Isaiah 15 KJV
Oracle Against Moab
Isaiah Chapter 15: Oracle Against Moab
The chapter's lament over Moab's refugees fleeing to Zoar subtly echoes the patriarchal narrative of Lot's escape from Sodom in Genesis 19, underscoring Moab's kinship with Israel through their shared ancestor.
1he burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;
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.
3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.
4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.
5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.
9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
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Did You Know?
The chapter's lament over Moab's refugees fleeing to Zoar subtly echoes the patriarchal narrative of Lot's escape from Sodom in Genesis 19, underscoring Moab's kinship with Israel through their shared ancestor.
Verse 9 contains a deliberate Hebrew pun substituting 'Dimon' for Dibon so that the city's name evokes 'dam' (blood), intensifying the image of its streams running red.
Although an oracle of doom, the text records the prophet's own visceral grief ('my heart shall cry out for Moab'), revealing that divine judgment does not preclude divine sorrow over the nation's destruction.
The abrupt closing reference to lions preying on survivors foreshadows the continuation of the Moab oracle into Isaiah 16, where the same imagery frames a desperate appeal for shelter under the Davidic throne.
By listing specific Transjordanian towns devastated in a single night, the prophecy aligns with Assyrian campaign records of Tiglath-Pileser III, suggesting Isaiah drew on contemporary geopolitical intelligence rather than generic curse formulas.