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An Oracle concerning Moab15 An oracle concerning Moab.
Because Ar is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone; because Kir is laid waste in a night, Moab is undone. 2 Dibon has gone up to the temple, to the high places to weep; over Nebo and over Medeba Moab wails. On every head is baldness, every beard is shorn; 3 in the streets they bind on sackcloth; on the housetops and in the squares everyone wails and melts in tears. 4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far as Jahaz; therefore the loins of Moab quiver; his soul trembles. 5 My heart cries out for Moab; his fugitives flee to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah. For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction; 6 the waters of Nimrim are a desolation; the grass is withered, the new growth fails, the verdure is no more. 7 Therefore the abundance they have gained and what they have laid up they carry away over the Wadi of the Willows. 8 For a cry has gone around the land of Moab; the wailing reaches to Eglaim, the wailing reaches to Beer-elim. 9 For the waters of Dibon are full of blood; yet I will bring upon Dibon even more— a lion for those of Moab who escape, for the remnant of the land. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
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9. For the waters of Dimon shall be filled with blood. 246246 {Bogus footnote} Here he describes not only grief and howling, flight or trembling, or the covetousness of enemies in plundering their wealth, but the slaughter of men. How great must this have been, when large and magnificent rivers, such as Dimon was, are filled with blood! For I will lay upon Dimon additions. 247247 {Bogus footnote} By additions he means that the Lord, in whose name he speaks, will multiply the murders; so that the dead bodies shall be heaped up, and there shall be no end to cruelty and slaying. Now, though the Assyrians were cruel in this slaughter, yet the Lord was not cruel; for he justly punished the barbarity of the Moabites which they basely exercised towards the Jews, on whom they ought to have had compassion. It was right that they should suffer the same punishment which they had inflicted on others. To those who have escaped of Moab lions. These also are the additions of which he spake, or, at least, a part of them. This may be regarded as the copestone of that calamity; so that if any detachments of the enemy attempted to escape, and to rescue themselves from the slaughter, they had to encounter lions 248248 {Bogus footnote} and wild beasts, by which they were devoured. “They will, indeed,” says he, “rescue themselves from the slaughter, but they will not on that account be safe, nor will they escape the hand of God.” And this is the true meaning of the Prophet, if we carefully examine the scope of the whole passage; for he intended to deepen the picture of that distressing calamity by adding, that even the small remnant which shall be rescued from the slaughter will fall into the jaws of lions. The hand of the Lord pursues the wicked in such a manner that they cannot in any way escape; for if they avoid one danger, they immediately meet with another. Let us remember that these things are spoken by the Prophet for the consolation of the godly, that they may fortify their minds by some promise against the cruelty of their enemies, who shall at length be destroyed, and shall nowhere find a refuge either in their gods, or in fortresses, or in lurking-places, or in flight. |