For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea. Sermons
I. MOAB'S SELF-LAMENTATION. "Moab will wail for Moab; everything will wail." In her misery and distress, she reflects on her beauty. A fair land is like a fair maiden, and her desolation excites the like poignant self-pity. "I know not a greater grief," said Dante, "than to recall the happy time in the midst of distress." The picture of Moab's former happiness. The vineyard and all its gladdening associations represent the endearing charms of the land. These are no more to be enjoyed in the smitten and drooping fields of Kir-Hareseth and Heshbon. Once a splendid vine threw its noble branches and its trailing shoots far over the borders of the land to the north, to Jazer, near the Dead Sea. The lords of the heathen have beaten it down. II. THE PROPHET'S SYMPATHY WITH THE LAMENT. He, too, will bewail the noble vine of Sibmah; he will water Heshbon and Elealeh with his tears, as he thinks of the wild uproar that fell upon the midst of the harvest of fruit and corn. In the irony of grief he uses a figure of speech very expressive. The hedad was the shout raised by the treaders of the grapes. It was a mighty heaven-rending cry, giving forth in full volume the joy and thankfulness of the rustic heart of the tillers (cf. Jeremiah 25:30). There was another shout of different import, one that fell like a knell upon the ear - the yell of a swarming host of invaders, of Jeremiah 51:14, bursting in upon the summer fruits and the vintage (Jeremiah 48:32). Then, instead of the rich flow of the trodden grape, there will be "the red rain that makes the battle-harvest grow." The silence of desolation succeeds to the sounds of rejoicing. There is a silence "more dreadful than severest sounds." It is the silence of scenes once thronged with life, and resounding with cheerful songs and cries. The prophet, as he muses, finds "Remembrance wake with all her busy train, "The sounds of population fail; III. A GLIMPSE OF HOPE. He sorrows over Moab, because Moab does not know the living God. But "when Moab, in the pressure of the further calamities of the future, again appears, as now in his idol-temple, or wearies himself, vainly wringing his hands, and in utter despair, then he wilt be ashamed of his god Chemosh, and learn true humility in Jehovah." So Ewald, who thinks that the last words, necessary to complete the sense, have been lost. Like the priests of Baal calling upon their god from morning to noon, and saying, "O Baal, hear us!" and when there was no voice, nor any that answered, leaping upon the altar, crying and gashing themselves with knives, so will the Moabites, in the extremity of their despair, appeal to Chemosh. What is more sad in the life of superstition than this passionate resort to any means, however irrational, to wring a favor from the deities of special shrines and sanctuaries? As if the true help were not ever near; as if, that being neglected, there could be hope elsewhere! Calvin observes, "While idolaters have their ordinary temples and places of worship, if any uncommon calamity befalls them, they go to another temple more sacred than the rest, expecting that there they will be more abundantly favored with the presence of their god. In like manner, the Papists of the present day, when they are reduced to any uncommon danger (for this fault has existed in all ages), think that they will more readily obtain their wish by running to St. Claude, or to Mary of Loretto, or to any other celebrated idol, than if they assembled in some neighboring church. They resolve that their extraordinary prayers shall be offered up in a church at a great distance. It is in this sense that the prophet applies the term sanctuary to that most highly celebrated among the Moabites, and says they will go to it without any advantage." One cannot help thinking of those melancholy pilgrimages to Lourdes, that focus of superstition in our own times. So do men continue to hew out to themselves cisterns that hold no water; and so necessary still is the living word of prophecy, to remind the world that only in a genuine spiritual relation to the Eternal, only in a faith and worship which is independent of place, because ever fixed in the heart, can true comfort and help be found. IV. RATIFICATION OF THE PROPHECY. It is the word spoken long ago by Jehovah concerning Moab. And now he speaks to solemn effect, that in three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab will be disgraced, together with all the multitude of the great; only a very small remnant will be left. The days or years of the day-laborer or hireling, are those strictly measured, neither more nor less (so in Isaiah 21:16; cf. 20:3). "Of working time the hirer remits nothing, and the laborer gives nothing in." The statement is to be taken in its exactness. As the laborer knows that his time is appointed, and may look for an end of his toil when the shadow comes (Job 7:1, 2), as life itself must surely come to its close (Job 14:6), so with the long-suffering of God, so with the iniquity of nations and men, so with every abuse and oppression; nay, so with every nation and institution. "They have their day and cease to be; "Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, (J. Parker, D. D.) People David, IsaiahPlaces Arnon, Elealeh, Heshbon, Jazer, Kir-hareseth, Moab, Sela, Sibmah, ZionTopics Abroad, Beat, Beyond, Branches, Broken, Choice, Choicest, Clusters, Dead, Desert, Deserts, Extended, Fields, Heathen, Heshbon, Jaazer, Jazer, Languish, Lords, Nations, Overcome, Passed, Plants, Principal, Produce, Reached, Rulers, Shoots, Sibmah, Spread, Strayed, Stretched, Struck, Tendrils, Themselves, Thereof, Trampled, Vine, Vine-plants, Vines, Wandered, Waste, Wilderness, Wither, WitheredOutline 1. Moab is exhorted to yield obedience to the throne of David6. Moab is threatened for her pride 9. The prophet bewails her 12. The judgment of Moab Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 16:8-9Library IsaiahCHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as … John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Isaiah 16:8 NIVIsaiah 16:8 NLT Isaiah 16:8 ESV Isaiah 16:8 NASB Isaiah 16:8 KJV Isaiah 16:8 Bible Apps Isaiah 16:8 Parallel Isaiah 16:8 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 16:8 Chinese Bible Isaiah 16:8 French Bible Isaiah 16:8 German Bible Isaiah 16:8 Commentaries Bible Hub |