CHAPTER 15 Ch. 15 16. An Oracle on Moab These Chapter s describe a terrible disaster which has overtaken, or is about to overtake, the proud and hitherto prosperous nation of Moab. Ch. Isaiah 16:13 f. is a postscript, which states unambiguously that an earlier prophecy is here taken up and reaffir... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse stands somewhat apart from the sequel of the poem. It announces the catastrophe which has placed the entire country at the mercy of the invaders, viz. the fall of the two chief cities of Moab. What follows is a description, not of the further progress of the campaign, but first of the univ... [ Continue Reading ]
(Cf. Jeremiah 48:37) _He is gone up … to weep_ The sense of the clause is uncertain. If _Bayith_be a proper name the best rendering would be that of R.V. marg. BAYITH AND DIBON ARE GONE UP TO THE HIGH-PLACES TO WEEP. But _Bayith_enters so frequently into compound place-names in this region (_Beth-Di... [ Continue Reading ]
The wailing of Moab.... [ Continue Reading ]
(Jeremiah 48:37 f.) _on the tops of their houses_ See on Isaiah 22:1. The word _streets_should not be used twice; substitute in the second case BROAD PLACES (as in R.V.). _weeping abundantly_ lit. "going down in weeping," an unusually strong figure. In other passages the eye is said to "go down in... [ Continue Reading ]
(Cf. Jeremiah 48:34.) _Heshbon_and _Elealeh_(often mentioned together) are respectively about 4 and 6 miles N.E. of Nebo. Heshbon, once the capital of the Amorites (Numbers 21:26) and afterwards an Israelitish city (Numbers 32:37; Joshua 13:17; Joshua 21:39), is at the time of the prophecy in the po... [ Continue Reading ]
(Jeremiah 48:34; Jeremiah 48:5; Jeremiah 48:3) The new theme is introduced by an expression of the writer's sympathy with the homeless fugitives: _My heart_ CRIETH _out for Moab_(cf. Isaiah 16:9; Isaiah 16:11). _his fugitives_ R.V. renders less suitably "her nobles." The word as pointed means "bolts... [ Continue Reading ]
The flight of the Moabites.... [ Continue Reading ]
(Jeremiah 48:34) _the waters of Nimrim_are generally supposed to be connected with Beth-nimrah (Numbers 32:36), now Tell-nimrin, on the Wadi Shaib, flowing into the Jordan about 8 miles from its mouth. A place in the south of Moab would perhaps suit the context better, and explorers have found a Wad... [ Continue Reading ]
(Jeremiah 48:36.) The fugitives have now reached the border of their own land, and prepare to cross into Edom. The boundary between the two countries was formed by the Wadi el-Ahsa ("valley of water-pits," the scene of the miracle in 2 Kings 3:16 ff. See Robertson Smith, _Old Test. in Jewish Ch_. p.... [ Continue Reading ]
Summing up the effect of the previous description and explaining the forsaking of the land. _the cry_(of destruction, Isaiah 15:5) _is gone round_ We should expect the two places in the second half of the verse to mark the extreme limits of the country the "Dan and Beersheba" of Moab. _Eglaim_is pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_the waters of Dimon Dimon_is generally supposed to be another form of _Dibon_, chosen for the sake of an alliteration with the word for "blood" (_dâm_). The conjecture may be taken for what it is worth; it has the authority of Jerome, who says, "usque hodie indifferenter et Dimon et Dibon hoc oppid... [ Continue Reading ]