Isaia 16:8

8 Perciocchè le campagne di Hesbon, e le vigne di Sibma languiscono; i padroni delle nazioni hanno tritate le viti eccellenti di essa, le quali arrivavano infino a Iazer, e scorrevano qua e là per lo deserto; e le sue propaggini, che si spandevano, e passavano di là dal mare.

Isaia 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.

Isaia 16:8 In-Context

6 Noi abbiamo intesa la superbia di Moab, grandemente superbo; il suo orgoglio, e la sua alterezza, e la sua indegnazione; le sue menzogne non saranno cosa ferma.

7 Perciò, l’un Moabita urlerà all’altro; tutti quanti urleranno; voi gemerete per li fondamenti di Chir-hareset, essendo voi stessi feriti.

8 Perciocchè le campagne di Hesbon, e le vigne di Sibma languiscono; i padroni delle nazioni hanno tritate le viti eccellenti di essa, le quali arrivavano infino a Iazer, e scorrevano qua e là per lo deserto; e le sue propaggini, che si spandevano, e passavano di là dal mare.

9 Perciò, io piangerò le vigne di Sibma del pianto di Iazer; o Hesbon, ed Eleale, io ti righerò delle mie lagrime; perciocchè le grida di allegrezza per li tuoi frutti di state, e per la tua ricolta, son venute meno.

10 E la letizia, e la festa è tolta via dal campo fertile; e non si canta, nè si giubila più nelle vigne; il pigiatore non pigia più il vino ne’ tini; io ho fatte cessare, dice il Signore, le grida da inanimare.