Isaiah 15King James Version
A lament for Moab. Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence. The cities mourn. The waters of Nimrim shall be desolate. The text weeps for a hostile nation it might have been expected to mock.
The burden of Moab: an overnight lamentation. Two Moabite cities, Ar and Kir, are destroyed by night. The people flee to Dibon, weeping on the high places. The roads fill with refugees. Warriors cry out. The waters of Nimrim are desolate. All the abundance Moab carried across the brook of willows is stripped away. The text is saturated with weeping.
Even the nations under judgment are mourned. Isaiah does not celebrate Moab's destruction but laments it, modeling God's own grief over necessary judgment.
verse: "Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence", the repetition of in the night and laid waste creates a drumbeat of sudden, total loss.
Moab, the territory east of the Dead Sea, under Assyrian pressure in the late eighth century BC. The roads from ruined cities are jammed with people carrying what they can. The high places, usually sites of worship, are now sites of public grief. The brook of willows is the border crossing where refugees arrive stripped of everything.
Isaiah the prophet as mourner. The people of Moab in flight. Dibon, Nebo, Medeba as named cities of lamentation. No individual Moabite figures are named; the chapter depicts a people, not persons.
The oracle against Moab is unusual among judgment oracles because it is framed entirely in lamentation rather than accusation. Isaiah himself says he will weep for Moab (16:9). This modeling of grief for an enemy nation is theologically significant: prophetic faithfulness includes mourning what must be judged.
The chapter is relentlessly sorrowful. There are no accusations, no catalogued sins. Only flight, tears, and silence where cities used to be. It reads like a lament psalm directed outward to a foreign nation.
1The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;
2He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.
3In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.
4And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.
5My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
6For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
8For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
9For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.