Comentario sobre Isaías 15:12

The harsh prophecy concerning Moab Isaiah prophesied that Sennacherib would come upon Moab and exile them, as it is said (infra 16:14): “In three years, like the years of a hireling, shall the glory of Moab be debased.”

בליל In the night of.¹A. V., In the night. ליל is in the construct state. It is an elliptical expression for in the night of such and such a day of the week.²An ellipsis, as supposed here by I. E. would be very unnatural; the qualified word may easily be omitted, but not the qualifying; we omit, e.g the house, but not the qualifying genitive. If לֵיל could only be the construct state, the whole sentence, שדד ער מואב, should be taken as the genitive; comp. Gen. 1:1, Hos. 1:1. See I. E. on Is. 21:11, and Moznaim, On the elliptical phrases in the Bible.

for on the night that Ar of Moab was pillaged, it was as though they were sleeping silently Moab was silent as though they were sleeping silently and were unable to wage war, and on another night when Kir of Moab was pillaged, it was as though they were sleeping silently. Jonathan renders: And they were sleeping. Ar and Kir were two provinces of Moab.

מואב In Moab.³A. V., Of Moab. במואב═מואב; the preposition ב is omitted.⁴Ar and Kir being proper nouns, cannot govern a genitive; ער מואב and קיר מואב are therefore explained by I. E. to be identical with ער במואב and קיר במואב.

נדמה Was destroyed.⁵A. V., Brought to silence. Comp. ודמיתי and I shall destroy⁶On Hos. 4:5, I. E. remarks that דמה followed by אל signifies to be similar, without אל to destroy. (Hos. 4:5).

Kir. Name of a province of Moab; comp. Am. 9:7

They went up to the temple, and Dibon Moab went up to the temple, and the people of Dibon to the high places.

הבית The inhabitant of Bayith.⁷A. V., To Bajith. יושב הבית═הבית;

to weep These would weep in the temple, and these would weep atop their high places.

Bayith is a place in Moab.⁸I. E. does not take the high places as in apposition to Bajith and Dibon, because Dibon is mentioned as the name of a town which the Gadites had built (Numb. 32:34), while במה a high place, is only a sanctuary for worship and sacrifice.

To the high places. In order to worship the idols.

Their heads. The heads of the Moabites.

גרועה A cutting. It is a noun, (not a participle); comp. חבלתו חוב his pledge for the debt⁹גרועה can be participle passive fem. Kal of גדע to cut, or a noun like גבורה victory. (Ex. 32:18); the former is rejected, probably because וקן is masculine. It is, however, not clear why reference is made to Ez. 18:7; if it were only to prove the existence of a form פְּעוּלָה for nouns, better examples could be given, and even from the book of Isaiah itself; עזובה (6:12) is declared by I. E. to be a noun; and ובחברתו And with his stripes (53:5) is certainly nearer and more similar to גְּדוּעָה than is חֲבֹלָתוֹ. The quotation is perhaps intended to be an example for the omission of the preposition ב before כל וקן. This ellipsis is explained by I. E. in two ways; by assuming that the preposition is sometimes omitted, e.g. חבלתו בחוב═חבלתו חוב, or by extending the force of the preposition before בל ראשיו, and referring it also to כל זקן. (Ez. 18:7).

The preposition ב on before כל ראשיו governs also .¹⁰The passage is to be rendered, according to I. E., And on every beard is cutting.כל זקן Comp. Gen. 49:25.¹¹The words referred to are מאל אביך ויעזרך ואת שדי, which are equal to מאל אביך ויעזרך ומאת שדי By the Lord of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty.

sighing Heb. יֹרֵד, sighing and roaring with weeping. Comp. (Judges 11:37) “And I will cry, (וְיָרַדְתִּי) on the mountains,” and (Lam. 3:19) “Remember my affliction and my cry (וּמְרוּדִי).”

In their streets. In the streets of the Moabites.¹²The masculine suffix is referred to the inhabitants, the feminine to the country; in the former case יושב inhabitant or עם people, in the latter ארץ (f.) land is supplied.¹²The masculine suffix is referred to the inhabitants, the feminine to the country; in the former case יושב inhabitant or עם people, in the latter ארץ (f.) land is supplied.

גגותיה Her roofs. The roofs of the country.

ייליל Shall howl. Comp. ייטיב he will do good¹³The regular future Hiphil of יטב is יִיִטִיב, that of ילל is יִיִלִיל. (Job 24:31); in both cases the sounding of the radical is an anomaly.

because the armed men of Moab shall cry in alarm Since the armed men of Moab shall cry out towards the battle, and the soul of Moab shall cry out for itself, like one mourning for himself.

נפשו ירעה לו His soul shall cry out unto him.¹⁴A. V., His life shall be grievous unto him. The soul of Moab shall cry out¹⁵ירעה is derived by I. E. from רוע ═ ירע to cry out. unto him, or the soul of every one of the armed soldiers will shout and say.

My heart shall cry out for Moab The Jewish prophets are not like the gentile prophets. Balaam sought to uproot Israel for no reason, whereas the prophets of Israel bewail the calamity that befalls the nations.

למואב For Moab.

its bars as far as Zoar Heb. בְּרִיחֶיהָ, bars. For the entire strength of Moab shall my heart cry, as far as Zoar, which is a third born heifer; it is their main strength, like a heifer born third to its mother. Alternatively, שְׁלִשִׁיָּה means a strong heifer. Jonathan, however, renders בְּרִיחֶיהָ like בּוֹרְחֶיהָ, those of her who flee. Those who flee shall flee from them to escape to Zoar, as Lot, their forebear, fled to Zoar.

בריחיה ונו׳ Her bars, etc.¹⁶A. V., His fugitives. The bars of the country cry, etc.; comp. Howl, O gate (14:31); or Her bars have been brought to Egypt,¹⁷Zoan is, according to Targum and LXX., Tanis on the Nile. It is remarkable that I. E. identifies Zoar and Zoan, while he is generally opposed to the supposition of an interchange of letters, except אֹ הֹ וֹ יֹ. whence the king of Assyria was coming,¹⁸Against Jerusalem, after having conquered Moab. or to Zoar¹⁹See Gen. 13:10, 19:22. near Sodom; in either case ענלת שלישיה a heifer of three years oldis in apposition to Zoar;²⁰I. E. does not explain why Zoar or Zoan is called a heifer of three years old. According to Kimchi, because a heifer of three years old is big and strong. or בריחיה being equivalent to בורחיה —not to ברוחיה for how could a participle passive be formed of a neuter verb!—her fugitive men came to Zoar.

the ascent of Haluhith A place on the ascents of the mountain, named “the ascent of Haluhith,” and similarly (Jer. 48:5), “The descent of Horonaim.” Those who flee through them shall weep. All these locations are from Moab.

יעערו They shall raise up. The second ע is not radical, but the reduplication of the radical ע. The form is irregular.²¹The regular Polel of עור is יְעֹרֵרוּ.

they shall raise Heb. יְעֹעֵרוּ, they shall cry, and this is an Aramaic expression, for Jonathan renders (infra 16:10): “The treader shall not tread; I have abolished the cry,” as: “They shall not cry (יְעוֹעֲרוּן) with their voice.”

the waters of Nimrim The river of that place.

Nimrim. Name of a place.²²It is not clear whether I. E. takes only נמרים or מי נמרים together, as the name of the place; the latter is more probable.

shall be a waste from the blood of the fallen that was mixed and fell into it.

משמות Desolation.²³A. V., Desolate. It is a noun; for were it participle Hiphil of a verb (שמם) ע״ע, the ש would have Hirek (מְשִׁמּוֹת)

for the grass has dried up meaning their heroes and their kings and their rulers, and since the land of Moab is noted for its good pastureland, as we learned (Menachoth 87a): “Rams from Moab,” he therefore compared its retribution to the destruction of its pastureland.

Because of the many things they did Because they did many things, this retribution shall come upon them, for they were unappreciative, for in many places Abraham stood up for Lot: when he left Haran, and when he went to Egypt, and in his merit he was sent out of the overturning of Sodom, and he fought for him with Amraphel and his allies. For this, they should have repaid his descendants with favors. Yet they taunted them when Sennacherib exiled the Reubenites and the Gadites, and the Israelites were weeping and lamenting, and they would say to them, ‘Why are you lamenting? Aren’t you going to your father’s house? Didn’t your father Abraham come from the other side of the river?’ And this is what is stated (Zephaniah 2:8): “I heard the insults of Moab and the jeers of the children of Ammon.” Moreover, they aided Sennacherib for three years when he besieged Samaria. This is what is stated (infra 16:14): “In three years, like the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be debased.”

יתרה Abundance. A noun.

and their appointed territory Heb. וּפְקֻדָּתָם. Jonathan renders: and their boundaries that are on the western sea, shall be taken. This is an expression of appointment. Comp. (Num. 4:16) “And the appointment of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest.” The land over which they were appointed, shall be taken from them.

עשה He hath gotten. Comp. Deut. 8:17.

by the western sea, they shall take them The enemies shall take them, namely the boundaries. Alternatively, it may be interpreted as: and their visitation; i.e., their visitation that I will bring upon them will be, that to the valley of the willows they shall carry them off. The enemies shall exile them to the land of Babylon, which is the valley of the willows, as it is said (Ps. 137:2): “On willows in its midst we hung our harps.”

ופקדתם And that which they have laid up. Comp. פקדון that which hath been delivered him to keep (Lev. 5:23).—They will carry their treasures to the willows of the brook, to hide them there, or better they will carry away their treasures by boats on a certain river in their land, which flows between willows; that is, they will carry their property to another place, where it may be kept for them.

Eglaim...Beer-elim They are places on the border of Moab.

עד Unto. To be repeated before באר אלים unto Beer Elim.

her wail the wail of Moab.

and Beer- elim And to Beer elim.

The waters of Dimon The name of the river.

דם Blood. The blood of the slain of Moab.

have been filled with blood Like the name of the river. [The name דִּימוֹן resembles דַּם, blood.]

נוספות Additional evils.²⁴A. V., More. Supply רעות evils; comp. מלות עזות═עזות impertinent words (Prov. 18:23).

for I will place upon Dimon additions Its name is blood, and I will add the blood of the fallen, to fill it. Jonathan renders, however: כְּנִישַׁתמַשַׁירְיָן, the gathering of the camps, the camps joined together. This is an expression of (infra 21:1) “Join (סְפוּ) year to year”; (Deut. 29:18) “to add (סְפוֹת) the inadvertent sins.”

כי אשית For I will bring. To be repeated before לפלטת: for I will bring against the remnant of Moab a lion, namely the king of Assyria.

for the survivors of Moab is the lion The survivors which Sennacherib will leave over, Nebuchadnezzar will carry away in his time, and he will destroy them. And he is called “the lion,” as the matter is stated (Jer. 4:7): “The lion has come up out of his thicket.”

and for the remnant of Israel.

is the land [i.e,] your land.