Isaiah 15

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 15:2-4

The Moabites would express great grief over their national defeat. Dibon was the site of a temple to the Moabite god Chemosh. Many of the people would go there to bewail Chemosh’s inability to save them. They would also mourn the loss of the towns of Nebo and Medeba in typical Near Eastern fashion. The residents of Heshbon and Elealeh in the north of Moab would be heard wailing in Jahaz to the south because the noise would be so great. Even soldiers would cry aloud in fear. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 15:5-9

The Lord also expressed His grief over Moab’s coming judgment through the prophet (cf. Isaiah 21:3-4; Isaiah 22:4; Jeremiah 9:1). Isaiah took up God’s words in his own mouth and represented God’s thoughts and words by using the first person singular (cf. Isaiah 16:9). The Moabite refugees would move from place to place trying to find security. Their movement would be generally south, so the enemy may have descended from the north. The whole country would suffer devastation. Even though people... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 15:1-9

1. Burden] see on Isaiah 13:1. Because.. night] RV ’For in a night.’ Ar of Moab] i.e. city of Moab. The capital (Numbers 22:36; Joshua 13:16) is doubtless meant. The places referred to in the chapter are in Moabite territory. Silence] RV ’nought.’ Kir] probably Kerak, a fortress on the Dead Sea. 2. He is gone, etc.] i.e. the Moabite people. Bajith] ’the house,’ i.e. the temple of the Moabite deity, Chemosh. Dibon] here the Moabite Stone, with inscription by king Mesha (2 Kings 3:4), was found... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 15:1-14

Moab’s Calamity and the Way of EscapeThis section consists of two parts: (a) Isaiah 15:1;—Isaiah 16:12, a prophecy announcing that a great disaster is about to fall upon Moab, and (b) Isaiah 16:13-14, a short appendix in which Isaiah affirms the speedy fulfilment of the foregoing prophecy. The first part is not necessarily by Isaiah, and may have been uttered earlier than his time; much of it is also quoted by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 48:1-47). Cp. Isaiah 2:2-4, where there is reason to suppose that... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:1

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 be gathered from what we can learn of the contemporary history of Moab and its relation to Israel. This... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:2

(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 noted, found at Dibân, which stands on two hills, and represents the ancient city of that name. What the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:3

(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. read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:4

(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). It had probably fallen into the hands of the Moabites, to whom it had originally belonged (Numbers... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:5

(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; Jeremiah 1:11). The English “fugitives” answers to the marginal reading of the Hebrew, the text of which... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:6

(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-Nimrah appears as the name of a town in Numbers 32:36). The desolation predicted was probably thought of as caused... read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 15:2-4

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 15:5-9

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 15:1-9

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 15:1-14

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:1

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:2

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:3

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:4

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:5

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 15:6

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