Isaiah 16:11

Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh. MY BOWELS - in Scripture the seat of yearning compassion. It means the inward seat of emotion, the heart, etc. (: cf. ; .) SHALL SOUND LIKE AN HARP - as its strings vibrate when beaten with the plectrum or hand....

11._Therefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab. _Assuming the character of a Moabite, the Prophet again describes excessive lamentation, proceeding from grief so intense that even the bowels make a distressing noise; for by the sign he intended to point out the reality. We have formerly explained the object of those lively descriptions, which is, to bring the events, as it were, before our eyes, and to lead us to entertain stronger hopes of those things which appear to go beyond all belief. By again naming _Kir-Hareseth_, the chief city, and thus taking a part for the whole, he describes the destruction of the whole country....

6-14 Those who will not be counselled, cannot be helped. More souls are ruined by pride than by any other sin whatever. Also, the very proud are commonly very passionate. With lies many seek to gain the gratification of pride and passion, but they shall not compass proud and angry projects. Moab was famous for fields and vineyards; but they shall be laid waste by the invading army. God can soon turn laughter into mourning, and joy into heaviness. In God let us always rejoice with holy triumph; in earthly things let us always rejoice with holy trembling. The prophet looks with concern on the desolations of such a pleasant country; it causes inward grief. The false gods of Moab are unable to help; and the God of Israel, the only true God, can and will make good what he has spoken. Let Moab know her ruin is very near, and prepare. The most awful declarations of Divine wrath, discover the w...

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 upon his brother’ - he deeply felt for him, he greatly pitied him 1 Kings 3:26; Psalms 25:6; Proverbs 12:10; Song of Solomon 5:4; Isaiah

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 16:1 THE BURDEN OF MOAB (CONTINUED). This portion of the "burden" is divided into three sections. In section 1 (from Isaiah 16:1 to the end of Isaiah 16:5) an offer of mercy is made to Moab on certain conditions, viz. that she return to her allegiance to the house of David, and show kindness to fugitive Israelites. In section 2 (Isaiah 16:6) she is supposed to have rejected this offer, and is threatened (as in Isaiah 15:1

WHEREFORE MY BOWELS SHALL SOUND LIKE A HARP FOR MOAB,.... Making a noise as the harp does, and a mournful one as that, when used at funerals; which it makes when it is stricken or played on with the hand, as these were, through the afflictive and punitive hand of God; and which, when stricken, causes a quavering of the strings, to which the inward trembling of the bowels is compared, and is very expressive of the prophet's sympathy, or those he personates; for, when one string of the harp is touched, the rest sound. For these words, as Kimchi says, are spoken in the language of the Moabites; those that survived lamenting the desolate state of their country, which must be very great and affecting; and to show that it was so is the design of the prophet's expressing himself after this manner; for if it was painful to him, it must be much more so to them; so the Targum, "wherefore the bowe...

CHAPTER 16 The Burden of Moab Continued 1. _God's call to Moab to repent (Isaiah 16:1)_ 2. _Moab's pride and judgment (Isaiah 16:6)_ The fifteenth and sixteenth Chapter s form one prophecy. Moab's land bordered on the land of Israel. The historical facts concerning Moab may be studied and followed through the following passages: 1 Samuel 14:47; 2Sa 8:2; 2 Kings 1:11; 2 Kings 3:4; 2Ch 20:1-37; 2 Kings 8:20 ;

The Moabites now in Sela, a city of Edom (2 Kings 14:7 *; _cf._ Judges 1:36, _mg.*),_ exhort each other to send the tribute of lambs once paid to Israel (2 Kings 3:4) to Jerusalem to secure her protection and shelter, since Edom was under the suzerainty of Judah. Judah can protect the Moabites, for it is under a righteous government. But the prayer is rejected, for the arrogance of Moab (Isaiah 25:11) is such that its flattery of Judah must be insincere. So Moab must mourn still more, lamenting for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth (in Isaiah 16:11 Kir-heres, p

SOUND. make. plaintive sound. Note the Figure of speech _Paronomasia_. Hebrew v'kirbi Kir. KIR-HARESH. See note on Isaiah 15:1....

The poet gives vent to his sympathy for Moab. These verses are amongst the most beautiful in the poem....