Isaiah 15:3 Komentář

This chapter, and that which follows it, are the burden of Moab - a prophecy of some great desolation that was coming upon that country, which bordered upon this land of Israel, and had often been injurious and vexatious to it, though the Moabites were descended from Lot, Abraham's kinsman and companion, and though the Israelites, by the appointment of God, had spared them when they might both easily and justly have cut them off with their neighbours. In this chapter we have, I. Great lamentation made by the Moabites, and by the prophet himself for them (Isa 15:1-5). II. The great calamities which should occasion that lamentation and justify it (Isa 15:6-9).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 15 This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of the Moabites; two of their principal cities are mentioned as made desolate, Isa 15:1 the inhabitants in divers places are represented as weeping and mourning, and showing various signs of it, Isa 15:2 yea, not only the common people, but the armed soldiers also, Isa 15:4 nay, even the prophet himself, Isa 15:5 the reasons of which were the great drought, so that there were no grass, nor green thing, Isa 15:6 the carrying away of their good things, either by themselves or others, Isa 15:7 the flight and cry of the people to the very borders of the land, Isa 15:8 and the great effusion of blood, Isa 15:9.

In their streets they shall girt themselves with sackcloth,.... Instead of their fine clothes, with which they had used to deck themselves, being a very proud people; see Isa 16:6 this was usual in times of distress on any account, as well as a token of mourning for the dead; see Joe 1:8. The word for "streets" might be rendered "villages", as distinct from cities, that were "without" the walls of the cities, though adjacent to them; and the rather, seeing mention is made of streets afterwards: on the tops of their houses; which were made flat, as the houses of the Jews were, on which were battlements, Deu 22:8 hither they went for safety from their enemies, or to see if they could spy the enemy, or any that could assist them, and deliver them; or rather, hither they went for devotion, to pray to their gods for help; for here it was usual to have altars erected, to burn incense on to their deities; see Kg2 23:12 and in such places the people of God were wont to pray, Act 10:9, and in their streets; publicly, as well as privately, where they ran up and down to get from the enemy, and save themselves: everyone shall howl, weeping abundantly: or, "descending with weeping": the tears running down his cheeks in great abundance, so that his whole body was as it were watered with them; or the meaning may be, that everyone that went up to the temples of the idols, and to the high places, Isa 15:2 or to the roofs of the houses, as here, to pray the assistance of their gods, should come down weeping and howling, having no success.

(Version 3.) In the crossroads of it, they are girded with sacks; over its roofs, and in its streets, all wailing will descend into weeping. Private tears will not exist, public mourning will echo with public laments; neither married women, nor young maidens, nor the small age of children, nor the faltering steps of the elderly will be held back in their houses, extreme captivity will not know shame and weakness.

(Verse 3) In their crossroads, that is, the byways of errors, while each one fabricates according to his own will, he is equipped with the sack of penance, and over the roofs and tamed places, in which they first believed themselves to be lofty; and in the streets (because they do not enter by the narrow way, which leads to life, but by the broad way, which leads to death) there will be wailing. And they shall by no means ascend into pride, but descend into weeping.

Indeed, it is not inappropriate that the author of the abyss, the devil, should be identified with the abyss, as he is also called death, being the head of death: “Where, O death, is your sting?” And the voice of death or the abyss groans with pain, since he sees that the power to prey upon the people he possessed from the beginning is being taken away. But if, perchance, you have little faith in my own words, we can produce the testimony of Isaiah: “Shall the prey be taken from the strong, or will the captive be rescued from the mighty? But thus says the Lord: ‘The captives will indeed be taken away from the strong, and what was stolen by the mighty will be rescued.’ ” For no one denies that the mighty cry in protest and suffer as a result of losing their spoils, except those who think that the devil is of lesser malice or that he is altogether uninvolved. But persons with such opinions are inept and deceived. Turn instead to the teachers of truth, whose knowledge I can only introduce to you, that it might be yours, reader, to explore within more attentively. Jeremiah uses Moab as a figure for the prince of the world in describing his devastation and groaning: “There is lamentation in all the dwellings of Moab and in its streets, for I have shattered Moab like a useless vessel, said the Lord.” Isaiah also bears witness to the coming destruction: “Moreover, Moab’s army wails; its soul groans for itself,” and again: “Everyone wails upon its roofs and in its streets.” In this way, they suffer that they were despoiled of the people. Daily they groan over their plundering. Consequently, they do not cease to attack us also, in the hopes that they can recapture something of what was taken from them.

436. Third, he excludes any limit to their weeping, both as to diversity of place: for every, that is, in every manner, howling, shall be, on the tops of their houses, which had level places for sitting, and in their streets shall come down weeping, from the high places to which they had ascended weeping, so that there was weeping in the mountains and in the valleys.

God declares to Jeremiah that not even Moses and Samuel, whose prayers had been so prevalent, could divert him from his purpose of punishing so wicked a people, Jer 15:1. Accordingly their captivity is again announced in a variety of images so full of terror, Jer 15:2-9, that the prophet complains of his own hard fate in being obliged to deliver such unwelcome messages, Jer 15:10; for which too he is reproved, Jer 15:11-14. Immediately he appeals to God for his sincerity, and supplicates pardon, Jer 15:15-18; and God tempers his reproof with promising again to protect him in the faithful discharge of his duty, Jer 15:19-21.

With sackcloth - שק sak. The word is in the plural שקים sakkim, sacks, in one of De Rossi's MSS.

THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CHAPTERS FORM ONE PROPHECY ON MOAB. (Isa 15:1-9) Because--rather, "Surely"; literally, "(I affirm) that" [MAURER]. night--the time best suited for a hostile incursion (Isa 21:4; Jer 39:4). Ar--meaning in Hebrew, "the city"; the metropolis of Moab, on the south of the river Arnon. Kir--literally, "a citadel"; not far from Ar, towards the south. He--Moab personified. Bajith--rather, "to the temple" [MAURER]; answering to the "sanctuary" (Isa 16:12), in a similar context. to Dibon--Rather, as Dibon was in a plain north of the Arnon, "Dibon (is gone up) to the high places," the usual places of sacrifice in the East. 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 Deu 34:1). Medeba--south of Heshbon, on a hill east of Jordan. baldness . . . beard cut off--The Orientals regarded the beard with peculiar veneration. To cut one's beard off is the greatest mark of sorrow and mortification (compare Jer 48:37).

tops of . . . houses--flat; places of resort for prayer, &c., in the East (Act 10:9). weeping abundantly--"melting away in tears." HORSLEY prefers "descending to weep." Thus there is a "parallelism by alternate construction" [LOWTH], or chiasmus; "howl" refers to "tops of houses." "Descending to weep" to "streets" or squares, whither they descend from the housetops.