Yeshayah 16:8

8 For the fields of Cheshbon languish, and the gefen of Sivmah; Ba’alei Goyim have broken down the choicest vines thereof, they reached even unto Yazer, they wandered to the midbar; her shoots are stretched out, they are gone over the yam.

Yeshayah 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.

Yeshayah 16:8 In-Context

6 We have heard of the ga’on Moav; he is very proud; even of his ga’avah (haughtiness), and his ga’on, and his insolence; but his boasts shall not be so.

7 Therefore shall Moav wail for Moav, everyone shall wail; for the raisin cakes of Kir Chareset shall ye mourn; surely as they who grieve.

8 For the fields of Cheshbon languish, and the gefen of Sivmah; Ba’alei Goyim have broken down the choicest vines thereof, they reached even unto Yazer, they wandered to the midbar; her shoots are stretched out, they are gone over the yam.

9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Yazer the gefen of Sivmah; I will water thee with my tears, O Cheshbon, and Elealeh; for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy katzir has fallen away.

10 And simchah is taken away, and gladness out of the carmel (fruitful field) and in the kramim (vineyards) there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting; the treaders shall tread out no yayin in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.