Isaiah 15:1-8

An Oracle Concerning Moab

1 An ¹oracle concerning ²Moab. Because ³Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because ⁴Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone.

2 He has gone up to the temple,^[a] and to ⁵Dibon, to the high places^[b] to weep; over ⁶Nebo and over ⁷Medeba Moab ⁸wails. On every head is ⁹baldness; every beard is shorn;

3 in the streets they wear sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears.

4 ¹⁰Heshbon and ¹¹Elealeh cry out; their voice is heard as far as ¹²Jahaz; therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles.

5 My heart cries out for Moab; her fugitives flee to Zoar, to ¹³Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ¹⁴ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to ¹⁵Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction;

6 the waters of ¹⁶Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the vegetation fails, the greenery is no more.

7 ¹⁷Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Brook of the Willows.

8 For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; her wailing reaches to Eglaim; her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

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Isaiah 15:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

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 15:2,3 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 17

1. [See Isaiah 14:28 above]
2. See Jeremiah 48; Ezekiel 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zephaniah 2:8, 9
3. Numbers 21:15, 28
4. [Isaiah 16:7, 11]
5. Numbers 21:30
6. Deuteronomy 34:1
7. Numbers 21:30
8. Isaiah 13:6
9. See Isaiah 3:24
10. Numbers 32:37
11. Numbers 32:37
12. Jeremiah 48:34
13. [See ver. 4 above]
14. Jeremiah 48:5
15. Jeremiah 48:5
16. [Numbers 32:36]
17. Jeremiah 48:36

Footnotes 2

[a]. Hebrew the house
[b]. Or temple, even Dibon to the high places

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.