Isaiah 15:7

The enemy attacked from the north. The people from Moab ran away from them to the south. Like all *refugees in times of war, they tried to carry a few possessions with them.

• The ‘Stream of the Trees’ was probably the little river called Zered. It marked Moab’s southern border with Edom.

sackcloth ~ dress of rough material that people wore to show that they were very sad.
refugees ~ people who have had to leave their homes, especially during war.'

Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth

Countries near Judah

Isaiah Chapter s 13 to 23

Gordon Churchyard

The words in brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language.

Chapter 15

A message about Moab

Note

Isaiah Chapter s 15 and 16 are both about the country called Moab. Read them as one chapter! They contain these sections:

• 15:1-4 The people in Moab are very, very sad.

• 15:5-9 God (and/or Isaiah) is also very, very sad.
• 16:1-5 The people in Moab ask Judah’s people for help.
• 16:6-8 Because Moab’s people are proud, armies destroy Moab.
• 16:9-12 God is very, very sad about Moab.
• 16:13-14 All this will have happened in three years.

v1 [This is] a serious message [about] Moab.

It is true! In one night [an enemy] destroyed Ar [and] Moab’s [people] are silent.

It is true! In one night [an enemy] destroyed Kir in Moab. [And Moab’s people are] silent.

v2 [The people in] Dibon [town] have gone up to their *temple to weep. [They have gone up to] the high places. Moab’s [people] are crying about [the towns called] Nebo and Medeba. Every head is bald and [they have] shaved off every beard.

v3 [The people] are wearing rough hairy clothes in the streets. On the roofs [of their houses, they are weeping]. And in the squares [in the towns], they are all weeping. Tears cover their faces.

v4 Then [the people in] Heshbon and Elealah [towns] cried out aloud. [People] as far away as Jahaz [town] heard the sound! The soldiers in Moab cry aloud [with fear]. The heart [of the nation] trembles.

v5 [In] my heart [I] cry aloud because of Moab! Its people have run away as far as Zoar [and] Eglath Shelishijah.

It is true! They climb up the hill to Luhith. [And] they weep as [they are climbing].

It is true! On the road to Horonaim they cry aloud. They cry, ‘[An enemy] destroyed [us]!’

v6 It is true! The water has dried up in [the valley at] Nimrim.

It is true! The grass is dead. Nothing new is growing. There is nothing [that is] green.

v7 Therefore, they are carrying away over the Wadi Arabim whatever they found [in the fields]. And they are carrying away the savings that they have.

v8 It is true! Shouts [for help] reached the borders of Moab. [People] as far as Eglayim heard the sad songs [that the people in Moab sang. The noise of those] sad songs reached Beer Elim.

v9 It is true! Blood fills the waters in Dimon.

It is true! I will bring more [bad] things [that will happen] to Dimon. A lion will wait for those people that escape from Moab. [And it will wait] for those people that remain [in that] country.

Notes

Verse 1 Isaiah wrote in the *Hebrew language. The *Hebrew word for ‘serious message’ means ‘burden’ (a heavy load that someone has to carry). Read the end of the note before Isaiah chapter 13. We do not know who the enemy was. It may have been the soldiers from Assyria. They came from the north. Or perhaps it was the people that lived east from Moab. They lived in the desert. They destroyed the city called Ar, which perhaps was the capital of Moab. And they also destroyed Kir city. Ar was south from the Arnon river, and Kir was 40 kilometres south from Ar. The Arnon river flowed into the Dead Sea on its east side, about half-way down. Moab was mostly on the south side of the river. But a few cities on the river’s north side were in Moab. ‘Moab’s [people] are silent.’ That might sound as if the people were completely quiet. But they did make a lot of noise. In verses 2, 3 and 4 we learn that the people in Moab cried. They wept aloud. ‘Silent’ here means that they had nothing to say to their enemy. Their enemy had ruined them.

Verse 2 Dibon was 7 kilometres north from the Arnon river. The *temple was probably on a hill (‘high places’) near Dibon. Here the *temple was a special house where the people prayed to their god. Their god’s name was Chemosh. Nebo and Medeba were towns north from Dibon. The people in Nebo and Medeba had cut off their hair and beards. They did that to show that they were sad. They were also ashamed.

Verse 3 The people also wore hairy clothes, which were very rough and ugly. Those clothes were not comfortable to wear. That also showed that the people were sad and ashamed.

Verse 4 Heshbon and Elealah were further north than Nebo. But the people in Heshbon and Elealah towns made so much noise that other people heard it a long distance away. Even the people in Jahaz, a town over 30 kilometres away, could hear the sound! The *Hebrew words at the end of the verse mean this. ‘His heart trembles in him.’ It could mean that the soldiers are afraid. Or it could refer to the whole nation called Moab. It probably means both! The *Jews believed that people thought in their hearts.

Verse 5 We may wonder who cries aloud in his heart because of Moab. Many Bible students say that it means Isaiah. But in verse 9, we learn that God himself is the speaker in this section. Because it is God who will make more bad things happen. God will punish the people in Moab because they are proud (Isaiah 16:6). But that makes God sad. So God ‘cries aloud in his heart because of Moab’. This is a special type of sad poem. It starts with ‘it is true’. The first section of this chapter also starts like that (verse 1). The people of Moab are now refugees. ‘Refugees’ are people that are running away from their own home. They are running away from danger to somewhere safer. Zoar is south from the Dead Sea, so probably the other three places were there too. The enemy was probably near the Arnon river. That was in the north of the country.

Verse 6 Nimrim was in the south. It was near the southern end of the Dead Sea. We do not know whether the enemy destroyed the crops in the fields. Perhaps bad weather destroyed them.

Verse 7 The Wadi Arabim was a stream. It divided Moab from the country called Edom. Edom was on the south side of Moab. The *refugees took the little food that they found in their fields. They also took their savings. Then they went to Edom. It was probably safer there. Some *refugees went to Judah (Isaiah 16:1-5). Arabim was a type of tree. Bible students are not sure what type of tree it was.

Verse 8 Bible students do not know where Eglayim and Beer Elim were. This whole chapter is Isaiah’s sad poem to show how unhappy he is about Moab. ‘It is true’ appears 9 times in 9 verses. Those words are very important in this chapter.

Verse 9 Perhaps people threw dead bodies into the water at Dimon. That would explain why ‘blood fills the waters’. Then they could not drink the water. Many Bible students think that Dimon is the same place as Dibon in verse 2. The ‘lion’ is a special description of the soldiers that will kill the *refugees from Moab. But we may ask what will happen to those people that remain in Moab. Bible students do not agree about how to translate this part. The *Hebrew words mean ‘and for those that remain land’. Some Bible students say that it means this: ‘Those people that remain will get land.’ Other Bible students say that it means this: ‘The lion waits for those people that remain in that country.’ We cannot say now who is right! The same *Hebrew word can mean either ‘land’ or ‘country’.

heavens ~ either the home of God or the skies.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
temple ~ the house of God in Jerusalem; or the house of a false god.
Jews ~ people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
refugee ~ someone who has had to run away from his or her own country.