Commentaire sur Isaïe 16:14

And now, the Lord has spoken to bring the retribution near to them.

But now the Lord hath spoken, etc. God hath now revealed this prediction, namely, that three years are left till the fulfilment of the above prophecy.

In three years like the years of a hireling Because of three years that they aided Sennacherib when he besieged Samaria, and they aided him without compensation, as though they were his hirelings, the glory of Moab shall, therefore, be debased among the rest of Sennacherib’s multitudes, for he swept them away into captivity from the midst of that army and went away. And so it is related in Seder Olam (ch. 23): He swept away the Ammonites and the Moabites who aided him when he besieged Samaria three years, to fulfill what is said: “Three years like the years of a hireling, etc.” It can further be explained as follows: “Three years like the years of a hireling.” Three years were decreed upon you as a reprieve, but they will be exact, and the retribution will not be delayed further, as a hireling is exact with the years of his hire, to limit them.

As the years of a hireling, who daily counts when the end will come; so the prophet is satisfied, when he sees that the time of the calamity of Moab approaches.²⁷Just the contrary remark is made in Rashi on 15:5: that the prophets sympathised with other nations in their calamities. And the glory of Moab. His great armies. ונקלה וגו׳ Shall be diminished, and but very few will remain.²⁸A. V., Shall be contemned, with all that great multitude.

the glory of Moab shall be debased in the eyes of all the great multitude of Sennacherib.

לא כביר Not great,²⁹A. V., Feeble. quantitative; comp. כבירים many (Job 34:24), or Not great, qualitative; the meaning of the phrase is there will not be left of them any great man; comp. כביר great (Job 36:5)

and the remnant The survivors left to Moab.

not many Heb. לוֹא כַּבִּיר, an expression of a large number.