CHAPTER 15 JUDGMENT ON MOAB. Isaiah's next burden is that the Assyrians will advance on Moab as an easy target (‘within three years' - see Isaiah 16:14). Their cities will rapidly be defeated one by one, and laid waste, and the whole nation will weep in anguish. Chapter 15 is a vivid picture of a w... [ Continue Reading ]
‘The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, It is brought to nought. For in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste. It is brought to nought. He is gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, To the high places to weep. Moab howls over Nebo, And over Medeba. On all their heads is baldness,... [ Continue Reading ]
‘In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth. On their housetops and in their broad places, Everyone howls, Weeping abundantly (literally ‘going down in weeping'). And Heshbon cries out, and Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud, His s... [ Continue Reading ]
‘My heart cries out for Moab, her nobles flee to Zoar, To Eglath-Shelishiyah, For by the ascent of Luhith they go up with weeping, For in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.' Panic has seized the whole of Moab. The nobles flee to the Dead Sea area, to Zoar, and to Eglath-Shel... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate, For the grass is withered away, The tender grass fails, There is no green thing.' Nimrim is possibly the Wadi Numeirah, which flows into the Dead Sea near its southern end, a dry river bed which floods in the rainy season. But there is no water now at... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Therefore such wealth as they have accumulated, And that which they have laid up, They will carry away, To the Brook of the Willows.' Their only hope is escape across the border. This is the sad sight of a stream of refugees carrying all their earthly possessions as they stumble on their way to... [ Continue Reading ]
‘For the cry is gone round the borders of Moab, Its howling to Eglaim, and its howling to Beer-elim. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood, For I will bring yet more on Dimon, A lion on him who escapes of Moab, And on the remnant of the land.' The whole of the border area with its differen... [ Continue Reading ]