Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
The Moabites will find shelter, their farmlands will be destroyed, and their population will dwindle.
II. Photo
Moab’s farmland is destroyed: “Rejoicing and gladness are gone from the farm land; In the vineyards no shouting or cheering is heard. No more does the treader tread wine in the presses — the shouts have been silenced.” (v. 10)
III. Important Verses
1-4a: Dispatch as messenger The ruler of the land, From Sela in the wilderness To the mount of Fair Zion: “Like fugitive birds, Like nestlings driven away, Moab’s villagers linger By the fords of the Arnon. Give advice, Offer counsel. At high noon make Your shadow like night: Conceal the outcasts, Betray not the fugitives. Let Moab’s outcasts Find asylum in you; Be a shelter for them Against the despoiler.”
9-11: Therefore, As I weep for Jazer, So I weep for Sibmah’s vines; O Heshbon and Elealeh, I drench you with my tears. Ended are the shouts Over your fig and grain harvests. Rejoicing and gladness Are gone from the farm land; In the vineyards no shouting Or cheering is heard. No more does the treader Tread wine in the presses — The shouts have been silenced. Therefore, Like a lyre my heart moans for Moab, And my very soul for Kir-heres.
12: And when it has become apparent that Moab has gained nothing in the outdoor shrine, he shall come to pray in his temple — but to no avail.
14: And now the LORD has spoken: In three years, fixed like the years of a hired laborer, Moab’s population, with all its huge multitude, shall shrink. Only a remnant shall be left, of no consequence.
IV. Outline
1-4a. The Moabites shall find shelter
4b-5. Reason: equity has come to the land
6-8. Moab has been humbled
9-11. Lament for Moab
12. Futile temples
13-14. God will shrink Moab’s population
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah 1-39” The Anchor Bible vol. 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000).
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Sweeney, Marvin A. “Isaiah 1-39 with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature” The Forms of Old Testament Literature vol. 16 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996).
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