Isaiah 15:1-9

B. IMPUDENT EASTERNERS - Chapter S 15-17
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1.

MOAB

a. INVASION

TEXT: Isaiah 15:1-9

1

The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nought.

2

They are gone up by Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.

3

In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, every one waileth, weeping abundantly.

4

And Heshbon crieth out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembleth within him.

5

My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles flee unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.

6

For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender 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 over the brook of the willows.

8

For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the wailing thereof unto Eglaim, and the wailing thereof unto Beer-elim.

9

For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more upon Dimon, a lion upon them of Moab that escape, and upon the remnant of the land.

QUERIES

a.

Why baldness on every head and beards cut off-'?

b.

Whose heart crieth out for Moab?

PARAPHRASE

God's message to Moab: In a night your cities of Ar and Kir will be destroyed. Your people go mourning to Bayith and Dibon, their pagan temples and altars, to weep for the fate of Nebo and Medeba; they shave their heads and cut off their beards in public display of their grief. They wear sackcloth through the streets, and from every home comes the sound of weeping. The weeping and wailing from the cities of Heshbon and Elealeh are heard very far away, even in Jahaz. The bravest warriors of Moab cry in utter terror. There are no heroes in Moab now! My heart weeps for Moab! His people flee as refugees to Zoar and Eglath. Weeping, they climb the upward road to Luhith, and their moaning will be heard all along the road to Horonaim. Nimrim River is desolate! The grassy banks are dried up and the tender plants are gone. The desperate refugees take all their possessions they can carry, and flee across the Brook of Willows. The whole land of Moab is a land of weeping, from one end to the other. The waters of Dimon will run red with blood. But I am not through with Dimon yet! For the refugees of Moab I have appointed a lion to hunt them down.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 15:1-4 DESOLATION: Moab the arrogant, the insolent, will be overtaken by a destroyer in such suddenness it will transpire in only a night, as it were. Moab was a grandson of Lot by incest with his elder daughter (Genesis 19:30-38). Israel, on its march to the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, was seduced when Balaam a prophet of God advised Balak, king of Moab, how best to resist Israel. Moab dominated and exploited Israel for 18 years during the reign of Eglon, king of Moab, but was delivered by the Israelite judge, Ehud (Judges 3:30).

God, through His prophets, pronounced Moab's doom for her pagan sins and atrocities (human sacrifice, etc.). Isaiah's prediction of complete desolation was fulfilled by Shalmanezer of Assyria and his successors (Cf. also Ezekiel 25:8-11; Jeremiah 48:1 ff; Zephaniah 2:8-11). A vivid picture of Semitic or Oriental demonstrativeness is portrayed, When peoples of these races mourn they do so in a highly emotional state and make a public display of it by shaving their heads and beards, by tearing their clothes, by wearing sackcloth, and by weeping and wailing so abundantly they literally exhaust themselves emotionally over it all and collapse in tears. The bloody destruction of the Assyrian hordes in this territory was awful to behold.

Isaiah 15:5-9 DESPERATION: The speaker in this verse is no doubt Isaiah himself. He is a man of God, tender in his regard for human beings. He is not oblivious to the great suffering of this neighbor nation, (Cf. Isaiah 16:9; Isaiah 16:11). There were racial and social ties between Israel and Moab, as well as hostilities. In the days of the judges Elimelech of Bethlehem took his family to Moab to sojourn during a famine; there his two sons married and died, and Ruth, the Moabitess returned with Naomi, married Boaz and became an ancestress of David. David, when in difficulty with King Saul, took his father and mother to the king of Moab for his protection (1 Samuel 22:3-4).

So Isaiah's heart is touched with this prediction of the desperation of the Moabites. Isaiah paints a picture of thousands of weeping refugees fleeing their homes and cities, carrying what possessions they could hastily snatch up in a moment's desperation. They flee southward for asylum in Edom. The slaughter by the Assyrian armies rampages until the waters of Dimon are stained red with human blood! Those that remain in Moab, and even those that flee, have still more slaughter and destruction to come upon them. God will send a lion (probably the Babylonians and Persians to come) to hunt them down. Such is the destiny of proud and inhuman Moab !

QUIZ

1.

What is Moab's origin?

2.

What dealings did Moab have with Israel in Israel's early history?

3.

How do Semitics demonstrate their grief?

4.

What ties were there between Moab and Israel?

5.

Where did the Moabites flee for refuge at the Assyrian invasion?