mh_parser/vol_split/23 - Isaiah/Chapter 15.xml

<div2 id="Is.xvi" n="xvi" next="Is.xvii" prev="Is.xv" progress="6.54%" title="Chapter XV">
<h2 id="Is.xvi-p0.1">I S A I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Is.xvi-p0.2">CHAP. XV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Is.xvi-p1" shownumber="no">This chapter, and that which follows it, are the
burden of Moab—a prophecy of some great desolation that was coming
upon that country, which bordered upon this land of Israel, and had
often been injurious and vexatious to it, though the Moabites were
descended from Lot, Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though the
Israelites, by the appointment of God, had spared them when they
might both easily and justly have cut them off with their
neighbours. In this chapter we have, I. Great lamentation made by
the Moabites, and by the prophet himself for them, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.1-Isa.15.5" parsed="|Isa|15|1|15|5" passage="Isa 15:1-5">ver. 1-5</scripRef>. II. The great calamities
which should occasion that lamentation and justify it, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.6-Isa.15.9" parsed="|Isa|15|6|15|9" passage="Isa 15:6-9">ver. 6-9</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Is.xvi-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15" parsed="|Isa|15|0|0|0" passage="Isa 15" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Is.xvi-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.1-Isa.15.5" parsed="|Isa|15|1|15|5" passage="Isa 15:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xvi-p1.5">
<h4 id="Is.xvi-p1.6">The Burden of Moab. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xvi-p1.7">b. c.</span> 725.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xvi-p2" shownumber="no">1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of
Moab is laid waste, <i>and</i> brought to silence; because in the
night Kir of Moab is laid waste, <i>and</i> brought to silence;
  2 He 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 <i>shall be</i> baldness, <i>and</i> every beard cut off.
  3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with
sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every
one shall howl, weeping abundantly.   4 And Heshbon shall cry,
and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard <i>even</i> unto Jahaz:
therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall
be grievous unto him.   5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his
fugitives <i>shall flee</i> unto Zoar, a 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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p3" shownumber="no">The country of Moab was of small extent,
but very fruitful. It bordered upon the lot of Reuben on the other
side Jordan and upon the Dead Sea. Naomi went to sojourn there when
there was a famine in Canaan. This is the country which (it is here
foretold) should be wasted and grievously harassed, not quite
ruined, for we find another prophecy of its ruin (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.48.1-Jer.48.47" parsed="|Jer|48|1|48|47" passage="Jer 48:1-47">Jer. xlviii.</scripRef>), which was
accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy here was to be
fulfilled <i>within three years</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.16.14" parsed="|Isa|16|14|0|0" passage="Isa 16:14"><i>ch.</i> xvi. 14</scripRef>), and therefore was
fulfilled in the devastations made of that country by the army of
the Assyrians, which for many years ravaged those parts, enriching
themselves with spoil and plunder. It was done either by the army
of Shalmaneser, about the time of the taking of Samaria, in the
fourth year of Hezekiah (as is most probable), or by the army of
Sennacherib, which, ten years after, invaded Judah. We cannot
suppose that the prophet went among the Moabites to preach to them
this sermon; but he delivered it to his own people, 1. To show them
that, though judgment begins at the house of God, it shall not end
there,—that there is a providence which governs the world and all
the nations of it,—and that to the God of Israel the worshippers
of false gods were accountable, and liable to his judgments. 2. To
give them a proof of God's care of them and jealousy for them, and
to convince them that God was an enemy to their enemies, for such
the Moabites had often been. 3. That the accomplishment of this
prophecy now shortly (<i>within three years</i>) might be a
confirmation of the prophet's mission and of the truth of all his
other prophecies, and might encourage the faithful to depend upon
them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p4" shownumber="no">Now concerning Moab it is here
foretold,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p5" shownumber="no">I. That their chief cities should be
surprised and taken in a night by the enemy, probably because the
inhabitants, as the men of Laish, indulged themselves in ease and
luxury, and dwelt securely (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.1" parsed="|Isa|15|1|0|0" passage="Isa 15:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>): Therefore there shall be great grief, <i>because in
the night Air of Moab is laid waste and Kir of Moab,</i> the two
principal cities of that kingdom. <i>In the night that they were
taken,</i> or sacked, <i>Moab was cut off.</i> The seizing of them
laid the whole country open, and made all the wealth of it an easy
prey to the victorious army. Note, 1. Great changes and very dismal
ones may be made in a very little time. Here are two cities lost in
a night, though that is the time of quietness. Let us therefore lie
down as those that know not what a night may bring forth. 2. As the
country feeds the cities, so the cities protect the country, and
neither can say to the other, <i>I have no need of thee.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p6" shownumber="no">II. That the Moabites, being hereby put
into the utmost consternation imaginable, should have recourse to
their idols for relief, and pour out their tears before them
(<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.2" parsed="|Isa|15|2|0|0" passage="Isa 15:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>He</i>
(that is, Moab, especially the king of Moab) <i>has gone up to
Bajith</i> (or rather to the house or temple of Chemosh), <i>and
Dibon,</i> the inhabitants of Dibon, <i>have gone up to the high
places,</i> where they worshipped their idols, there to make their
complaints. Note, It becomes a people in distress to seek to their
God; and shall not we then thus <i>walk in the name of the Lord our
God,</i> and call upon him in the time of trouble, before whom we
shall not shed such useless profitless tears as they did before
their gods?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p7" shownumber="no">III. That there should be the voice of
universal grief all the country over. It is described here
elegantly and very affectingly. Moab shall be a vale of tears—a
little map of this world, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.2" parsed="|Isa|15|2|0|0" passage="Isa 15:2"><i>v.</i>
2</scripRef>. The Moabites shall lament the loss of Nebo and
Medeba, two considerable cities, which, it is likely, were
plundered and burnt. They shall tear their hair for grief to such a
degree that <i>on all their heads shall be baldness, and they shall
cut off their beards,</i> according to the customary expressions of
mourning in those times and countries. When they go abroad they
shall be so far from coveting to appear handsome that <i>in the
streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.3" parsed="|Isa|15|3|0|0" passage="Isa 15:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>), and perhaps being
forced to use that poor clothing, the enemy having stripped them,
and rifled their houses, and left them no other clothing. When they
come home, instead of applying themselves to their business, they
shall go up to <i>the tops of their houses</i> which were
flat-roofed, and there they shall <i>weep abundantly,</i> nay, they
shall <i>howl,</i> in crying to their gods. Those that <i>cry not
to God with their hearts</i> do but <i>howl upon their beds,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.7.14 Bible:Amos.8.3" parsed="|Hos|7|14|0|0;|Amos|8|3|0|0" passage="Ho 7:14,Am 8:3">Hos. vii. 14; Amos viii.
3</scripRef>. <i>They shall come down with weeping</i> (so the
margin reads it); they shall come down from their high places and
the tops of their houses weeping as much as they did when they went
up. Prayer to the true God is heart's ease (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.1.18" parsed="|1Sam|1|18|0|0" passage="1Sa 1:18">1 Sam. i. 18</scripRef>), but prayers to false gods are
not. Divers places are here named that should be full of
lamentation (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.4" parsed="|Isa|15|4|0|0" passage="Isa 15:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>),
and it is but a poor relief to have so many fellow-sufferers,
fellow-mourners; to a public spirit it is rather an aggravation
<i>socios habuisse doloris—to have associates in woe.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p8" shownumber="no">IV. That the courage of their militia
should fail them. Though they were bred soldiers, and were well
armed, yet they <i>shall cry out</i> and shriek for fear, and every
one of them shall have <i>his life become grievous to him,</i>
though it is characteristic of a military life to delight in
danger, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.4" parsed="|Isa|15|4|0|0" passage="Isa 15:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. See
how easily God can dispirit the stoutest of men, and deprive a
nation of benefit by those whom it most depended upon for strength
and defence. The Moabites shall generally be so overwhelmed with
grief that life itself shall be a burden to them. God can easily
make weary of life those that are fondest of it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p9" shownumber="no">V. That the outcry for these calamities
should propagate grief to all the adjacent parts, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.5" parsed="|Isa|15|5|0|0" passage="Isa 15:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. 1. The prophet himself
has very sensible impressions made upon his spirit by the
prediction of it: "<i>My heart shall cry out for Moab;</i> though
they are enemies to Israel, they are our fellow-creatures, of the
same rank with us, and therefore it should grieve us to see them in
such distress, the rather because we know not how soon it may be
our own turn to drink of the same cup of trembling." Note, It
becomes God's ministers to be of a tender spirit, not to desire the
woeful day, but to be like their master, who wept over Jerusalem
even when he gave her up to ruin, like their God, <i>who desires
not the death of sinners.</i> 2. All the neighbouring cities shall
echo to the lamentations of Moab. <i>The fugitives,</i> who are
making the best of their way to shift for their own safety, shall
carry the cry to <i>Zoar,</i> the city to which their ancestor Lot
fled for shelter from Sodom's flames and which was spared for his
sake. They shall make as great a noise with their cry <i>as a
heifer of three years old</i> does when she goes <i>lowing</i> for
her calf, as <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:1Sam.6.12" parsed="|1Sam|6|12|0|0" passage="1Sa 6:12">1 Sam. vi. 12</scripRef>.
They shall go up the hill of <i>Luhith</i> (as David went up the
ascent of Mount Olivet, many a weary step and all in tears,
<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.15.30" parsed="|2Sam|15|30|0|0" passage="2Sa 15:30">2 Sam. xv. 30</scripRef>), and <i>in
the way of Horonaim</i> (a dual termination), the way that leads to
the two Beth-horons, the upper and the nether, which we read of,
<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Josh.16.3 Bible:Josh.16.5" parsed="|Josh|16|3|0|0;|Josh|16|5|0|0" passage="Jos 16:3,5">Josh. xvi. 3, 5</scripRef>. Thither
the cry shall be carried, there it shall be raised, even at that
great distance: <i>A cry of destruction;</i> that shall be the cry,
like, "Fire, fire! we are all undone." Grief is catching, so is
fear, and justly, for trouble is spreading and when it begins who
knows where it will end?</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xvi-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.6-Isa.15.9" parsed="|Isa|15|6|15|9" passage="Isa 15:6-9" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xvi-p9.6">
<h4 id="Is.xvi-p9.7">The Burden of Moab. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xvi-p9.8">b. c.</span> 725.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xvi-p10" shownumber="no">6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate:
for the hay is withered away, the 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 to the brook of the
willows.   8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of
Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto
Beer-elim.   9 For 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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p11" shownumber="no">Here the prophet further describes the
woeful and piteous lamentations that should be heard throughout all
the country of Moab when it should become a prey to the Assyrian
army. "By this time <i>the cry has gone round about</i> all <i>the
borders of Moab,</i>" <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.8" parsed="|Isa|15|8|0|0" passage="Isa 15:8"><i>v.</i>
8</scripRef>. Every corner of the country has received the alarm,
and is in the utmost confusion upon it. It has reached to
<i>Eglaim,</i> a city at one end of the country, and to
<i>Beer-elim,</i> a city as far the other way. Where sin has been
general, and all flesh have corrupted their way, what can be
expected but a general desolation? Two things are here spoken of as
causes of this lamentation:—</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p12" shownumber="no">I. <i>The waters of Nimrim are desolate</i>
(<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.6" parsed="|Isa|15|6|0|0" passage="Isa 15:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), that is, the
country is plundered and impoverished, and all the wealth and
substance of it swept away by the victorious army. Famine is
usually the sad effect of war. Look into the fields that were well
watered, the fruitful meadows that yielded delightful prospects and
more delightful products, and there all is eaten up, or carried off
by the enemy's foragers, and the remainder trodden to dirt by their
horses. If an army encamp upon green fields, their greenness is
soon gone. Look into the houses, and they are stripped too
(<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.7" parsed="|Isa|15|7|0|0" passage="Isa 15:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>The
abundance</i> of wealth that <i>they had gotten</i> with a great
deal of art and industry, and <i>that which they had laid up</i>
with a great deal of care and confidence, <i>shall they carry away
to the brook of the willows.</i> Either the owners shall carry it
thither to hide it or the enemies shall carry it thither to pack it
up and send it home, by water perhaps, to their own country. Note,
1. Those that are eager to get abundance of this world, and
solicitous to lay up what they have gotten, little consider what
may become of it and in how short a time it may be all taken from
them. Great abundance, by tempting the robbers, exposes the owners;
and those who depend upon it to protect them often find it does but
betray them. 2. In times of distress great riches are often great
burdens, and do but increase the owner's care or the enemies'
strength. <i>Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator—The penniless
traveller will exult, when accosted by a robber, in having nothing
about him.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xvi-p13" shownumber="no">II. <i>The waters of Dimon are turned into
blood</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.15.9" parsed="|Isa|15|9|0|0" passage="Isa 15:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>),
that is, the inhabitants of the country are slain in great numbers,
so that the waters adjoining to the cities, whether rivers or
pools, are discoloured with human gore, inhumanly shed like water.
<i>Dimon</i> signifies <i>bloody;</i> the place shall answer to its
name. Perhaps it was that place in the country of Moab where the
waters seemed to the <i>Moabites as blood</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xvi-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.3.22-2Kgs.3.23" parsed="|2Kgs|3|22|3|23" passage="2Ki 3:22,23">2 Kings iii. 22, 23</scripRef>), which occasioned
their overthrow. But now, says God, <i>I will bring more upon
Dimon,</i> more blood than was shed, or thought to be seen, at that
time. <i>I will bring additions upon Dimon</i> (so the word is),
additional plagues; I have yet more judgments in reserve for them.
<i>For all this, God's anger is not turned away.</i> When he judges
he will overcome; and to the roll of curses shall be <i>added many
like words,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.36.32" parsed="|Jer|36|32|0|0" passage="Jer 36:32">Jer. xxxvi.
32</scripRef>. See here what is the <i>yet more evil</i> to be
brought upon Dimon, upon Moab, which is now to be made a land of
blood. Some flee, and make their escape, others sit still, and are
overlooked, and are as a remnant of the land; but upon both God
<i>will bring lions,</i> beasts of prey (which are reckoned one of
God's four judgments, <scripRef id="Is.xvi-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.14.21" parsed="|Ezek|14|21|0|0" passage="Eze 14:21">Ezek. xiv.
21</scripRef>), and these shall glean up those that have escaped
the sword of the enemy. Those that continue impenitent in sin, when
they are preserved from one judgment, are but reserved for
another.</p>
</div></div2>