Isaiah 15

Wesley: The burden—a prophecy of the destruction of the Moabites, the inveterate enemies of the Jews, begun by the Assyrian, and finished by the Babylonian emperors. In a night—suddenly and unexpectedly. Ar—the chief city of Moab. Kir—another eminent city of Moab. Moab falls in a night.

The warning is a serious call. Pride’s cities are undone while they sleep.

Calvin: here the Prophet prophesies against the Moabites, neighbors related by blood, descended from Lot; no relationship prevented them from cherishing hostility toward the Jews. On account of their cruelty toward the people of God he threatens destruction. He looked to believers, that they might not think this world is governed by the blind violence of fortune, but might acknowledge the providence of God. In the night he means a sudden and unexpected occurrence.

Moab falls by appointment, not chance. Ar and Kir laid waste, and brought to nothing.

Wesley: Bajith—which signifies an house. It is supposed to be some eminent house or temple of their idols. Dibon—another city of Moab. To weep—to offer their supplications with tears to their idols for help. Medeba—two considerable cities, anciently belonging to the Moabites. Beard—the hair of their heads and beards was shaved, as was usual in great mournings. Pride’s high places become places of weeping.

They go up to weep where they once boasted. Do not copy the tears offered to idols. The warning still calls the proud off the high place.

Calvin: he shall go up into the house. By representing the Moabites as bowing down before their idols, he condemns their superstition in worshipping Chemosh. They shall betake themselves to their god when matters are desperate, but to no purpose. They increased their misery by those very means which they considered fitted for appeasing his wrath. The ungodly have no refuge in adversity. Baldness on every head is the eastern token of mourning; the whole kingdom is so mournful.

Chemosh cannot help. High places become places of weeping.

Wesley: On the tops—which were made flat, to which men used to go up, to cry to God in heaven, or to men for help. In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails. Common ground: the wailing is public, from street to roof.

Sackcloth is honest grief, not a spectacle. Do not melt in their tears as entertainment, and do not aim the oracle at a modern people.

Calvin: he proceeds with the tokens of mourning. We are never moved by predictions unless the Lord place them, as it were, before our eyes. The Moabites were at that time in a state of profound peace; believers had the more need of being confirmed. He also points out the despair to which unbelievers are liable in adversity, for the support on which they rely is insecure.

The howling is set before Judah’s eyes so the word will not be taken lightly.

Wesley: Heshbon—two other Moabitish cities. Jahaz—another city in the utmost borders of Moab. Soldiers—who use to be the most courageous. Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Both readings: even the armed men cannot hold the line.

Application: courage fails where the cities wail. His soul trembles: a fear under a word, not a slogan.

Calvin: he names other cities; his design is to bind up, as it were, in a bundle all the cities of that country, that they may be involved in the general destruction. None at all shall be exempted. The bold and courageous shall mourn. Every one shall be so engrossed with his own grief that he will not think of his neighbors.

The cry reaches Jahaz because the Lord has appointed the ruin of the whole land. Both readings: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud.

Wesley: Moab—Tho’ they are a most vile nation. Zoar—Zoar was a town bordering upon Moab. Of destruction—such a cry as men send forth when they are just falling into the pit of destruction. My heart cries out for Moab: the prophet’s compassion, not a claim that God does not know what he has decreed.

Pity can be honest without denying the judgment. Fugitives on the road to Zoar are Moabites, not a modern column of refugees on a map.

Calvin: at length he assumes the character of a mourner. It is customary with the prophets to assume the character of those whose calamities they foretell, and thus to exhibit their condition, as it were, on a stage. Yet there can be no doubt that the prophets shuddered at the judgments of God, even against the wicked. Zoar he compares to a heifer of three years old, still in vigor and not yet yoked. Here all with whom the Lord deals tenderly are taught not to exalt themselves.

The crying heart is the prophet’s office and a shudder at judgment, not a limit on the decree. Fugitives flee weeping.

Wesley: Waters—watery grounds being very fruitful, are commonly most inhabited; but now they also, much more the dry and barren grounds, shall be desolate and without inhabitant. The waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no more.

Even the watered places fail. The land’s green is gone because the word has reached the ground; do not turn Moab into a modern state.

Calvin: by an enlarged view of this desolation he says that the grass has withered away, the waters will be taken away, which were highly necessary for that dry and parched country; soils of that kind produce nothing without irrigation. A land which is deprived of the blessing of God will be like a desert without any beauty.

Nimrim dries because the blessing is withdrawn. Both traditions agree: the greenery is no more.

Wesley: They—their enemies. Brook—possibly he means some such river which ran into Euphrates, and so gave them opportunity of carrying their spoils by water unto Babylon. Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.

Stored wealth walks out of the land. Do not preach Moab’s barns as a culture-war speech.

Calvin: he means the riches that are laid up. All the inhabitants are wont to convey their riches elsewhere, that they may afterwards bring them back when peace has been restored. To the brook of the willows: they will have no storehouse, no fortress in which they can lay them up with safety; so that they will be compelled to hide them among the willows. This certainly is the lowest wretchedness.

Application: what they stored cannot keep them. Common to both: abundance carried over the Brook of the Willows.

Wesley: The cry—their cry fills all the parts of the country. For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab, its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim. The howl is not a corner of the map; it goes round the land.

Eglaim and Beer-elim are named towns of Moab. The warning is a word over a country. Do not stretch the wailing onto a modern border.

Calvin: every part of that country all around shall be full of crying and howling; because that destruction reaches from one extremity to another. Besides the crying he twice mentions the howling, to denote the excess of grief, as men who are in despair surrender themselves entirely to lamentation.

Application: the cry circles because the judgment is appointed for the whole land.

Wesley: More—more than hath been already mentioned. Lions—God shall send lions to find out those that escape the fury of men. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; a lion on those of Moab who escape. The remnant is not safe from the lion.

Blood and the lion are told honestly, not as a spectacle. Flight does not finish the word; the remnant still meets what God sends.

Calvin: he describes not only grief and howling, but the slaughter of men. How great must this have been, when rivers are filled with blood! By additions he means that the Lord will multiply the murders. Though the Assyrians were cruel in this slaughter, yet the Lord was not cruel; he justly punished the barbarity of the Moabites. If any attempted to escape, they had to encounter lions. The hand of the Lord pursues the wicked in such a manner that they cannot in any way escape. These things are spoken for the consolation of the godly.

The lion is the Lord’s further stroke, just and not cruel. Both agree: the remnant of the land is not safe.