Isaiah 16:9

9 So now I weep for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah; my tears will flow for Heshbon and Elealeh. There are no more shouts of joy over your summer fruits and 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 The entire land of Moab weeps. Yes, everyone in Moab mourns for the cakes of raisins from Kir-hareseth. They are all gone now.

8 The farms of Heshbon are abandoned; the vineyards at Sibmah are deserted. The rulers of the nations have broken down Moab— that beautiful grapevine. Its tendrils spread north as far as the town of Jazer and trailed eastward into the wilderness. Its shoots reached so far west that they crossed over the Dead Sea.

9 So now I weep for Jazer and the vineyards of Sibmah; my tears will flow for Heshbon and Elealeh. There are no more shouts of joy over your summer fruits and harvest.

10 Gone now is the gladness, gone the joy of harvest. There will be no singing in the vineyards, no more happy shouts, no treading of grapes in the winepresses. I have ended all their harvest joys.

11 My heart’s cry for Moab is like a lament on a harp. I am filled with anguish for Kir-hareseth.