O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of
Jazer
Sibmah was a city in the land of Moab abounding with vines, but now should be destroyed; and Jazer another city in the same country, which was destroyed before the other; and therefore its destruction should be lamented and wept over, as that had been: or "from", or "after the weeping of Jazer" F8; when that is over, or from thence will I go in course as the desolation proceeds, to weep for Sibmah: or I will weep for that "more than the weeping of Jazer" F9; make a greater lamentation for it than for Jazer; or, as some, than Isaiah made for Jazer; of which see ( Isaiah 16:9 ) ; thy plants are gone over the sea;
the Dead sea; meaning the inhabitants of Sibmah, the governors and common people, who were gone over sea into captivity, as it is generally understood: they reach [even] to the sea of Jazer;
a lake or confluence of water near to Jazer, called a sea; as it was usual with the Jews to call such seas; as the sea of Tiberias, and the like: this spread of the plants seems to refer to the multitudes of those that belonged to Sibmah, and the villages of it, which extended beyond the Dead sea, even to the sea of Jazer; but as fruitful as this vine was, and extensive as its branches were, they should come to destruction: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy vintage:
the king of Babylon, who came upon them with his army in the summer season, and at the time of their vintage, and devoured the fruits of their vines and fig trees, with which this country abounded; and so impoverished and ruined them. The Targum of the whole is,
``therefore as I have brought an army against Jazer, so I will bring slayers against Sibmah; they that carry them captive have waded; they have passed through the sea; they are come to the sea of Jazer; upon thy harvest, and upon thy vintage, the spoilers are fallen.''