Moab Destroyed
bFrom1 Sela to the wilderness,
To the mount of the daughter of Zion.
So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of the bArnon.
Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day;
Hide the outcasts,
Do not betray him who escapes.
Be a shelter to them from the face of the1 spoiler.
For the extortioner is at an end,
Devastation ceases,
The oppressors are consumed out of the land.
And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,
bJudging and seeking justice and hastening crighteousness.”
He is very proud—
Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath;
bBut his1 lies shall not be so.
Everyone shall wail.
For the foundations bof Kir Hareseth you shall mourn;
Surely they are stricken.
And bthe vine of Sibmah;
The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants,
Which have reached to Jazer
And wandered through the wilderness.
Her branches are stretched out,
They are gone over the csea.
With the weeping of Jazer;
I will drench you with my tears,
aO Heshbon and Elealeh;
For battle cries have fallen
Over your summer fruits and your harvest.
And joy from the plentiful field;
In the vineyards there will be no singing,
Nor will there be shouting;
No treaders will tread out wine in the presses;
I have made their shouting cease.
When it is seen that Moab is weary on athe high place,
That he will come to his sanctuary to pray;
But he will not prevail.
| << Isaiah 16:1 | Isaiah 16:3 >> |
Isaiah 16:2
For it shall be - It shall happen in the time of the calamity that shall come upon Moab.
As a wandering bird - (See Isaiah 10:14.) The same idea is presented in Proverbs 27:8 :
As a bird that wanders from her nest,
So is a man that wandereth from his place.
The idea here is that of a bird driven away from her nest, where the nest is destroyed, and the young fly about without any home or place of rest. So would Moab be when the inhabitants were driven from their dwellings. The reason why this is introduced seems to be, to enforce what the prophet had said in the previous verse - the duty of paying the usual tribute to the Jews, and seeking their protection. The time is coming, says the prophet, when the Moabites shall be driven from their homes, and when they will need that protection which they can obtain by paying the usual tribute to the Jews.
The daughters of Moab - The females shall be driven from their homes, and shall wander about, and endeavor to flee from the invasion which has come upon the land. By the apprehension, therefore, that their wives and daughters would be exposed to this danger, the prophet calls upon the Moabites to secure the protection of the king of Judah.
At the fords of Arnon - Arnon was the northern boundary of the land of Moab. They would endeavor to cross that river, and thus flee from the land, and escape the desolations that were coming upon it. The river Arnon, now called Mujeb, flows in a deep, frightfully wild, and rocky vale of the same name Numbers 21:15; Deuteronomy 2:24; Deuteronomy 3:9, in a narrow bed, and forms at this time the boundary between the provinces of Belka and Karrak (Seetzen). Bridges were not common in the times here referred to; and, indeed, permanent bridges among the ancients were things almost unknown. Hence, they selected the places where the streams were most shallow and gentle, as the usual places of crossing.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Isaiah 16:2:
2 Kings 13:20
2 Kings 14:25
Isaiah 11:14
Isaiah 25:10
Isaiah 47:1
Ezekiel 25:9
| << Isaiah 16:1 | Isaiah 16:3 >> |
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