Background
Chapters 15 and 16 form a single oracle against Moab, the kingdom east of the Dead Sea. The Moabites were Israel’s relatives, descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot (Gen. 19:36–37), and they were often Israel’s rivals. In the days of the judges they oppressed Israel (Judg. 3:12–30). King David was part Moabite through his great-grandmother Ruth (Ruth 4:13–17), which means Jesus had a Moabite ancestor (Matt. 1:5).
The oracle is full of place names, many of them known from archaeology. The most famous discovery is the Mesha Stele (the “Moabite Stone”), found at Dibon in 1868. On it King Mesha of Moab boasts of throwing off Israel’s rule in the 800s BC, the same events described from Israel’s side in 2 Kgs. 3:4–27. It is one of the most important inscriptions ever found for Old Testament history.
The exact date and invader behind Isaiah 15 are uncertain. Assyria, or desert raiders, swept through Moab more than once in Isaiah’s lifetime. What is unmistakable is the tone.
The thread through the chapter
What makes Isaiah 15 remarkable is not the destruction it describes, but who is weeping over it.
The chapter is a lament. Moab’s cities fall “in the night” and are “brought to silence” (verse 1). People climb to their shrines to weep, shave their heads and beards in mourning, and put on sackcloth. Every rooftop and street is full of wailing (verses 2–4). Refugees flee south toward Zoar, carrying what little they can grab, and the streams run red (verses 5–9).
And in the middle of it Isaiah says: “My heart shall cry out for Moab” (verse 5). In the next chapter he will say it again: “I will water thee with my tears” (Isa. 16:9), and “my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab” (Isa. 16:11).
This is a prophet grieving for a nation that was not his own and was often hostile to his own people. He pronounces judgment, but he does not gloat. That tells us something essential about how God’s messengers are meant to speak of judgment, and about the God who sends them: “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” He says (Ezek. 33:11). Mormon, watching his own people destroyed, wrote in the same spirit: “my soul was rent with anguish” (Morm. 6:16–22).
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
Moab silenced in a night
This is the oracle about Moab. In one night the city of Ar is destroyed and silenced; in one night Kir is destroyed and silenced. The people go up to their temple at Dibon and to their hilltop shrines to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off in mourning. People wear sackcloth in the streets and wail on the rooftops. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, heard as far as Jahaz. Even Moab’s soldiers cry out, trembling.
1 The 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;
2 He 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.
3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.
4 And 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.
Refugees on the road
My heart cries out for Moab! Its refugees flee as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah. They climb the road to Luhith weeping and raise a cry of destruction on the road to Horonaim. The waters of Nimrim have dried up, the grass is withered, and nothing green is left. So they carry their savings and possessions across the Brook of the Willows. The cry echoes across Moab’s borders to Eglaim and Beer-elim. The waters of Dimon are full of blood, and I will bring even more on Dimon: a lion for the survivors of Moab and those left in the land.
5 My 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.
6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.
9 For 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.
Seeing Christ in Isaiah 15
In Isaiah 15 we see the heart of Christ in His prophet. Isaiah weeps over a nation that was often hostile to his own. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, which was about to reject and crucify Him (Luke 19:41–44; Matt. 23:37).
Moab also has a place in the Savior’s own family. Ruth, a Moabite woman who chose Israel’s God, became the great-grandmother of David and an ancestor of Jesus (Ruth 4:13–17; Matt. 1:5). The nation Isaiah mourns over is part of the Savior’s lineage. No people is outside the reach of His redemption.
Liken it to yourself
- How do I talk about people or groups whose wickedness brings consequences on them? Do I share any of Isaiah’s grief, or do I feel a quiet satisfaction?
- Moab’s refugees carried their savings across the brook. What would I carry if I had to leave everything? What in my life can’t be carried away by any invader?
- Is there someone I regard as an “enemy” for whom my heart could learn to cry out?
Worth exploring next
- Isaiah and Jeremiah on Moab. Compare Isaiah 15–16 with Jer. 48. How does Jeremiah reuse and extend Isaiah’s oracle?
- Ruth the Moabitess. Read the book of Ruth. How does her story complicate a simple view of Moab as “the enemy”?
- Prophets who weep. Look at Jer. 9:1, Luke 19:41–44, Moses 7:28–41, and Morm. 6:16–22. Why do prophets weep over the judgments they announce?
This chapter elsewhere in scripture
- Jer. 48 — Jeremiah’s oracle against Moab borrows heavily from Isaiah 15–16.
Sources & further reading
- “Moab”, Bible Dictionary.
- Chapter 14: A Voice of Warning to the Wicked (Isaiah 13–23), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
- John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.
- Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.