Isaiah 16:9

9 Therefore, I will weep with Jazer's weeping for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.

Isaiah 16:9 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 16:9

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 ( Jeremiah 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 ( Psalms 6:6 ) : O Heshbon, and Elealeh;
perhaps alluding to the fishponds, in the former, ( Song of Solomon 7:4 ) of these places, (See Gill on Isaiah 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 ^F7 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 ( Jeremiah 48:32 ) and the ceasing of the other kind of shouting is observed in the next verse ( Isaiah 16:10 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Ebr Concord. Part p. 253.

Isaiah 16:9 In-Context

7 Therefore, let Moab wail; let everyone wail for Moab. Let them moan, utterly stricken, for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

8 The fields of Heshbon languish. The vines of Sibmah, whose honored grapes overpowered masters of nations, had reached as far as Jazer and strayed to the desert. Their tendrils spread out and crossed the sea.

9 Therefore, I will weep with Jazer's weeping for the vines of Sibmah. I will drench you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. Cheers have fallen silent concerning your summer fruit and your grain harvest.

10 Joy and happiness have been harvested from the farmland, and in the vineyards no one sings, no one shouts. No treader crushes grapes in the wine vats; I have brought the cheers to an end.

11 Therefore, my heart plays sadly like a harp for Moab, my inner being for Kir-heres.