The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 16
Chapter XVI · Vol. III, pp. 1165–1166
1 The Moabite is exhorted to yield obedience to the throne of David. 6 He is threatened for his pride with lamentable judgments, and that within three years.
1 Send yea the lamb to the ruler1 of the land from 2Sela3 to the bwilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
a 2 Sa.8.2. 2 Ki.3.4, or Ezr.7.17,23.
1 Or, O ruler.
2 Or, Petra. Perhaps not that 2 Ki.14.7, but ch.42.11.
3 Heb. a rock. Send the tribute of flocks due to Hezekiah, or sacrifices to God's temple at Jerusalem, otherwise the ladies of Moab shall soon have to flee their country, or be driven captives from it.
b Jos.15.61. 2 Ki.25.5. 2 Sa.15.28; 17.16. ch.40.3. Mat.3.1.
2 For4 it shall be, that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest,5 so cthe daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
4 Or, otherwise.
5 Or, a nest forsaken, ch.27.10.
c Je.48.5,7,9. ch.13.14. Nu.21.13,14. Ps.109.10. Job 30.3.
3 Take6 counsel, dexecute judgment; emake thy shadow7 as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcast; bewray not him that wandereth.
6 Heb. bring.
7 Thy shadow of protection to the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.—C.
d Am.5.14,15,24. Ps.82.3,4. ch.1.19,20. Da.4.27. Je.22.3.
e ch.4.6; 25.4; 32.2. Ju.9.15. Jonah 4.5-8. He.13.1-3. Mat.25.35.
4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab: be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for gthe extortioner8 is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors9 are consumed out of the land.1
A.M. cir. 3278. B.C. cir. 726.
g ch.9.4; 10.16-19,24-34; 14.25; 29.7-9; 31.8,9; 30.31; 33.1; 37.36.
8 Heb. wringer.
9 Heb. the treaders down.
1 The extortioner. The Philistine, from whom, in time of famine, Israel had to seek bread. (See 1 Ki.8.2.)—The spoiler. The Assyrian who literally came down as a wolf on the fold.—The oppressor. The Babylonian who 'opened not the house of his prisoners,' ch.14.17, the worst of all oppressors, persecutor unto the death of the worshippers of the true God, Da.3.13-19.—C.
5 And hin mercy shall the throne be established;2 and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernaclei of David, judging and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.3
h 2 Ch.xxix.-xxxii. ch.32.1,2; 9.6,7. Da.7.14,27. 2 Sa.23.3. Mi.4.7; 5.5,6. Lu.1.32,33. Pr.20.28; 29.14. Ps.89.14. ch.11.3-5.
2 Or, prepared.
i Ps.72.2. 2 Sa.5.7,9; 7.16. Am.9.11, with Le.26.11. Re.21.3.
3 This is a prophecy not of Hezekiah, but of Christ; for to none else will the description apply.—C.
6 We have heard4 of the jpride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies5 shall not be so.6
4 We have heard. Who? In this verse the outcasts are the speakers; in ver. 7 the prophet resumes.—C.
j Je.48.11,14,26,27,29,42. Eze.25.8. Zep.2.8,10. Job 40.12. Ex.18.11. Pr.16.18.
5 Or, strength or divination, Je.49.30. ch.44.25; 28.15.
6 'But vain are his lies'—the lies of his false prophets, and foolish heart.—C.
7 Therefore shall Moab khowl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations7 of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn;8 surely they are stricken.
8 For lthe fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen9 have broken down the principal plants1 thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness; her branches are stretched out,2 they are gone over the sea.3
l ch.24.7; 33.9; ver.9.
9 Assyrians and Chaldeans, ch.10.7-14. Je.27.6,7.
1 Nobles, Je.32.7,9,12.
2 Or, plucked up.
3 See note * below.
* This passage and the parallel in Je. 48. 32, are rendered obscure by the reference to 'the sea.' Jeremiah says, 'Thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach to the Sea of Jazer.' What sea is here meant? Some say it was a noted pool or lake; but there is no lake in that district, and the word 'sea' would scarcely be applied to a mere pool. We learn from Nu. 32. 1 that the country round Heshbon and Jazer was called 'the land of Jazer.' That land must have extended to the shore of the Dead Sea. May not that sea therefore have been called by the inhabitants of the district 'the Sea of Jazer,' just as the northern lake was called Tiberias and Gennesaret?—P.
9 Thereforen I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting4 for thy summer fruits, and for thy harvest is fallen.
n Je.48.32, &c. ch.15.4.
4 Or the alarm, or destroyer is fallen upon, &c.
10 And ogladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
o Je.48.33. ch.24.8,9.
12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab qis weary on the high place, that rhe shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but she shall not prevail.
q ch.26.16; 15.2. Je.48.35. Nu.xxiii. 1 Ki.18.26.
r ch.37.38. Am.7.9,13. Je.22.23.
s 1 Ki.18.26-29. ch.47.12. Ps.115.3-7. Pr.1.28; 21.30.
Notes
Ver. 1. Send ye the lamb—your acknowledgments of tribute to the king, see 2 Ki. 3. 4, and so, either by repentance avert the threatened judgment, or secure a home and protection against the day of national calamity. The main object of this prophecy is to exhort Moab to look for and submit to Messiah the ruler on his appearing. See ver. 5. C.——Sela. Sela is unquestionably the celebrated city Petra, afterwards the capital of Edom. It is situated in a deep and wild ravine, or rather cluster of ravines, in the midst of a mountain-range of red sandstone. Its rock-hewn temples, tombs, and palaces are still the wonder and admiration of travellers. Sela was not in Moab; but it seems probable that on the occasion the prophet here refers to the fugitive Moabites had taken refuge in the ravines of Edom, and they are exhorted to send from thence their tribute, and the tokens of their submission. The words rendered 'from Sela to the wilderness' may either signify, as they are translated in the Vulgate, 'from Sela of the wilderness,' or, as interpreted by Vitringa, 'from Sela towards the wilderness to,' &c.; that is, from Sela towards the wilderness that leads to Jerusalem. The great wilderness (in Hebrew Midbar, which is the word here used) of Judah lay between the border of Edom and Jerusalem, and through it lay the direct and indeed the only road. P.
Ver. 9. To 'weep with those that weep' is a distinguished Christian duty, not only of perpetual obligation, but for the discharge of which the world affords continual opportunities. Our Lord wept over Jerusalem, leaving us an example of the sympathy with which we should regard, not only our friends, but our enemies, in their sorrows. C.
Ver. 13. That time. What time? When it was seen that he had become 'weary of his idolatry on his high places,' ver. 12, and had come to his sanctuary, not in the piety of faith, humiliation, and penitence—but in the superstitious throes of despair, to offer his unacceptable, because his compelled, petitions. C.
Reflections.—How unwilling is God that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance! Injustice towards God or men is a ready mean for depriving us of all we have. Never do any protect or cherish the people of God in their distress but he remarkably rewards them in kind.—Nor is it ever wise to stand aloof from them; for though they fall, they shall quickly arise: though now they wither, anon they shall flourish in glory and honour. When sin abounds, rage against the church flames, and pride towers, destruction and anguish are at the door; and carnal mirth shall quickly be turned into weeping and wailing. And when God rises up to punish the guilty, no idol can help, avert, or defer his stroke.