter. The prophet announcing the disaster is grieving over it, and there is no suggestion anywhere in the passage that he should not be. He goes on to name the roads the refugees are taking — up the ascent of Luhith weeping, along the way to Horonaim — as a man watching a column of people leave.
For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing Isaiah 15:6.
Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows Isaiah 15:7.
Refugees crossing a border with what they could lift. It is the most ordinary detail in the chapter and the most recognizable.
For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon Isaiah 15:9.
The oracle ends without relief, and the sixteenth chapter will take up the same subject and offer Moab a place to hide.
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