Isaiah 16
PATadding the words shall flee, as our translation docs, the text were supplied from the former part of the verse thus, His fugitives shall cry out unto Zoar, as an heifer, &c. (Compare Jer. xlviii. 34.) An heifer is observed to’ bo more noisy than a bullock. The particle [as] is frequently understood. (Seethe note upon xxi. 8.) Ver. G. For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hayisivitheredaway, &c] Nimrim was noted for good pasture, and meadows well watered; (see Numb, xxxii. 33G.) which shall now be quite trod down and destroyed, as if it had been burnt up in a dry season. * i This. chapter is a continuation of God’s judgments against Moab. -Ver. 1. &END ye\ the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness.] The Moabites were subdued by -David, and became his tributaries; (2. Sam. viii. 5.) and part of the tribute which they paid was a hundred thousand lambs,’(2 Kings iii. 5.) which it is likely had been discontinued for some time; this the prophet exhorts them to renew, as a just acknowledgment to the king of Judah, the heir of David’s family: the latter part of the words might be better translated, from Sela in the wilderness, (see.2 Kings xiv. 7.) The wilderness of Moab is mentioned again at the eighth verse of this chapter.
Isaiah 16:2
For it shall be, that as a wandering bird cast. out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords ofArnon. Some render it thus: Or else it shall be, &c. If ye do not comply with the advice I have given you, (ver. 1.) ye shall be turned out of your habitations, and your daughters shall wander about in a helpless condition, / as young birds drove out of their nest, and unable to shift -for themselves..'
Isaiah 16:3
Take counsel, execute judgment. The prophet speaks by way of advice, and exhorts the Moabites to shew that kindness to their brethren the Jews in the time. of their distress, as in reason and justice they ought to do; buf^withal doth covertly upbraid them with the neglect of it: Moab and Edom, though they were a people nearly related to the Jews, yet laid hold of all opportunities to aggravate their miseries, and rejoiced at their calamities, for which they are severely threatened with judgments by the* prophets. (See Jer. xlviii. 27. Obad. ver. 10, &c. Amos i.ll. Zeph. ii.8.) Make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.] The prophet compares the calamities of the Jews, which they had lately endured, probably under Sennacherib’s invasion, to the scorching heat of the sun, and puts the Moabites in mind, that they ought to have been a refuge to them during this distress. (See the like expressions, iv. G. xxv. 4.)
Isaiah 16:4
For the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.* This shews the foregoing expressions to be ironical, as if the prophet had said, To have shewed such kindness to us in the time of our distress, would have been thankfully accepted, as a seasonable instance of humanity and brotherly love; but now, thanks be to God, we have no farther need of your assistance, for that storm is quickly blown over, and it comes to your turn to feel God’s afflicting hand.
Isaiah 16:5
Andin mercy shall the throne be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, &c. Now Hezekiah’s throne and kingdom are established, who shall govern his people with an equal mixture of justice and mercy; and therein prefigure the Messias, in whom all the promises made to the house of David shall be finally accomplished. The tabernacle of David may allude to, his having been a shepherd, and dwelling in tents, before he was advanced to a kingdom; but both here and Amos ix. 11. (the only places where the phrase is used) it mystically denotes the church, which is elsewhere called God’s tabernacle, as being the place of his e3pecial presence, as the tabernacle of old was in the wilderness. (Compare Lev. xxvi. 11. with Rev. xxi. 3.) Ver. G. But his lies shall not be so.] Or rather, His strength is not so: ^Indignatio ejus plus quam fortitndo ejus," saith the Vulgar Latin, joining the words to the former part of the verse, His wrath is greater than his strength; or. his power does not answer his vain boasts; which translation agrees very well with the Hebrew, and makes the sense run plain and easy.
Isaiah 16:7
That ivhicli they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows. Or, to the valley of the Arabians, as our margin reads it, whither the Assyrians, their enemies, carried all the booty they took from the.Moabites, it being the direct way from Moab to Assyria, as St. Jerome npon the place informs us. - Titer ef ore shall Moab howl for Moab.] Or, to Moab: they shall lament over one another, in this general calamity. For the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mount.] Kirhareseth was one of the strongest cities of Moab; (see 2 Kings iii. 25.) whose foundations or mighty men, as some understand it, were ruined and destroyed. The same place is called Kir-haresh, at the eleventh verse.
Isaiah 16:8
The howling thereof unto Beer-Elim. Grotius.guessed this place to be the same which is called Beer, Numb. xxi. 16. and that it had the title of Elim added to it, from the prince’s digging a well there, (ver. 18.) For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine ofSibmalt: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof; they are come even to Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness, &c] The prophet describes the destruction of a fruitful country of Moab: (see Josh. xiii. 17 — 19.) that was noted for plenty of vineyards: and pursuing the metaphor, he saith, That the lords of the nations, that is, the Assyrians, have broken down the principal plants; i. e. have ruined the principal inhabitants, and haye carried them away, or forced them to leave their
Isaiah 16:9
For the tvaters of Dimon shall be full of blood. *Dimon is the same with Dibon, ver. 2. It hath its etymology from the Hebrew dam, which signifies blood, and to -which the prophet here alludes. For I ivill bring more npon Dimon, lions npon him that escapeth, &c] I will bring more and more calamities; and they that flee to escape the present evils shall fall into worse disasters, as if a man that fled from his enemy should -meet with a lion to devour him. (Compare Jer. xlviii. 44..Amos v. 19.)