Isaiah 16

Wesley: Send—the prophet continues his prophecy against Moab, and gives them counsel what to do, to prevent, if possible, the desolation. Make your peace with God, by sacrifice, for all your injuries done to him, and to his people. Sela—an eminent city of Moab, seated upon a rock. Unto the mount—unto the temple upon mount Zion. Send the lamb toward Zion.

The counsel is an earnest word to Moab. Sela on the rock, the desert road, the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. Do not turn the lamb into a modern tribute scheme. Pride is called to send while sending is still possible.

Calvin: here the Prophet scoffs at the Moabites for not acknowledging God at the proper time. It is a condemnation of late repentance. Send ye a lamb: view it as spoken ironically; they will send in vain. The Ruler is God himself, not Hezekiah. By a lamb, what was to be offered in sacrifice. From the rock of the desert to the mountain of the daughter of Zion, God’s authorized temple.

Late sending does not buy off the stroke. Both readings: the lamb is aimed at Zion.

Wesley: Cast out—which knows not whither to go. Arnon—which was the border of the land of Moab, where they were, with design to flee out of their land, tho’ they knew not whither. Like fleeing birds, as a scattered nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon. Moab’s daughters are scattered at the border river.

The fords of the Arnon are a river of Moab, not a modern crossing. Flight without a place comes from pride, not a puzzle for a map.

Calvin: he shows they ought not at that time to think of sending sacrifices, because they will not be able to provide for their safety in any other way than by leaving their native country. By the metaphor of birds he describes the terror with which they shall be struck. He threatens that the Moabites, who had abused their tranquillity, shall have a trembling and wearisome flight.

They fly because they abused peace. Agreed: like a scattered nest at the Arnon.

Wesley: Take counsel—consider seriously what course to take. Shadow—or, as the shadow of the night, large and dark. Conceal and protect my people in the time of their distress. The out-casts—those of my people who are driven out of their land. Wandereth—unto their enemies. Both readings: shade at noon is shelter, not a slogan.

The call to hide the fugitive is a moral word. Do not betray the wanderer; do not aim the verse at a modern state.

Calvin: we must set before our minds the dreadful ruin of the Moabites. While everything was in their power they would not listen; now they groan and seek remedies which are nowhere found. Execute judgment: Isaiah ironically advises them to assemble councils and execute judgments which they had formerly overturned. Hide the banished: he means the Jews, whom the Moabites treated cruelly. The same measure is measured to them again.

The shade they refused is the shade they now lack.

Wesley: Mine out-casts—whom tho’ I have sorely chastened, yet I own for my people. At an end—shall shortly be destroyed, and then thou wilt not lose the fruit of thy kindness. The present tense is put for the future. Both traditions agree: for the extortionist is brought to, kindness is not wasted.

The chastened remain owned. The destroyer will end; do not invent a limited God from a sojourn.

Calvin: the Prophet addresses the Moabites as if he were humbly beseeching them in the name of the people. God is represented as if he performed the part of a suppliant. It is certain the Moabites did not act in this manner, but joined their efforts with the enemies of the Jews. For the extortioner hath ceased: he now directs his discourse to the Jews; Moab shall perish, but my people shall at length be delivered.

The Lord’s outcasts remain his. Both traditions agree: the oppressor vanishes from the land.

Wesley: In mercy—by my mercy. I am now punishing their sins, yet I will deliver them for my own mercy’s sake. The throne—the kingdom of Judah. He—their king. In truth—firmly and constantly. Tabernacle—in the house, or palace, called a tent with respect to the unsettledness of David’s house. Seeking—searching out the truth of things with care. Hasting—neither denying, nor yet delaying justice. A throne established in steadfast love; one who judges and seeks justice.

Application: mercy holds the throne while sins are still being punished. The king is swift to do righteousness; that is the hope named.

Calvin: the Jews explain the whole as referring to Hezekiah, but this is altogether inappropriate. The Prophet speaks of a more important restoration of the Church. It cannot be explained as referring to any other than to Christ, though Hezekiah was a type of Christ. In mercy: this does not take place through the agency of men, but by the kindness of God, who is the builder of this throne. He shall sit in the tabernacle of David: Christ reigns among men. In steadfastness: the kingdom of Christ will be firm and last forever. Who shall judge: one who shall discharge the office of a good governor.

The throne is mercy’s building, not man’s. One who judges, seeks justice, and swift to do righteousness.

Wesley: We—the prophet having spoken to the Moabites, now turns his speech to God’s people. The sense is, I do not expect that my counsels will have any good effect upon Moab; they will still carry themselves insolently and outrageously. His lies—his vain imaginations, and false and crafty counsels, shall not take effect. The pride of Moab is not right.

Arrogance still says no to the offered word. Do not baptize pride as strength.

Calvin: he added this by way of anticipation. Their pride would not prevent God from overthrowing them. We have heard of the pride of Moab: they idly exalt themselves above God and men. His lies: vain boasting; he will not accomplish what he imagines. Proud men settle everything as if everything were in their power; such arrogance shall be brought down. Pride is highly displeasing to God.

Boasts do not bind the Lord’s hand. Held in common: judgment on Moab’s arrogance.

Wesley: Moab—one Moabite shall howl or lament to or for another. Kirhareseth—an ancient and eminent city of Moab, which was preserved when their other cities were ruined, and therefore the destruction of it was more lamented. Stricken—or, broken, overthrown or destroyed. Let everyone wail for Kir-hareseth.

Wail for raisin cakes is Kir-hareseth’s grief, not a market story. Everyone wails; do not make a spectacle of it, and do not aim the howl at a modern people.

Calvin: this pride, and the cruelty which springs from it, will be the cause of their destruction. Moab to Moab: a melancholy concert among them. On account of the foundations of Kir-hareseth: he names the foundations rather than the city, because it was to be completely thrown down. You will groan, being only smitten: all who shall be left will be wounded.

Pride ends in a howl over foundations. Let everyone wail.

Wesley: The lords—the Assyrians or Chaldeans, the great rulers of the eastern nations. Plants—the choicest vines. Under which he seems to understand not only all other fruits and goods, but even their choicest people. They—the lords of the heathen are come as far as Jazer. Wandered—the Moabites fled for their lives. The sea—over the Dead-sea, the border of Moab.

Heshbon’s fields and Sibmah’s vine are a vintage east of the Dead Sea. Do not turn the lords of the nations into a modern coalition.

Calvin: he describes allegorically the desolation of the whole country. There is reason to believe it abounded in the choicest vines. The lords of the nations have trodden down his choicest shoots. Which reached even to Jazer: this points out the extent of the devastation. He says they crossed the sea, because cultivation was extended even there.

The vine is cut from Jazer to the sea because the lords are sent. The vine of Sibmah is struck down.

Wesley: Sibmah—I will bewail Sibmah, as I did bewail Jazer, which was destroyed before Sibmah. Fallen—those joyful shouts which were customary in the time of harvest and vintage, shall cease. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh. The prophet’s tears, not a claim that God does not know what he has decreed.

Pity can be honest.

Calvin: the Prophet here takes upon him the character of another person; in the name of the Moabites he laments and groans. Believers always shudder at the judgments of God. Yet he does not describe his own feelings only; his intention is to give additional weight to his instruction. The shouting of enemies bursts forth on the harvest.

The weeping is the prophet’s office and a shudder—not process-theism, not a limit on the decree. Shared: the harvest shout has ceased.

Wesley: Treaders—in those times they used to squeeze out the juice of their grapes by treading them with their feet. Gladness and joy are gone from the fruitful field, and no one treads out wine in the presses. Shared: the vintage shout is ended.

The silenced press is Moab’s vintage. The Lord has put an end to the shouting; do not restage it as entertainment.

Calvin: he confirms that the whole country shall be desolate. When he threatens that God will cause the vine-dressers to cease to sing, he refers to the ancient custom of singing at vintage. When the produce of the harvest shall be taken away, nothing will be left but to lament their poverty. I have made their vintage-shouting to cease.

The Lord himself ends the shout. No songs in the vineyards.

Wesley: My bowels—thro’ compassion. In excessive grief, the bowels are sometimes rolled together, so as to make an audible noise. Inner parts moan like a harp for Moab, and the inmost self for Kir-hareseth.

The moan is compassion, not a limit on knowledge or decree.

Calvin: assuming the character of a Moabite, the Prophet again describes excessive lamentation, proceeding from grief so intense that even the bowels make a distressing noise. By again naming Kir-hareseth, the chief city, he describes the destruction of the whole country. Lively descriptions bring the events before our eyes.

The sounding bowels are the prophet’s assumed grief and a shudder at judgment—not process-theism. On this both agree: a lyre-moan for Moab.

Wesley: When—when it shall appear that all their other devotions are vain. His sanctuary—to the temple of his great god Chemosh. But—his god can neither hear nor help him. Held in common: he wearies himself on the high place and does not prevail.

Chemosh cannot hear. Do not copy the weary prayer that will not prevail; do not aim it at a twenty-first-century people.

Calvin: idolaters in affliction betake themselves to their idols. If any uncommon calamity befalls them, they go to another temple more sacred than the rest. Their most celebrated temple was dedicated to Chemosh. He shall not profit by it. They are not guided by reason but by the impressions made on their senses. He shuts out the Moabites from all hope of safety: they will find no protection even in their gods.

The sanctuary of Chemosh is a dead end. He will not prevail.

Wesley: Since—since the beginning of God’s revelation to me concerning Moab, hitherto. This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in time past. Shared: the earlier word still stands.

The Lord has spoken. Do not treat the oracle as a draft, and do not turn it into a modern state.

Calvin: this concluding sentence is the ratification of the prophecy. He has pronounced the decree of God himself, and has brought nothing forward that did not proceed from the Lord, and thus, laying aside the person of a man, he introduces God speaking.

It is the Lord’s word, not Isaiah’s private guess. Both hear: this is the word concerning Moab.

Wesley: The Lord—hath made this farther discovery of his mind to me. Three years—this may well be understood of some great blow given to the Moabites, either by Sennacherib, or his son Esarhaddon, from which notwithstanding they recovered and flourished again till Nebuchadnezzar compleated their destruction. Hireling—within three years precisely counted; for hirelings are very punctual in observing the time for which they are hired. The glory—their strength, and wealth, and other things in which they glory, shall be made contemptible.

Three years like a hired worker is a counted span in that age, not a twenty-first-century date scheme.

Calvin: the time is fixed, not only for the sake of certainty, but that believers may not become faint through longer delay. He alludes to the labors of hirelings, who long for the appointed day. The Lord fixes a day for the Moabites in which they shall not escape the entire destruction of their power. The remnant shall be feeble: they will have no resemblance to their former condition.

The hireling’s clock is the Lord’s appointment. Glory brought into contempt; those who remain very few and feeble.