PROPHET ISAIAH
Verse 5. My heart shall cry out for Moab “The heart of Moab crieth within her”— For ybl libbi, my heart, the Septuagint reads wbl libbo, his
“The rites of wo
Are all, alas! the living can bestow;
O’er the congenial dust enjoined to shear The graceful curl, and drop the tender tear.”
POPE.
On every head. — For wyçar roshaiv, read çar rosh. So the parallel place, <244837>
Jeremiah 48:37, and so three MSS., one ancient. An ancient MS.
reads çar lk [l al col rosh. Five read çar lkb bechol rosh, on every head, with the Septuagint and Arabic. AND every head. The w vau, and, is found in thirty MSS., in three editions, and in the Syriac, Vulgate, and Chaldee.
Cut off “Shorn.”— The printed editions, as well as the MSS., are divided on the reading of this word. Some have h[wdg geduah, shorn, others h[rg geruah, diminished. The similitude of the letters d daleth and r resh has likewise occasioned many mistakes. In the present case, the sense is pretty much the same with either reading. The text of <244837>Jeremiah 48:37 has the latter, diminished. The former reading is found in twelve of Dr.
Zennicott’s MSS., forty of De Rossi’s, and two of my own. A great number of editions have the same reading.
Verse 3. With sackcloth— qç sak. The word is in the plural µyqç sakkim, sacks, in one of De Rossi’s MSS.
Verse 4. The armed soldiers “The very loins”— So the Septuagint, h osfuv, and the Syriac. They cry out violently, with their utmost force.
Verse 5. My heart shall cry out for Moab “The heart of Moab crieth
years old, in full strength; as Horace uses equa trima, for a young mare just coming to her prime. Bochart observes, from Aristotle, Hist. Animal. lib.
4:that in this kind of animals alone the voice of the female is deeper than that of the male; therefore the lowing of the heifer, rather than of the bullock, is chosen by the prophet, as the more proper image to express the mourning of Moab. But I must add that the expression here is very short and obscure; and the opinions of interpreters are various in regard to the meaning. Compare <244834>Jeremiah 48:34.
Shall they go it up “They shall ascend”— For hl[y yaaleh, the
Septuagint and a MS. read in the plural, wl[y yaalu. And from this passage the parallel place in <244805>Jeremiah 48:5 must be corrected; where, for ykb hl[y yaaleh bechi, which gives no good sense, read wb hl[y yaaleh bo.
Verse 7. “Shall perish”— wdba abadu or hdba abadeh. This word seems to have been lost out of the text: it is supplied by the parallel place,
<244836>
Jeremiah 48:36. The Syriac expresses it by rb[ aber, praeteriit, “he hath passed;” and the Chaldee by wzzbty yithbazezun, diripientur.
To the brook of the willows “To the valley of willows”— That is, to Babylon. Hieron. and Jarchi in loc., both referring to <19D702>Psalm 137:2. So likewise Prideaux, Le Clerc, etc.
Verse 9. The waters of Dimon— Some have Dibon, others have Ribon and Rimon. St. Jerome observes that the same town was called both Dibon and Dimon. The reading is therefore indifferent.
Upon him that escapeth of Moab, etc. “Upon the escaped of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Admah.”— The Septuagint for hyr[ aryeh read layra ariel. Ar Moab was called also Ariel or Areopolis, Hieron.
and Theodoret. See Cellarius. They make hmda Admah also a proper name. Michaelis thinks that the Moabites might be called the remnant of Admah, as sprung from Lot and his daughters, escaped from the
destruction of that and the other cities; or, metaphorically, as the Jews are called princes of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah, chap. 1:10.
Bibliotheque Orient. Part v., p. 195. The reading of this verse is very doubtful; and the sense, in every way in which it can be read, very obscure.
— L. Calmet thinks there may be a reference to <131122>1 Chronicles 11:22, where it is said, “Benaiah slew two lion-like men of Moab,” or the two Ariels of Moab, and would therefore translate, “I will bring down the remnant of Moab like Ariel, (which Benaiah smote,) and them that are escaped like Adamah.” They shall be exterminated, as were the inhabitants of those two cities. Ariel was a double city-the river Arnon dividing it in two. This is the two Ariels of Moab-not two lion-like men, much less two lions. See Calmet on this place.
CHAPTER 16
The distress of Moab pathetically described by the son of the prince, or ruler of the land, being forced to flee for his life through the desert, that he may escape to Judea; and the young women, like young birds scared from their nest, wade helpless through the fords of Arnon, the boundary of their country, to seek protection in some foreign land, 1, 2. The prophet addresses Sion, exhorting her to show mercy to her enemies in their distress, that her throne may be established in righteousness, 3-5.
Exceeding great pride of Moab, 6. The terrible calamities about to fall upon Moab farther described by the languishing of the vine, the ceasing of the vintage, the sound of the prophet’s bowels quivering like a harp, etc., 7-13. Awful nearness of the full accomplishment of the prophecy, 14.
NOTES ON CHAP. 16
Verse 1. Send ye the lamb, etc. “I will send forth the son, etc.”— Both the reading and meaning of this verse are still more doubtful than those of the preceding. The Septuagint and Syriac read jlça eshlach, I will send, in the first person singular, future tense: the Vulgate and Talmud Babylon, read jlç shelach, send, singular imperative: some read wjlç shilchu, send ye forth, or shalechu, they send forth. The Syriac, for rk car, a lamb, reads rb bar, a son, which is confirmed by five MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi. The two first verses describe the distress of Moab on the Assyrian invasion in which even the son of the prince of the country is represented as forced to flee for his life through the desert, that he may escape to Judea; and the young women are driven forth like young birds cast out of the nest, and endeavoring to wade through the fords of the river Arnon.
Perhaps there is not so much difficulty in this verse as appears at first view.
“Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,” may receive light from <120301>2 Kings 3:4, 5: “And Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs with their wool, and one hundred thousand rams: but when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab
rebelled against Israel.” Now the prophet exhorts them to begin paying the tribute as formerly, that their punishment might be averted or mitigated.
Verse 3. Take counsel “Impart counsel”— The Vulgate renders the verbs