Isaiahchapter 15
9 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night!
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
This is the first half of Isaiah's word against Moab, the nation on the high plateau east of the Dead Sea. Moab was Judah's neighbor, trading partner and old enemy, and through Ruth it stood in David's own family line. The chapter is a lament, built as a list of real towns and the waters that kept them alive. Listen for the voice of the prophet himself, who grieves for a people his hearers had every reason to dislike. A reader with a map of Moab open can follow it town by town.
Context
- Who
- Judeans who had traded with Moab, fought Moab, and descended from a Moabite great-grandmother
- What
- A lament over the sudden ruin of Moab, traced through its towns, its shrines and its streams.
- Where
- The Moabite tableland east of the Dead Sea, from Ar and Kir in the north to Zoar at its southern end.
- When
- Most likely between about 715 and 701 BC, in the years of Assyrian pressure on the whole region.
- Why
- To show Judah that the God who judges the nations grieves over the ruin He announces, even the ruin of an enemy.
Historical context
Moab sat on a high tableland east of the Dead Sea, cut in half by the deep gorge of the Arnon and dropping steeply to the west. It was sheep country and grain country, prosperous in a plain way. The towns Isaiah names, Ar, Kir, Dibon, Nebo, Medeba, Heshbon, Elealeh, Jahaz, Zoar, Horonaim, Eglaim, Beer-elim, were real places on that plateau. Several appear on the Moabite Stone, a victory slab set up by King Mesha of Moab around 840 BC and found at Dibon, which names the same towns and credits Moab's god Chemosh with its victories.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The mourning is described exactly as the region practiced it. Heads shaved bald, beards cut off, sackcloth worn in the streets and on the flat roofs where families slept and gathered, and wailing done out loud in the open squares. Men went up to the local shrine on the height to weep. None of that is metaphor; it is a funeral, filmed.
The waters are named because water is the plateau's life. The brook of the willows, the springs of Dimon, the waters of Nimrim, Isaiah says the grass is withered, the greenery gone, and what people can carry away they haul over the ravine of the willows. Refugees leaving a dry highland carried their savings and crossed the wadis south toward Edom.
The chapter is unusual among oracles because of its tone. The prophet says his own heart cries out for Moab, and its fugitives flee as far as Zoar, at the southern tip of the Dead Sea, and the cry goes round the whole border of the country. In one night, the phrase is repeated, Ar is laid waste, and Kir.
Significance
Judeans had every reason to enjoy this. Moab had been a raiding neighbor for centuries. Instead they heard their own prophet weeping over Moabite towns.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
That was the lesson underneath the news. The God who judges the nations is not a tribal deity cheering for one side; he grieves the ruin he announces.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Isaiah 15, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 22 of Isaiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 6, 7 and 9.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah, translated by M. Friedlander in 1873, which Sefaria reports as Public Domain.
Rashi reads the oracle against Moab as a prophecy that "Sennacherib would come upon Moab and exile them" (Rashi on Isaiah 15:1:1). The weeping of the second verse is the weeping of Moab in its temple and on its high places (Rashi on Isaiah 15:2:2).
At the fifth verse the prophet's heart cries out for Moab, and Rashi sets that grief against Balaam: "The Jewish prophets are not like the gentile prophets. Balaam sought to uproot Israel for no reason" (Rashi on Isaiah 15:5:1). The note reads the tears of Israel's prophet over an enemy nation as the mark of a true prophet.
The waters of Dimon are "filled with blood", and Rashi hears the river's name in the Hebrew word for blood (Rashi on Isaiah 15:9:2). Ibn Ezra's notes on the chapter are mostly grammar, such as the construct form of "the night of" in the first verse (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 15:1:1).
The corpus carries one note on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. The note of Radak at 15:4:1 stands cited and unquoted because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 13 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 3 in the Talmud and 10 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 41:3, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 51 and Eikhah Rabbah 1:38. It also holds Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 1:10:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 70:1. On verse 2 it holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introductions to Tractates of the Mishnah, Kelim 252. On verse 3 it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 21:1. On verse 4 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 10:1. On verse 7 it holds Pesachim 68a:10 and Pesachim 68a:11.
On verse 8 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 957:1. On verse 9 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:1.
The corpus file also carries one locator anchored to a verse this chapter does not have, and it is left out of the list above. Pesikta Rabbati 12:1 is anchored at Isaiah 15:14. The chapter has 9 verses in the Berean Standard Bible as the store holds it.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 15:1:1 to 15:4:1, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 15:1:1 to 15:9:2, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Isaiah 15:4:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/15.json, the 13 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Isaiah 15: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Moab Laid Waste in a Single Night
Isaiah 15:1-3
Ar in Moab is ruined: The Moab burden opens with two capitals, Ar and Kir, each "destroyed in a night," struck by surprise instead of a siege. Dibon goes up to weep at its high places, the shrines of Moab's god Chemosh. Shaved heads, cut beards and sackcloth are the Near Eastern gestures of mourning.
Isaiah 15:1
“The burden of Moab - (see the note at Isa 13:1). This is the title of the prophecy. The Chaldee renders this, ‘The burden of the cup of malediction which is to come upon Moab.’ Because in the night - The fact that this was to be done in the night denotes the suddenness with which the calamity would come upon them. Thus the expression is used in Job to denote the suddenness and surprise with which calamities come: Terrors take hold on him as waters, A tempest stealeth him away in the night.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 15:1
“The burden - A prophecy of the destruction of the Moabites, the inveterate enemies of the Jews, begun by the Assyrian, and finished by the Babylonian emperors.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 15:1
“Same town as Dimon (Isa 15:9). to weep--at the sudden calamity. over Nebo--rather "in Nebo"; not "on account of" Nebo (compare Isa 15:3) [MAURER]. The town Nebo was adjacent to the mountain, not far from the northern shore of the Dead Sea. There it was that Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped (compare De 34:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Dibon goes up to its temple: Clarke rendered the Hebrew as the house, Moab's chief temple, which the Berean also reads. Nebo and Medeba lay in land once given to Reuben. Wesley reads the weeping on the high places as prayer with tears to idols for help.
Isaiah 15:2
“To weep - To offer their supplications with tears to their idols for help. Medeba - Two considerable cities, anciently belonging to the Moabites. Beard - The hair of their heads and beards was shaved, as was usual in great mournings.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 15:2
“He is gone to Bajith, and to Dibon - עלה הבית alah habbayith, should be rendered, he is gone to the House, i.e., to their chief temple, where they practiced idolatry. Dibon was the name of a tower where also was an idolatrous temple; thither they went to weep and pray before their idols, that they might interpose and save them from their calamities. So R. D. Kimchi.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
In its streets they wear sackcloth: Gill notes that proud Moab trades fine clothes for sackcloth in its streets, and points to Moab's pride in 16:6. The rooftops were flat places of prayer. Falling down weeping is rendered by some as melting away in tears.
Isaiah 15:3
“In their streets - Publicly. Everywhere there shall be lamentation and grief. Some shall go into the streets, and some on the tops of the houses. They shall gird themselves with sackcloth - The common token of mourning; and also worn usually in times of humiliation and fasting. It was one of the outward acts by which they expressed deep sorrow (Gen 37:34; 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; 2Ki 19:1; Job 16:15; the note at Isa 3:24).”
Isaiah 15:4-6
Heshbon and Elealeh cry out: At verse 5 the voice of the oracle turns, "My heart cries out over Moab," the prophet or the LORD grieving the judgment being pronounced. Jeremiah 48 borrows this language nearly word for word, a rare case in the prophets of judgment and grief spoken together.
Isaiah 15:4
“Jahaz--east of Jordan, in Reuben. Near it Moses defeated Sihon. therefore--because of the sudden overthrow of their cities. Even the armed men, instead of fighting in defense of their land, shall join in the general cry. life, &c.--rather, "his soul is grieved" (1Sa 1:8) [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 15:4
“The armed soldiers “The very loins” - So the Septuagint, ἡ οσφυς, and the Syriac. They cry out violently, with their utmost force.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Fugitives to Zoar and the Waters Full of Blood
My heart cries out over Moab: Jerome gives two reasons why the heart cries out over Moab: Moab is God's creature, and its destruction would move even an enemy to weeping. The Septuagint reads his heart, as Clarke records. Zoar lay at the far south of the Dead Sea, where the fugitives flee.
Isaiah 15:5
“Ministers, in denouncing the wrath of God against sinners, should do it with tender sorrow, not with exultation. fugitives--fleeing from Moab, wander as far as to Zoar, on the extreme boundary south of the Dead Sea. HORSLEY translates, "her nobility," or "rulers" (Ho 4:18). heifer, &c.--that is, raising their voices "like a heifer" (compare Jer 48:34, 36).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 15:5
“My heart shall cry out for Moab - This is expressive of deep compassion; and is proof that, in the view of the prophet, the calamities which were coming upon it were exceedingly heavy. The same sentiment is expressed more fully in Isa 16:11; see also Jer 48:36: ‘My heart shall sound for Moab like pipes.’ The phrase denotes great inward pain and anguish in view of the calamities of others; and is an expression of the fact that we feel ourselves oppressed and borne down by sympathy on account of their sufferings (see the note at Isa 21:3).”
The waters of Nimrim are dried up: The name Nimrim carries the sense of clear waters, and those waters dried up drive the fugitives of Moab south. Israel's army stopped the springs of Moab once before, in 2 Kings 3:25. Henry adds that famine follows war once the vegetation is gone.
Isaiah 15:6
“For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate,.... Or dried up, through a great drought that should come upon the land at this time; or being defiled with the blood of the slain, as Jarchi: it may denote the well watered pastures about Nimrim, that should become the forage of the enemy, and be trodden under foot by its army, or be forsaken by the proprietors of them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 15:6
“For the waters of Nimrim - It is supposed by some that the prophet here states the cause why the Moabites would flee to the cities of the south, to wit, that the “waters” of the northern cities would fail, and the country become desolate, and that they would seek support in the south. But it is more probable that he is simply continuing the description of the desolation that would come upon Moab. Nimrah, or Beth Nimra, meaning a “house of limpid waters,” was a city of Reuben east of the Dead Sea (Num 32:3; compare Jer 48:34).”
Isaiah 15:6
“For--the cause of their flight southwards (2Ki 3:19, 25). "For" the northern regions and even the city Nimrim (the very name of which means "limpid waters," in Gilead near Jordan) are without water or herbage.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 15:7-9
So they carry their wealth: Refugees carry their wealth over the Brook of the Willows, traditionally placed at the boundary stream between Moab and Edom, the edge of escape. The waters of Dimon are full of blood, and the philological commentators note the wordplay between Dimon and the Hebrew word for blood.
Isaiah 15:7
“Therefore, the abundance they have gotten - Their wealth they shall remove from a place that is utterly burned up with drought, where the waters and the grass fail, to another place where they may find water. To the brook of willows - Margin, ‘The valley of the Arabians.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘I will lead them to the valley of the Arabians, and they shall take it.’ So Saadias. It might, perhaps, be called the valley of the Arabians, because it was the boundary line between them and Arabia on the south.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 15:7
“Therefore--because of the devastation of the land. abundance--literally, "that which is over and above" the necessaries of life. brook of . . . willows--The fugitives flee from Nimrim, where the waters have failed, to places better watered. Margin has "valley of Arabians"; that is, to the valley on the boundary between them and Arabia-Petræa; now Wady-el Arabah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab: Aquinas hears two voices in the outcry, Moab weeping and the Chaldean soldiers who came on it. Jerome renders Beer-elim as the spring of the mighty ones. Henry draws the lesson that sin spread through the whole land brings destruction to the whole land.
Isaiah 15:8
“For the cry is gone round about ... - The cry of distress and calamity has encompassed the whole land of Moab. There is no part of the land which is not filled with lamentation and distress. The howling - The voice of wailing on account of the distress. Unto Eglaim - This was a city of Moab east of the Dead Sea, which, Eusebius says, was eight miles south of Ar, and hence, says Rosenmuller, it was not far from the south border of Moab. It is mentioned by Josephus (“Ant.” xiv.”
The waters of Dimon are full of blood: Dimon is most likely the Dibon of verse 2, and Barnes cites Jerome that m and b often change places in these dialects. Its waters are the Arnon. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare the lions of 2 Kings 17:25, sent by the LORD on a land already emptied.
Isaiah 15:9
“For the waters of Dimon - Probably the same as “Dibon” Isa 15:2. Eusobius says it was a large town on the northern bank of the river Arnon. Jerome says that the letters “m and b” are often interchanged in oriental dialects (see the note at Isa 15:2). Shall be full of blood - That is, the number of the slain of Moab shall be so great, that the blood shall color the waters of the river - a very common occurrence in times of great slaughter.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 15:9
“For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood,.... Of the slain, as the Targum adds.”
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.