Isaiah 16:8

8 For the grainfields of Heshbon are withering, also the vineyards of Sibmah, whose red grapes overpowered rulers of nations - once they reached as far as Ya'zer and trailed out into the desert; their spreading branches even crossed the sea.

Isaiah 16:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 16:8

For the fields of Heshbon languish
Through drought; or because of the forage of the enemy, and their treading upon them; or because there were no men left to till and manure them. Of Heshbon (See Gill on Isaiah 15:4). It seems to have been a place famous for fields and pastures, and to have been a very fruitful and well watered place; hence we read of the fish pools in Heshbon, ( Song of Solomon 7:4 ) though Aben Ezra and Kimchi think the word signifies vines, as they suppose it does in ( Deuteronomy 32:32 ) : [and] the vine of Sibmah;
called Shebam and Shibmah, in ( Numbers 32:3 Numbers 32:38 ) thought to be the Seba of Ptolemy ^F5; and seems to have been famous for vines and vineyards: the lords of the Heathen have broken down the principal plants
thereof;
that is, the Chaldeans and their army, and commanders and principal officers of it, dealing with them as the Turks do with vines, wherever they meet with them, destroy them; though Jarchi and Kimchi interpret all this figuratively, both here and in the above clauses, of the inhabitants of these places, the multitude of the common people, and their princes, some being killed, and others carried captive; to which sense the Targum,

``because the armies of Heshbon are spoiled, the multitude of Sebama are killed, the kings of the people have killed their rulers:''

they are come [even] unto Jazer;
meaning either the Chaldean army, or the Moabites, who had fled hither; or rather this is to be understood of the vines of Sibmah, expressing the excellency and large spread of them, which reached even to Jazer; which, as Jerom says ^F6, was fifteen miles from Heshbon, called Jaazer, ( Numbers 21:32 ) ( 32:35 ) ( Joshua 21:39 ) : they wandered [through] the wilderness;
the wilderness of Moab, ( Deuteronomy 2:8 ) not the lords of the Heathen, nor the Moabites, but the vines and their branches, which crept along, and winded to and fro, as men wander about: her branches are stretched out;
that is, the branches of the vine Sibmah: they are gone over the sea;
the Dead Sea, called the sea of Jazer, ( Jeremiah 48:32 ) or rather a lake near that city.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Geograph. l. 5. c. 19.
F6 De locis Hebraicis, fol. 92. G.

Isaiah 16:8 In-Context

6 We have heard about Mo'av's pride, how very proud they are; about their haughty arrogance, their insolence and bravado.

7 Therefore Mo'av will wail for Mo'av - they will all wail! You will sigh, stricken by grief, for the raisin-cakes of Kir-Hareset.

8 For the grainfields of Heshbon are withering, also the vineyards of Sibmah, whose red grapes overpowered rulers of nations - once they reached as far as Ya'zer and trailed out into the desert; their spreading branches even crossed the sea.

9 Therefore I will weep for Sibmah's vine as I weep for Ya'zer; I will water you with my tears, Heshbon and El'aleh; because the shouts of battle are falling on your summer fruits and harvest;

10 gladness and joy are removed from the fruitful fields. No revelry in the vineyards, no happy shouting, no one treading grapes in the wine presses - I have silenced the vintage-cheers.