Isaia 16:9 Commento

This chapter continues and concludes the burden of Moab. In it, I. The prophet gives good counsel to the Moabites, to reform what was amiss among them, and particularly to be kind to God's people, as the likeliest way to prevent the judgments before threatened (Isa 16:1-5). II. Fearing they would not take this counsel (they were so proud), he goes on to foretel the lamentable devastation of their country, and the confusion they should be brought to, and this within three years (Isa 16:6-14).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 16 This chapter is a continuation of the prophecy against Moab; in which the prophet gives good advice, but in case of a haughty neglect of it, which he foresaw, threatens with ruin, and fixes a time for it. He advises the Moabites to pay their tribute to the king of Judah, or otherwise they should be turned out of their land, as a bird out of its nest, Isa 16:1 to protect, and not betray the people of the Jews that should flee to them, because of the Assyrian army, Isa 16:3 and for this end gives a great character of the king of Judah, and assures them of the stability of his kingdom, Isa 16:5 but for their pride, wrath, and lying, they are threatened with destruction, and are represented as howling under it, Isa 16:6 because of the spoil of their cities, vineyards, and fields, so that they have no harvest, nor vintage, nor gathering of summer fruits, or joy on these accounts, Isa 16:8 for which even the prophet expresses a concern, Isa 16:11 and after having observed the application of the Moabites to their gods without success, Isa 16:12 the chapter is closed with an assurance of the certain ruin of Moab, and of the time when it should be, Isa 16:13.

Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah,.... That is, bewail the one, as he had done the other, both places with the fruits about them being destroyed by the enemy; or "therefore with weeping I will bewail" (most vehemently lament, an usual Hebraism) "Jazer", and "the vine of Sibmah": the prophet here represents the Moabites weeping for their vines more especially, they being a people addicted to drunkenness, in which their father was begotten; hence Bacchus is said to be the founder of many of their cities, see Jer 48:32. The Targum is, "as I have brought armies against Jazer, so will I bring slayers against Sibmah;'' I will water thee with my tears: shed abundance of them, see Psa 6:6, O Heshbon, and Elealeh; perhaps alluding to the fishponds, in the former, Sol 7:4 of these places; see Gill on Isa 15:4, for the shouting for thy summer fruits, and for thy harvest, is fallen; is ceased, so as not to be heard; namely, the singing and shouting which used to be made by labourers, while they were gathering the summer fruits, or reaping the harvest, with which they amused and diverted themselves, and their fellow labourers, and so their time and their work went on more pleasantly; or else that great joy and shouting they expressed when all was ended, something of which nature is still among us at this day; but now in Moab it was at an end, because the enemy had destroyed both their summer fruits and harvest; though Jarchi and Kimchi interpret this shouting of the enemy, of the spoilers and plunderers, upon their summer fruits and harvest, when they destroyed them; and so the Targum, "upon thy harvest, and upon thy vintage, spoilers have fallen;'' so Noldius (g) renders the words, "for upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy harvest, the shouting shall fall"; that is, the shouting of the enemy, spoiling their fruits and their harvest; and this seems to be the true sense, since it agrees with Jer 48:32 and the ceasing of the other kind of shouting is observed in the next verse Isa 16:10. (g) Ebr Concord. Part p. 253.

(Verse 9) Over this I will weep, in lamentation for Jazer, the vineyard of Sabama: my tears will make you drunk, O Esebon and Eleale. The voice of the weeping Prophet, and the greatness of the desolation, testifying with the greatness of tears, weeping for the vineyard of Jazer, and Sabama, and Esebon, and Eleale, once powerful cities, which the Assyrian believed to be cut down. Since the voice of those treading on your vintage and your harvest has come rushing upon you. Understand, you gatherers of grapes and the joy of the harvest, the army of enemies, and that the time of captivity will come in the very time of joy.

(Verses 9, 10.) The scourges of the Lord have fallen upon the nations: they have reached even to Jazer. They have wandered in the desert: their branches have been left behind: they have crossed the sea. Therefore, I will weep over the vineyard of Sabama with weeping: I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Eleale: for on your harvest and on your crop the voice of the treaders has fallen. Joy and gladness will be taken away from Carmel: there will be no rejoicing or jubilation in the vineyards: the one who used to tread the wine in the winepress will not tread it anymore: I have taken away the sound of the treaders. The suburban areas of Esebon, which we mentioned earlier, are deserted, and the vineyard of Sabama, which can be interpreted not only as a lofty elevation but also as some kind of conversion, because it seems that in the region of Moab, it wants to be partially converted to the service of the Lord. Therefore, the Apostles and apostolic men, servants of the Lord of nations, completely cut off the scourges and offshoots of this vine of Sabama, so that no other heresies would arise from other heresies, and a boundless multitude of the erring would not be made. And not only did the branches of Sabama fall, but they reached as far as Jazer, which is interpreted as their strength: that is, to the most powerful teachings of the heretics, and constructed with dialectic art, in which the strength of their error seemed to reside; and to such an extent was their sword brandished, that in the end they wandered in the wilderness and had no one to kill. And although those lashes were cut off, nevertheless, due to the fault of the rotten root, some branches remained. But the lords of the nations have passed over the sea, that is to say, the temptations of this world, of which we read in the psalm: Come into the depths of the sea, and the tempest shall swallow me up (Ps. 68: 3); and in another place: They that go down to the sea in ships, doing business in the great waters: these have seen the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep (Ps. 106: 23). Therefore, these have passed over the sea, in order to behold the works of the Lord and his wonders in the depths of temptations, while they are delivered from them. Therefore, the prophetic discourse laments the strength of the heretics, that is, Jazer and the vineyard of Sabama, which exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And I will intoxicate you with my tears, Esebon, the thoughts of the wise, and Eleale, who ascend to lofty heights. But why does he lament Jazer and intoxicate Esebon and Eleale with his tears? So that while he himself weeps, he may teach them to weep. For, he says, the voice of those who trample upon your harvest and your crop resounds. The vineyard of the Moabites is such because of the proximity of the place, just like the vineyard of the Sodomites, of which it is said: 'For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah' (Deut. 32:31). And in the seventy-seventh psalm, we read about the Egyptian vineyard that God struck with hail. The Moabite harvests also grow in the valleys called Raphaim: but its vintage is false, of which it is said above: 'The rods of those who lifted it up have been broken' (Num. 24:8). For they crush the most bitter grapes and trample on them with their feet, so that the venom of the dragon may not be squeezed out of them and all who drink may be killed. Also, the joy and exultation of the heretics will be taken away, which they used to enjoy before, so that after they have repented they may deserve to hear this: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:5). And what he added about Carmel means this: not that the heretics truly have Carmel, that is, the knowledge of spiritual circumcision; but that they boast falsely of having it. And when the vines have been cut down and the joy and exuberance have been taken away because of false knowledge of their name, then there will be no more of the former grape treaders, who used to tread the grapes before, and their voice will be silenced in eternal silence.

Third, the compassion of the prophet is set out. And first, his compassion is set out: over this, namely the misfortune of Moab, I will lament with the weeping of Jazer, that is, weeping over that city of Moab, and similarly also the vineyard of Sabama, and Eleale.

On account of the evils which threatened his country, the prophet is forbidden to encumber himself with a wife and family, or to bear any share in the little joys and sorrows of his neighbors, which were to be forgotten and absorbed in those public calamities, Jer 16:1-9, which their sins should draw on them, Jer 16:10-13. A future restoration however is intimated, Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15, after these calamities should be endured, Jer 16:16-18; and the conversion of the Gentiles is foretold, Jer 16:19-21.

With the weeping "As with the weeping" - For בבכי bibechi, a MS. reads בכי bechi. In Jer 48:32, it is מבכי mibbechi. The Septuagint read כבכי kibeki, as with weeping, which I follow. For thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen "And upon thy vintage the destroyer hath fallen" - ועל קצירך הידד נפל veal ketsirech heidad naphal. In these few words there are two great mistakes, which the text of Jer 48:32 rectifies. For קצירך ketsirech, it has בצירך betsirech; and for הידד heidad, שדד shoded; both which corrections the Chaldee in this place confirms. As to the first, "Hesebon and Eleale, and The flowery dale of Sibmah, clad with vines," were never celebrated for their harvests; it was the vintage that suffered by the irruption of the enemy; and so read the Septuagint and Syriac. הידד heidad is the noisy acclamation of the treaders of the grapes. And see what sense this makes in the literal rendering of the Vulgate: super messem tuam vox calcantium irruit, "upon thy harvest the voice of the treaders rushes." The reading in Jer 48:32 is certainly right, שדד נפל shoded naphal, "the destroyer hath fallen." The shout of the treaders does not come in till the next verse; in which the text of Isaiah in its turn mends that of Jer 48:33, where instead of the first הידד heidad, "the shout," we ought undoubtedly to read, as here, הדרך haddorech, "the treader."

CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY AS TO MOAB. (Isa 16:1-14) lamb--advice of the prophet to the Moabites who had fled southwards to Idumea, to send to the king of Judah the tribute of lambs, which they had formerly paid to Israel, but which they had given up (Kg2 3:4-5). David probably imposed this tribute before the severance of Judah and Israel (Sa2 8:2). Therefore Moab is recommended to gain the favor and protection of Judah, by paying it to the Jewish king. Type of the need of submitting to Messiah (Psa 2:10-12; Rom 12:1). from Sela to--rather, "from Petra through (literally, 'towards') the wilderness" [MAURER]. "Sela" means "a rock," Petra in Greek; the capital of Idumea and Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra; the dwellings are mostly hewn out of the rock. The country around was a vast common ("wilderness") or open pasturage, to which the Moabites had fled on the invasion from the west (Isa 15:7). ruler of the land--namely, of Idumea, that is, the king of Judah; Amaziah had become master of Idumea and Sela (Kg2 14:7).

I--will bewail for its desolation, though I belong to another nation (see on Isa 15:5). with . . . weeping of Jazer--as Jazer weeps. shouting for . . . fallen--rather, "Upon thy summer fruits and upon thy luxuriant vines the shouting (the battle shout, instead of the joyous shout of the grape-gatherers, usual at the vintage) is fallen" (Isa 16:10; Jer 25:30; Jer 51:14). In the parallel passage (Jer 48:32) the words substantially express the same sense. "The spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits."

But just because this lion is Judah and its government, the summons goes forth to the Moabites, who have fled to Edom, and even to Sela, i.e., Petra (Wady Musa), near Mount Hor in Arabia Petraea, to which it gave its name, to turn for protection to Jerusalem. "Send a land-ruler's tribute of lambs from Sela desert-wards to the mountain of the daughter of Zion." This v. is like a long-drawn trumpet-blast. The prophecy against Moab takes the same turn here as in Isa 14:32; Isa 18:7; Isa 19:16., Isa 23:18. The judgment first of all produces slavish fear; and this is afterwards refined into loving attachment. Submission to the house of David is Moab's only deliverance. This is what the prophet, weeping with those that weep, calls out to them in such long-drawn, vehement, and urgent tones, even into the farthest hiding-place in which they have concealed themselves, viz., the rocky city of the Edomites. The tribute of lambs which was due to the ruling prince is called briefly car mōshēl-'eretz. This tribute, which the holders of the pasture-land so rich in flocks have hitherto sent to Samaria (Kg2 3:4), they are now to send to Jerusalem, the "mountain of the daughter of Zion" (as in Isa 10:32, compared with Isa 18:7), the way to which lay through "the desert," i.e., first of all in a diagonal direction through the Arabah, which stretched downwards to Aelath.

The beauties of nature and fruitfulness of the land, which come into the possession of any nation, are gifts from the riches of divine goodness, remnants of the paradisaical commencement of the history of man, and types of its paradisaical close; and for this very reason they are not matters of indifference to the spirit of prophecy. And for the same reason, it is not unworthy of a prophet, who predicts the renovation of nature and the perfecting of it into the beauty of paradise, to weep over such a devastation as that of the Moabitish vineyards which was now passing before his mind (cf., Isa 32:12-13). "Therefore I bemoan the vines of Sibmah with the weeping of Jazer; I flood thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, that Hdad hath fallen upon thy fruit-harvest and upon thy vintage." A tetrastich, the Hebrew equivalent, in measure and movement, of a sapphic strophe. The circumstantiality of the vision is here swallowed up again by the sympathy of the prophet; and the prophecy, which is throughout as truly human as it is divine, becomes soft and flowing like an elegy. The prophet mingles his tears with the tears of Jazer. Just as the latter weeps for the devastated vines of Sibmah, so does he also weep. The form אריּוך, transposed from ארוּיך = ארוּך (cf., Ewald, 253, a, where it is explained as being a rare "voluntative" formation), corresponds to the elegiac tone of the whole strophe. Heshbon and Elealeh, those closely connected cities, with their luxuriant fields (shedemoth, Isa 16:8), are now lying in ruins; and the prophet waters them with tears, because hedad has fallen upon the fruit-harvest and vintage of both the sister cities. In other instances the term kâtzı̄r is applied to the wheat-harvest; but here it is used in the same sense as bâtzı̄r, to which it is preferred on account of Isaiah's favourite alliteration, viz., with kaytz (compare, for example, the alliteration of mistor with sēther in Isa 4:6). That it does not refer to the wheat-harvest here, but to the vintage, which was nearly coincident with the fruit-harvest (which is called kaytz, as in Isa 28:4), is evident from the figure suggested in the word hēdâd, which was the shout raised by the pressers of the grapes, to give the time for moving their feet when treading out the wine (Isa 16:10; Jer 25:30). A hēdâd of this kind had fallen upon the rich floors of Heshbon-Elealeh, inasmuch as they had been trodden down by enemies - a Hedad, and yet no Hedad, as Jeremiah gives it in a beautiful oxymoron (Jer 48:33), i.e., no joyous shout of actual grape-treaders.