Isaiah 15

Isaiah delivers a heavy message about Moab, Israel’s neighbor east of the Dead Sea. In one night its chief towns fall, and the whole land fills with weeping, shaved heads and fleeing refugees. Even the prophet’s own heart grieves, yet the chapter ends with still more judgment coming.

Isaiah 15:1

God announces a heavy word against Moab. Its key towns, Ar and Kir, are wiped out in a single night. The speed is the shock: what seemed secure is gone before morning. The nations are not outside God’s rule.

BSA: burden (“message from God, prophecy”): A prophecy of judgment is a weight, heavy for the prophet to carry and heavy for those it falls on. night (“time of darkness, period of hardship”): The night is literal speed of attack, and also a picture of sudden darkness falling on a people.

Hebrew: מַשָּׂא (massa, H4853) — “burden, load, oracle.” The word comes from lifting a load. A prophetic word of judgment is something carried, and it weighs on the one who carries it.

See also: Jeremiah 48:1.

Isaiah 15:2

The Moabites climb to their shrines to weep, hoping their gods will help. They wail over Nebo and Medeba, and they shave their heads and beards, the common signs of deep mourning. Their religion offers them grief but no rescue.

BSA: high places (“elevations, mountains”): These were hilltop sites of worship, where people went in crisis to seek help from their gods. shaved (“bald, without hair”): Shaving the head was a visible, shameful sign of overwhelming loss.

Isaiah 15:3

Mourning fills every place: streets, rooftops, public squares. Everyone wears rough sackcloth and falls down weeping. Nowhere is left untouched, and no one is left untouched. The picture shows how total the blow is.

BSA: sackcloth (“a coarse cloth”): Wearing scratchy goat-hair cloth showed grief and humility, and made the body feel what the heart felt. wail (“howl, cry out in lament”): The word suggests a howling cry, not quiet tears.

See also: Jonah 3:5-6.

Isaiah 15:4

The cries of Heshbon and Elealeh carry as far as Jahaz, so the whole northern region sounds the alarm. Even Moab’s soldiers, trained to be brave, cry out and tremble inside. Their strength gives way.

BSA: soldiers (“armed men, warriors”): Even the men armed for battle lose their courage, which shows how hopeless the situation is. souls (“the essence of a person, their being”): The trembling goes to the center of the person, not just the surface.

Isaiah 15:5

Isaiah himself grieves over Moab. God’s messenger does not delight in judgment on a neighbor. The refugees run south toward Zoar and climb the hill of Luhith in tears. The road is filled with people mourning their ruin.

BSA: heart (“innermost being, deepest emotions”): The prophet feels the sorrow deeply, and this suggests the compassion of God for those he judges. fugitives (“those who have escaped, refugees”): These are survivors with nowhere to go, driven from their homes.

See also: Ezekiel 33:11; Isaiah 16:11.

Isaiah 15:6

The water of Nimrim dries up and the green growth dies. A land once fruitful becomes bare. Judgment touches the very ground, so the people lose their food as well as their cities.

BSA: dried up (“desolate, withered away”): The streams fail, so the land itself becomes a picture of the people’s emptiness.

Isaiah 15:7

The survivors gather whatever wealth they have saved and carry it over the Brook of the Willows. This is probably the border stream on the way out of Moab. They are not hoarding but escaping, with a lifetime of savings on their backs.

BSA: wealth (“abundance, riches”): What they stored up with such care is now only a load to carry into exile.

See also: Luke 12:19-20.

Isaiah 15:8

The cry of distress travels around the whole land, from one border to the other, from Eglaim to Beer-elim. No corner of Moab is free from it. The picture is of a nation entirely wrapped in sorrow.

BSA: echoes (“is heard, goes around”): The cry circles the land like a ring, leaving no region outside the grief. border (“boundary, limit”): The grief fills the land from edge to edge.

Isaiah 15:9

The waters of Dimon, probably another name or wordplay for Dibon, run red with blood. Yet God says more is coming: a lion will fall on those who escaped and on whoever remains. Judgment is not yet finished, and the survivors are not safe.

BSA: remnant (“what is left, remaining ones”): Those left after the first blow will face another. Elsewhere the word carries hope, but here it is a warning.

See also: Isaiah 16:1-5.