Isaiah 16:10

And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Out of the plentiful field.—Literally, out of the Carmel, one of Isaiah’s favourite words, as in Isaiah 10:18; Isaiah 29:17. The word for “shouting” is the hedad of the previous verse. In the words, “I have made . . .” Jehovah speaks as declaring that the work of desolation, though wrought by human hands, is yet His. The prophet, while he weeps in true human pity, is taught not to forget that the desolation is a righteous punishment.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:6-14 Those who will not be counselled, cannot be helped. More souls are ruined by pride than by any other sin whatever. Also, the very proud are commonly very passionate. With lies many seek to gain the gratification of pride and passion, but they shall not compass proud and angry projects. Moab was famous for fields and vineyards; but they shall be laid waste by the invading army. God can soon turn laughter into mourning, and joy into heaviness. In God let us always rejoice with holy triumph; in earthly things let us always rejoice with holy trembling. The prophet looks with concern on the desolations of such a pleasant country; it causes inward grief. The false gods of Moab are unable to help; and the God of Israel, the only true God, can and will make good what he has spoken. Let Moab know her ruin is very near, and prepare. The most awful declarations of Divine wrath, discover the way of escape to those who take warning. There is no escape, but by submission to the Son of David, and devoting ourselves to him. And, at length, when the appointed time comes, all the glory, prosperity, and multitude of the wicked shall perish.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And gladness ... - The gladness and joy that was commonly felt in the field producing a rich and luxuriant harvest.

Out of the plentiful field - Hebrew, 'From Carmel;' but Carmel means a fruitful field as well as the mountain of that name (see the note at Isaiah 10:18).

I have made their vintage shouting to cease - That is, by the desolation that has come upon the land. The vineyards are destroyed; and of course the shout of joy in the vintage is no more heard.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. gladness—such as is felt in gathering a rich harvest. There shall be no harvest or vintage owing to the desolation; therefore no "gladness."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The treaders: in those times they used to squeeze out the juice of their grapes by treading them with their feet, in vessels appointed for that use, Judges 9:27 Nehemiah 13:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field,.... Or "is gathered" (h), though their harvest was not; all cause of joy and gladness was removed; a plentiful field being foraged, trampled upon, and destroyed by the enemy, and left desolate without any to manure it:

and in the vineyards there shall be no singing; as there used to be by the men that gathered the grapes, and trod the wine presses; but now there would be no men in the vineyards, there being no grapes to gather or tread, as follows:

the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; the way in those times and countries being for men to tread the grapes, and the wine out of them, with their feet, in vats or vessels, and not in presses with screws and weights, as now:

I have made their vintage shouting to cease; by suffering the enemy to come in among them, which had destroyed their vintage, and so prevented their shouting, and spoiled their song.

(h) "colligetur", Montanus; "ad verbum, collectum est", Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. (Jeremiah 48:33) shouting and vintage shouting are entirely different words; the first may be translated by joyful noise as in R.V.

the treaders shall tread out no wine] i.e. there shall be none treading wine. In the last clause—“I have stilled”—the voice of Jehovah is again heard; some critics, however, read “is stilled.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - The plentiful field; Hebrew, Carmel. The word carmel seems to designate "garden," or "orchard ground" generally, without reference to the degree of fertility. It is generally rendered by our translators "fruitful field," which is right, if we regard "fruitful" as equivalent to "fruit-producing." No singing... no shouting. Those who have heard the vintage-songs in the north of Italy and elsewhere will appreciate the sadness of this silence. The treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses. Wine-presses were in or near the vineyards. They consisted of two vats, or two reservoirs cut in the rock, one above the other, with a passage of communication between them. The grapes were placed in the upper vat or reservoir, and were crushed by the naked feet of the vintagers. Sometimes as many as seven persons "trod the wine-press" together (Wilkinson, 'Ancient Egyptians,' vol. 1. p. 45). It was usual for them to sing as they trod (Jeremiah 25:30; Jeremiah 48:33). I have made their vintage shouting to cease. The prophet is the mouthpiece of God. Accidentally, as it were, he here betrays the personality which is behind him. It is not he, but God, who has caused the invasion which has reduced the vintagers to silence. Isaiah 16:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet, to whose favourite words and favourite figures Carmel belongs, both as the name of a place and as the name of a thing, now proceeds with his picture, and is plunged still more deeply into mourning. "And joy is taken away, and the rejoicing of the garden-land; and there is no exulting, no shouting in the vineyards: the treader treads out no wine in the presses; I put an end to the Hedad. Therefore my bowels sound for Moab like a harp, and my inside for Kir-heres." It is Jehovah who says "I put an end;" and consequently the words, "My bowels sound like a harp," or, as Jeremiah expresses it (Jeremiah 48:36), like flutes, might appear to be expressive of the feelings of Jehovah. And the Scriptures do not hesitate to attribute mē‛ayim (viscera) to God (e.g., Isaiah 63:15; Jeremiah 31:20). But as the prophet is the sympathizing subject throughout the whole of the prophecy, it is better, for the sake of unity, to take the words in this instance also as expressing the prophet's feelings. Just as the hand or plectrum touches the strings of the harp, so that they vibrate with sound; so did the terrible things that he had heard Jehovah say concerning Moab touch the strings of his inward parts, and cause them to resound with notes of pain. By the bowels, or rather entrails (viscera), the heart, liver, and kidneys are intended - the highest organs of the Psyche, and the sounding-board, as it were, of those "hidden sounds" which exist in every man. God conversed with the prophet "in the spirit;" but what passed there took the form of individual impressions in the domain of the soul, in which impressions the bodily organs of the psychical life sympathetically shared. Thus the prophet saw in the spirit the purpose of God concerning Moab, in which he could not and would not make any change; but it threw his soul into all the restlessness of pain.