King James Version
Isaiah 15
9 verses with commentary
Prophecy Against Moab
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; brought: or, cut off
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence.</strong> The Hebrew word <em>massa</em> (burden/oracle) introduces divine judgment pronouncements. Moab, descended from Lot's incestuous union (Genesis 19:30-37), maintained a complex relationship with Israel—sometimes ally, ofte...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
XV.
(1) **The burden of Moab.**—The oracle which fills the next two chapters deals with the coming history of Moab. The comparative obscurity of that history, the names of towns and villages which it is difficult to identify, present a striking contrast to the evolution of the great world-drama which is brought before us in the “burden” of Babylon. What light can be thrown on that obscurity must b...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-31. These verses provide two classes of apt illustrations of various aspects of the moral world, which the reader is left to apply. By the first (Pr 30:25-28), diligence and providence are commended; the success of these insignificant animals being due to their instinctive sagacity and activity, rather than strength. The other class (Pr 30:30, 31) provides similes for whatever is majestic or co...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →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 shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
The cascade of place-names (Bajith, Dibon, Nebo, Medeba) traces Moab's grief from temple to high places to cities. "Going up" to weep suggests both geographical movement to elevated worship sites and spiritual seeking in crisis—yet Moab seeks help at idolatrous shrines, not from the true God. The shaving of heads and cutting off of beards represents extreme mourning in Ancient Near Eastern culture...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **He is gone up to Bajith . . .**—The noun is better taken not as a proper name, but as “the house” or “temple” of the Moabite god. In this and in the “high places” (*Bamôth*) we may probably recognise the Bamoth-baal (high places of Baal) which appears in Joshua 13:17, side by side with Dibon, and the Beth-Bamoth of the Moabite stone (*Records of the Past, xi.* 167). That stone was, it may be...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-31. These verses provide two classes of apt illustrations of various aspects of the moral world, which the reader is left to apply. By the first (Pr 30:25-28), diligence and providence are commended; the success of these insignificant animals being due to their instinctive sagacity and activity, rather than strength. The other class (Pr 30:30, 31) provides similes for whatever is majestic or co...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →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. weeping: Heb. descending into weeping, or, coming down with weeping
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
The image of entire cities girding themselves with sackcloth depicts corporate mourning. Streets, housetops, and public squares become theaters of lamentation—no private corners exist for this grief. The phrase "weeping abundantly" (Hebrew <em>yered bedeki</em>, "descending in weeping") suggests tears flowing like water, overwhelming sorrow. This universal mourning contrasts with Moab's former pri...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **In their streets . . .**—The picture of lamentation is continued. The flat roofs of Eastern houses were a natural resort for such wailings (Isaiah 22:1). The “broad places,” the *bazaars *or *market-places, *were also, like the *agora *of Greek cities, a natural place of concourse. The prophet represents them as filled with the sound of wailing.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
32. As none can hope, successfully, to resist such a king, suppress even the thought of an attempt.
**lay ... hand upon thy mouth--**"lay" is well supplied (Jud 18:19; Job 29:9; 40:4).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
Heshbon and Elealeh's cry reaching to Jahaz (about 20 miles) indicates either extraordinarily loud lamentation or the spread of calamity across the region. The armed soldiers crying aloud reverses expected military bravado—warriors reduced to weeping reveals total devastation. The phrase "his life shall be grievous unto him" (literally "his soul trembles within him") describes existential anguish,...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh . . .**—Of the places thus named (1) Heshbon (now *Heshan*) was twenty miles east of the Jordan, on a line from the northern extremity of the Dead Sea. It is first mentioned as in the power of Sihon king of the Amorites (Numbers 21:26). On his overthrow it was assigned to the tribe of Reuben (Numbers 32:37), and became a city of the Levites (Joshua 21:39). ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**33. That is, strife--**or other ills, as surely arise from devising evil as natural effects from natural causes.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an 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. his: or, to the borders thereof, even to Zoar, as an heifer destruction: Heb. breaking
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
Isaiah's "heart shall cry out for Moab" demonstrates the prophet's compassion despite being Israel's enemy. This reflects God's own heart—taking no pleasure in judgment (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11) yet remaining committed to justice. The refugees fleeing to Zoar (south of the Dead Sea, spared in Sodom's destruction, Genesis 19:22-23) seek any refuge from advancing armies. The vivid image of fugitive...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **My heart shall cry out for Moab . . .**—The prophet, though a stranger to Moab, and belonging to a hostile people, is touched with pity at the sight—the fugitives fleeing before the army coming from the north to Zoar, at the extreme south of the Dead Sea (see Note on Genesis 19:22), in the wild scare as of a frightened heifer as yet untamed by the yoke (Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 48:34; Jeremi...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. desolate: Heb. desolations
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
The drying up of waters symbolizes life, prosperity, and hope draining away. Nimrim ("clear waters") becoming desolate and the grass withering represent agricultural devastation—the economic foundation destroyed. Ancient warfare targeted water sources and crops to create famine and force surrender. The comprehensive destruction ("no green thing") indicates total judgment, not partial chastisement....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **The waters of Nimrim . . .**—These also appear in Jeremiah 48:34. They were probably a reservoir from which the fields were irrigated so as to be conspicuous for their verdure Eusebius (*Onomast.*) places it north of Zoar. The name appears to survive in the *Wady en Nemeirah *on the south-eastern shore of the Dead Sea (De Saulcy, *Voyage, *i. 284; Tristram, *Land of Israel, *340). Beth-Nimra...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 31
Pr 31:1-31.
1. On the title of this, the sixth part of the book, see Introduction.
**prophecy--**(See on Pr 30:1).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. brook: or, valley of the Arabians
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
Refugees carrying remaining possessions "to the brook of the willows" (likely the Zered valley marking Moab's southern border) depicts desperate flight with whatever can be salvaged. The phrase "the abundance they have gotten" (Hebrew <em>yitrah</em>, surplus/remainder) suggests not wealth but survival supplies—what little remains after devastation. Crossing the border represents losing homeland, ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **Therefore the abundance . . .**—The picture of the flight is completed. The fugitives carry with them all that they can collect together of their household goods, and bear them in their flight.
**To the brook of the willows.**—This, which has been variously translated as (1) “the torrent of the poplars,” or (2) “the Arabians,” or (3) “of the wilderness,” was probably the *Wady el Achsar, *wh...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. What, my son?--**that is, What shall I say? Repetitions denote earnestness.
**son of my womb--**as our phrase, "my own son," a term of special affection.
**son of my vows--**as one dedicated to God; so the word "Lemuel" may mean.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
View commentary (4 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
The cry encompassing Moab's entire borders ("Eglaim" and "Beer-elim" marking extremities) indicates universal devastation—no corner spared. The amplification of mourning "unto" these distant points suggests news spreading or grief resonating throughout the land. This comprehensive judgment demonstrates that God's decrees affect entire nations, not just individuals. The geographic specificity roots...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **The cry is gone round about . . .**—The extent of the lamentation is emphasised by naming its farthest points. It reaches (1) Eglaim (“two pools”), probably the same as the En-Eglaim of Ezekiel 47:10, as near the Dead Sea. Eusebius (*Onomast.*) names it as eight miles south of Areopolis or Rabbath Moab. Josephus mentions a town Agalla as near Zoar (*Ant. *xii. 1, 4); (2) Beer-Elim (“the well...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
3-9. Succinct but solemn warnings against vices to which kings are peculiarly tempted, as carnal pleasures and oppressive and unrighteous government are used to sustain sensual indulgence.
**strength--**mental and bodily resources for health and comfort.
**thy ways--**or course of life.
**to that ... kings--**literally, "to the destroying of kings," avoid destructive pleasures (compare Pr 5:...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →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. more: Heb. additions
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
Divine judgment intensifies—"I will bring more upon Dimon" indicates escalating rather than diminishing consequences. The wordplay between "Dimon" and "dam" (blood) creates ominous atmosphere. Lions attacking both survivors ("him that escapeth") and remnant ("remaineth in the land") depicts comprehensive destruction—neither flight nor staying provides safety. This vivid image illustrates that atte...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
3-9. Succinct but solemn warnings against vices to which kings are peculiarly tempted, as carnal pleasures and oppressive and unrighteous government are used to sustain sensual indulgence.
**strength--**mental and bodily resources for health and comfort.
**thy ways--**or course of life.
**to that ... kings--**literally, "to the destroying of kings," avoid destructive pleasures (compare Pr 5:...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 15
The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites.
This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, Is. 15:1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. Is. 15:2. The Moabites woul...
Read full commentary →