---
title: "Isaiah 15 - Study King James Bible with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary"
description: "Read Isaiah 15 with keil and delitzsch old testament commentary commentary. 1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought t"
image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/keil-and-delitzsch-old-testament-commentary/isaiah/15"
---

[ Read](/kjv/isaiah/15)[ Commentary](/study/isaiah/15)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/isaiah/15) Audio

 1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, *and* brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, *and* brought to silence;*

 2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads *shall be* baldness, *and* every beard cut off.

 3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.*

 4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard *even* unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.

 5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives *shall flee* unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.**

 6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.*

 7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.*

 8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.

 9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.*
 
[Isaiah 14](/study/isaiah/14) [Isaiah 16](/study/isaiah/16)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
There is no other prophecy in the book of Isaiah in which the heart of the prophet is so painfully affected by what his mind sees, and his mouth is obliged to prophesy. All that he predicts evokes his deepest sympathy, just as if he himself belonged to the unfortunate nation to which he is called to be a messenger of woe. He commences with an utterance of amazement. *“Oracle concerning Moab! for in a night 'Ar-Moab is laid waste, destroyed; for in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, destroyed.”* The *ci* (for) is explanatory in both instances, and not simply affirmative, or, as Knobel maintains, recitative, and therefore unmeaning. The prophet justifies the peculiar heading to his prophecy from the horrible vision given him to see, and takes us at once into the very heart of the vision, as in [Isaiah 17:1](/kjv/isaiah/17/1); [Isaiah 23:1](/kjv/isaiah/23/1). *'Ar Moab* (in which *'Ar* is Moabitish for *'Ir*; cf., [Jeremiah 49:3](/kjv/jeremiah/49/3), where we find *'Ai* written instead of *'Ar*, which we should naturally expect) is the name of the capital of Moab (Grecized, *Areopolis*), which was situated to the south of the Arnon, at present a large field of ruins, with a village of the name of *Rabba*. *Kir Moab* (in which *Kir* is the Moabitish for *Kiryah*) was the chief fortress of Joab, which was situated to the south-east of *Ar*, the present *Kerek*, where there is still a town with a fortification upon a rock, which can be seen from Jerusalem with a telescope on a clear day, and forms so thoroughly one mass with the rock, that in 1834, when Ibrahim Pasha resolved to pull it down, he was obliged to relinquish the project. The identity of *Kir* and *Kerek* is unquestionable, but that of *Ar* and *Rabba* has been disputed; and on the ground of [Numbers 22:36](/kjv/numbers/22/36), where it seems to be placed nearer the Arnon, it has been transposed to the ruins on the pasture land at the confluence of the *Lejûm* and *Mujib* (= “the city that is by the river” in [Deuteronomy 2:36](/kjv/deuteronomy/2/36) and [Joshua 13:9](/kjv/joshua/13/9), [Joshua 13:16](/kjv/joshua/13/16): see Comm. on [Numbers 21:15](/kjv/numbers/21/15)) - a conjecture which has this against it, that the name *Areopolis*, which has been formed from *Ar*, is attached to the “*metropolis civitas Ar*,” which was called *Rabba* as the metropolis, and of which Jerome relates (on the passage before us), as an event associated with his own childhood, that it was then destroyed by an earthquake (probably in 342). The two names of the cities are used as masculine here, like *Dammesek* in [Isaiah 17:1](/kjv/isaiah/17/1), and *Tzor* in [Isaiah 23:1](/kjv/isaiah/23/1), though it cannot therefore be said, as at [Micah 5:1](/kjv/micah/5/1), that the *city* stands for the *inhabitants* (Ges. *Lehrgebäude*, p. 469). “*In a night* ” ( ליל absolute, as in [Isaiah 21:11](/kjv/isaiah/21/11), not construct, which would give an illogical assertion, as *shuddad* and *nidmâh* are almost coincident, so far as the sense is concerned) the two pillars of the strength of Moab are overthrown. In the space of a night, and therefore very suddenly ([Isaiah 17:14](/kjv/isaiah/17/14)), Moab is destroyed. The prophet repeats twice what it would have been quite sufficient to say once, just as if he had been condemned to keep his eye fixed upon the awful spectacle (on the *asyndeton*, see at [Isaiah 33:9](/kjv/isaiah/33/9); and on the *anadiplosis*, [Isaiah 15:8](/kjv/isaiah/15/8); [Isaiah 8:9](/kjv/isaiah/8/9); [Isaiah 21:11](/kjv/isaiah/21/11); [Isaiah 17:12-13](/kjv/isaiah/17/12-13)). His first sensation is that of horror.

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