Night coming down over the high tableland of Moab: a stone hill town on a height with a thin smoke above it, the deep gorge of the Arnon dark below, no lamps lit.

The nations judged

Isaiah 15

Moab was Israel’s old enemy. Can you grieve for people who have hurt you?

9 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 15
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

The Burden against Moab

Isaiah

Isaiah

This is the burden against Moab:

Ar in Moab is ruined,

destroyed in a night!

Kir in Moab is devastated,

destroyed in a night!

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Isaiah

Dusk on a stony hilltop above a Moabite town: an open-air shrine of a rough stone altar and a single standing stone on a fieldstone platform, a robed stone god figure on a ledge, no one there.

Dibon goes up to its temple

to weep at its high places.

Moab wails over Nebo,

as well as over Medeba.

Isaiah

Every head is shaved,

every beard is cut off.

Isaiah

Isaiah

In its streets they wear sackcloth;

on the rooftops and in the public squares

they all wail, falling down weeping.

Isaiah

Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;

their voices are heard as far as Jahaz.

Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out;

their souls tremble within.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Moab’s towns

Town after town of Moab cries out, from Heshbon in the north to Zoar at the Dead Sea’s south end. Ar, Kir and Dibon stood on the high tableland above the Arnon.

Question

Quick question

The oracle opens as if the news has just arrived by runner. Read verse 1 again before you answer.

How quickly did Ar and Kir fall?

Isaiah

My heart cries out over Moab;

her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,

as far as Eglath-shelishiyah.

Isaiah 15:5

Isaiah

Dusk on a steep stony road climbing out of a ravine: Moabite families seen from behind with bundles, jars, small children and donkeys, walking slowly up.

With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith;

they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.

Isaiah

Isaiah

The waters of Nimrim are dried up,

and the grass is withered;

the vegetation is gone,

and the greenery is no more.

Isaiah

So they carry their wealth and belongings

over the Brook of the Willows.

Isaiah

For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab.

Their wailing reaches Eglaim;

it is heard in Beer-elim.

God

Night on the Moabite plain: a dark road running away over the tableland, a few small fires of refugee camps far off along it, a maned lion’s shape small on a far ridge against the stars.

The waters of Dimon are full of blood,

but I will bring more upon Dimon—

a lion upon the fugitives of Moab

and upon the remnant of the land.

0:10

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, give me a heart that cries out even for those who have been my enemies, and let me never gloat when they fall. Amen.

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Isaiah 15

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A verse to carry with you

My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah.

Isaiah 15:5

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