This chapter Isaiah 16:1 is a continuance of the former, and the scope of it is, to give advice to the Moabites, and to threaten them with punishment in case, as the prophet foresaw, they should neglect or refuse to follow it. The advice was Isaiah 16:1, to send the customary tribute to the king of... [ Continue Reading ]
SEND YE THE LAMB - Lowth renders this, ‘I will send forth the son from the ruler of the land;’ meaning, as he supposes, that under the Assyrian invasion, even the young prince of Moab would be obliged to flee for his life through the desert, that he might escape to Judea; and “that” thus God says th... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT SHALL BE - It shall happen in the time of the calamity that shall come upon Moab. AS A WANDERING BIRD - (See Isaiah 10:14.) The same idea is presented in Proverbs 27:8 : As a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man that wandereth from his place. The idea here is that of a bird driven... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE COUNSEL - Hebrew, ‘Bring counsel;’ or cause it to come (הבאו _hâbı̂'ı̂û_, or as it is in the _keri_ הביאי). The Vulgate, renders this in the singular number, and so is the _keri_, and so many manuscripts J. D. Michaelis, Lowth, Etchhorn, Gesenius, and Noyes, regard Isaiah 16:3 as a supplicato... [ Continue Reading ]
LET MINE OUTCASTS - This may be understood as the language of Judea, or of God. ‘Mine outcasts’ may mean the exiles of Judea, or God may call them “his.” The sense is essentially the same. It denotes those who were fugitives, wanderers, exiles from the land of Judea, and who took refuge in the land... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN MERCY - In benignity; kindness; benevolence. SHALL THE THRONE BE ESTABLISHED - The throne of the king of Judah. That is, he that shall sit upon the throne of David shall be disposed to repay the kindness which is now sought at the hand of Moab, and shall be able to do it. AND HE SHALL SIT U... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HAVE HEARD OF THE PRIDE OF MOAB - We Jews; we have “all” heard of it; that is, we “know” that he is proud. The evident design of the prophet here is, to say that Moab was so proud, and was well known to be so haughty, that he would “reject” this counsel. He would neither send the usual tribute to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL MOAB HOWL FOR MOAB - One part of the nation shall mourn for another; they shall howl, or lament, in alternate responses. Jerome renders it, ‘the people (shall howl) to the city; the city to the provinces.’ The general idea is, that there would be an universal lamentation throughout t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE FIELDS OF HESHBON - (See the note at Isaiah 15:4.) LANGUISH - They are parched up with drought. The ‘fields’ here evidently mean “vineyards,” for so the parallelism demands. So in Deuteronomy 32:32 : Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah. AND THE VINE OF SIBMAH... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, I WILL BEWAIL - So great is the desolation that I, the prophet, will lament it, though it belongs to another nation than mine own. The expression indicates that the calamity will be great (see the note at Isaiah 15:5). WITH THE WEEPING OF JAZER - That is, I will pour out the same lamenta... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GLADNESS ... - The gladness and joy that was commonly felt in the field producing a rich and luxuriant harvest. OUT OF THE PLENTIFUL FIELD - Hebrew, ‘From Carmel;’ but Carmel means a fruitful field as well as the mountain of that name (see the note at Isaiah 10:18). I HAVE MADE THEIR VINTAGE S... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE MY BOWELS - This is also an expression of the deep grief of the prophet in view of the calamities which were coming upon Moab. The “bowels” in the Scriptures are everywhere represented as the seat of compassion, pity, commiseration, and tender mercy Genesis 43:30 : ‘His bowels did yearn up... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN IT IS SEEN - When it occurs; that is, when Moab actually “becomes” weary. IS WEARY ON THE HIGH PLACE - The “high place” denotes the place of idolatrous worship, and here means the same as the temple of Chemosh or his sanctuary. Temples and altars were usually constructed on such places, and esp... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS IS THE WORD - This is the substance of the “former” predictions respecting Moab. This has been the “general course” or sense of the prophecies respecting Moab, during all its history. SINCE THAT TIME - Formerly; from former times. There had been a course of predictions declaring in general that... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOW THE LORD HATH SPOKEN - This refers to the particular and specific prophecy of Isaiah that destruction should come upon them in three years. Instead of a “general but indefinite” prediction of calamity to the Moabites, such as had been uttered by the former prophets, or by Isaiah himself befo... [ Continue Reading ]