Isaiah 15:2

He is gone up to Bajith,.... That is, Moab; the king or people of Moab, particularly the inhabitants of the above cities.

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. He - Moab personified.

Bajith signifies a house. It is supposed to be the name of a place, so called from some eminent house or temple of their idols which was in it. It is called more fully Bethbaal-meon, that is, The house of Baal’ s habitation, . Dibon; another city of Moab, as is manifest from ,22, where also was their other eminent high place. To these two places they used to resort in case of great difficulties and troubles. To weep; to offer their supplications with tears to their idols for help. Over Nebo and over Medeba; two considerable cities, anciently belonging to the Moabites, from whom they were taken by the Amorites, and from them by the Israelites, and possessed by the Reubenites, 32:3,38; but were, as it seems, recovered by the Moabites, in whose hands they now were, as is evident, for Nebo, ,22, and for Medeba, from this text. On all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off; the hair of their heads and beards (which was their ornament) was shaved, as was usual in great mournings, as hath been oft observed upon divers preceding texts. See on ,28 21:5.

Isaiah 15:2 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.Ver. 2. He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon.] Two chief places of their idolatrous service, whereunto they ran in their distress; but all in vain. The like at this day do the Papists to their Ladies of Loretto, Sichem, &c., and the Turks to their Mohammed at Mecca (situated in the same country as once Moab, and perhaps in the same place with one of these idol temples) by troops and caravans; but they do worse than lose their devotion. To weep.] And to pray too, but to no good purpose, for want of a right object, principle, motive, end. So afterwards the Romans, in a like exigent, cum coniugibus ac liberis iussi sunt a senatu supplicatum ire, pacemque exposcere Deum, omnia delubra implent, &c.; they were by the senate commanded to go with their wives and children into the temples of their gods, and there to pray, make their peace, and to seek for aid. Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba.] Cities surprised and sacked by the enemy. But this chapter is so much the more obscure to us, because the cities here mentioned are long since destroyed, and the Scripture setteth not forth the manner of their location or downfall. On all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.] This was commonly done in those eastern parts, in times and in token of lamentation. Alexander, mourning for the death of his friend Hephaestion, not only tore off his own hair, but clipped his horses’ and mules’ hair; yea, he plucked down also the battlements of the walls of the city, as Plutarch writeth. Pudeat nos lachrymis delicta non abstergere, et spiritualia damna non deplorare, saith Oecolampadius. What a shame is it then for us Christians not to weep over our sins, and to bewail our spiritual wounds and wants! Liv., lib. iii. In Vita Pelopidae.

(2) He is gone up to Bajith . . .—The noun is better taken not as a proper name, but as “the house” or “temple” of the Moabite god. In this and in the “high places” (Bamôth) we may probably recognise the Bamoth-baal (high places of Baal) which appears in Joshua 13:17, side by side with Dibon, and the Beth-Bamoth of the Moabite stone (Records of the Past, xi. 167). That stone was, it may be noted, found at Dibân, which stands on two hills, and represents the ancient city of that name. What the prophet sees as following on the destruction of Ar and Kir is the terror which leads men to join in solemn processional prayers to the temples of their gods. Nebo.—Not the mountain that bore that name as such (Deuteronomy 34:1), but a city named after the same deity. Mesha boasts of having taken it, and slain seven thousand men (Records of the Past, xi. 166). Medeba is named by him (ib.) as having been taken by Omri, and held by the Israelites for forty years. On all their heads shall be baldness . . .—This, originally, perhaps, sacrificial in its character, became at a very early period a symbol of intensest sorrow among Eastern nations. It was forbidden to Israel, probably as identified with the worship of other deities than Jehovah (Leviticus 21:5; Deuteronomy 14:1; Job 1:20; Micah 1:16; Amos 8:10).

Verse 2. He is gone to Bajith, and to Dibon] עלה הבית alah habbayith, should be rendered, he is gone to the HOUSE, i.e., to their chief temple, where they practiced idolatry. Dibon was the name of a tower where also was an idolatrous temple; thither they went to weep and pray before their idols, that they might interpose and save them from their calamities. So R. D. Kimchi. He is gone to Bajith and to Dibon: but Bishop Lowth reads Beth Dibon; this is the name of one place; and the two words are to be joined together, without the ו vau intervening. So the Chaldee and Syriac. This reading is not supported by any MS. or Version: but some MSS., instead of ער ar, have עיר ir, a city, others have עד ad, unto, and some editions have על al, upon. But all these help little, though they show that the place puzzled both the scribes and the editors. On all their heads shall be baldness, c. - "On every head there is baldness," &c.] Herodotus, ii. 36, speaks of it as a general practice among all men, except the Egyptians, to cut off their hair as a token of mourning. "Cut off thy hair, and cast it away," says Jeremiah, Jeremiah 7:29, "and take up a lamentation." Τουτονυκαιγεραςοιονοἱζυροισιβροτοισι Κειρασθαιτεκομην, βαλεειντ' αποδακρυπαρειων. HOM. Odyss. iv. 197. "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 ראשיו roshaiv, read ראש rosh. So the parallel place, Jeremiah 48:37, and so three MSS., one ancient. An ancient MS. reads על כל ראש al col rosh. Five read בכל ראש bechol rosh, on every head, with the Septuagint and Arabic. AND every head. The ו 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 גדועה geduah, shorn, others גרעה geruah, diminished. The similitude of the letters ד daleth and ר resh has likewise occasioned many mistakes. In the present case, the sense is pretty much the same with either reading. The text of Jer 48:37 has the latter, diminished. The former reading is found in twelve of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., forty of De Rossi's, and two of my own. A great number of editions have the same reading.

2–4. The wailing of Moab.

He is gone up - That is, the inhabitants of Moab in consternation have fled from their ruined cities, and have gone up to other places to weep.

2, 3. He — The collective people of Moab. Has gone up to Bajith — This was probably not a town, but a high place for a sanctuary. The word is so near to Beth — a house — as to indicate only a temple, the house of Moab’s gods.