put to the fword, or taken prifoners. Thus it fhould be reduced to filence, and cut off, expreffions which intimate its utter deftruction.--Kir was another confiderable city of Moab: it was probably the fame which is called, chap. xvi. 7. Kir-harefeth; and, in ver. 11. of that chapter, Kir-harefh. It is called Kir of Moab, to distinguish it from Kir of Affyria, mentioned by the prophet Amos*, and from Kir in Media, fpoken of, chap. xxii. 6. of this prophecy. This city of the Moabites was to fhare the fame fate with Ar, and fhould likewife be laid waste, and brought to filence, in the night-time. This mournful event would greatly increafe the forrow and lamentation of the people of Moab. 2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab fhall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads fhall be baldness, and every beard cut off. The affecting confequences of the predicted deftruction of the cities above mentioned, are here reprefented in a very moving manner. The perfon fpoken of, feems to have been the king of Moab, attended with the inhabitants of Ar and Kir, who had efcaped the general devastation. He and they went up to Bajith and Dibon, where there were probably temples, or altars, erected to the god Chemofh, in which idolatrous worship was performed to that idol. There they would bemoan their deplorable condition, and the heavy loffes which they had sustained, by the fudden defolation of their chief cities: they would afk advice and affiftance from their god, and offer facrifices unto him.-Moab fhall bowl over Nebo, and over Medeba, other two cities in the land, which were taken, plundered, and defolated. The former might derive its name from a Hebrew word, which fignifies * Amos i. 5. to prophesy; or from an Arabic word, that denotes eminence. If this conjecture be just, Nebo imported the elevated fituation of the place; or that there the pretended oracles were delivered, by the priests of the deities whom they ferved. Not far from this city ftood a mountain of the fame name, from whence Mofes, the fervant of the Lord, was favoured with a view of the land of Canaan before he died. The latter city, Medeba, was fituated by a large plain of the fame name, mentioned Joshua xiii. 16. Jofephus fpeaks of it as a city of Moab, in the time of Alexandert. Though deftroyed at the period to which this prophecy looked forward, it might afterward have been rebuilt.--On all their heads fhall be baldness, and every beard cut off. The Moabites, who furvived the destruction of their cities, to teftify the greatness of their distress and forrow, according to the custom of the times, were to tear off the hair from their heads, fo as to make themselves bald, and to cut off, or fhave their beards. Hair was anciently esteemed an ornament; and therefore when perfons bewailed the loss of friends, or other calamities with which they were vifited, they cut it off, as a token of forrow and affliction. In reference to this practice, our prophet foretels, that, in the fignificant manner here defcribed, the diftreffed Moabites were to exprefs their grief and anguish. 1 3 In their streets they fhall gird themselves with fackcloth on the tops of their houfes, and in their streets, every one fhall howl, weeping abundantly. How pungent must have been the grief of the Moabites in the day of their calamity! how affecting the demonftrations of their forrow, which are here specified! Moab was a proud and haughty people; * Deut. xxxii, 49, 50. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 15. and and therefore we suppose, that their dress corresponded with their temper and character, and, by its fineness and elegance, would fhew their pride and vanity. Their profperous condition being reverfed, and exchanged for a calamitous ftate, they were not, as formerly, to retire into their chambers to put on their gay attire; but, in the open streets, and on the tops of flat-roofed houses, they should gird themselves with fackcloth, made of the coarseft materials. The practice of wearing fackcloth was anciently used as a fymbol of forrow and diftrefs. The patriarch Jacob put it on, when he supposed that his beloved fon Jofeph was dead. When famine prevailed in Samaria, the king of Ifrael put fackcloth on his fkin, below his royal robes; and when the people of Nineveh proclaimed a faft, they put on fackcloth, from the greatest even to the leaft of them. In like manner alfo did the Moabites clothe themselves with this rough, coarse sort of stuff, at the time in which this prediction received its accomplishment. In this habit, they howled and wept abundantly, loudly bemoaning their mifery, and deploring, with tears in great plenty, the afflictive circumstances to which they were reduced. 4 And Hefhbon fhall cry, and Elealeh: their voice fhall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed foldiers of Moab fhall cry out: his life fhall be grievous unto him. The prophet proceeds farther to exhibit the moving fcenes of diftrefs which he had very affectingly represented in the foregoing verfes. Hefhbon was a famous city, that ftood over against Jericho, about twenty miles distant from Jordan. Sihon, king of the Amorites, took it from the Moabites; who afterward re-united it to their poffeffions". Elealeh was another city of Moab, fituated not far from Hefhbon; *See Jer. xlvii. 34. 45. and and is faid to have been built with it, by the children of Reuben *. The inhabitants of thefe cities were to cry and lament over the defolation of their country with a very bitter and loud lamentation.--Their voice fhall be heard even unto Jahaz; a frontier-town, in the border of their land. This circumftance fhews the great extent of the calamities which the Moabites were to fuffer at this period, and the grievous mourning which was to be made on account of their complicated diftreffes.. -Therefore the armed foldiers of Moab fhall cry out, not with fhouts of triumph and joy, but with fhriekings arifing from anguifh and confternation, from fear and terror. Not only were the weak, unarmed inhabitants of Moab to be distressed with timidity and vexation, but even the ftrong, the ftout-hearted, and thofe prepared for battle, were to be greatly afflicted and dejected.- His life fhall be grievous unto him. This was to be the lamentable condition of almoft every one of the Moabites, who would therefore be ready to prefer death to life itself. 5 My heart shall cry out for Moab, his fugitives fall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping fhall they go it up: for in the way of Horonaim, they fhall raise up a cry of deftruction. Deeply affected by a view of the approaching miferies which were to befal the Moabites, Ifaiah here expreffes the tender compaffion which he felt for them. My heart fhall cry out for Moab, in forrowful ftrains, on account of the complicated calamities which, ere long, fhall feize upon them. The words plainly intimate, the reality and intenfeness of the grief and affliction which his generous heart felt, on contemplating, by the spirit of prophecy, the awful judgments *Numb. xxxii. 37. with which the avowed enemies of his country were to be vifited. In this profpect, he was inwardly and greatly afflicted. His fugitives fhall flee to Zoar; the name of the city to which Lot, the renowned progenitor of this people, fled, when he escaped for his life out of Sodom*: and, in the season of public danger to his pofterity, that city, or one of the fame name, was to become a place of refort, for fafety, to the fugitives of Moab.An heifer of three years old has, at first fight, a ftrange appearance in this place. The words may be intended to exprefs the ftrength and vehemence with which the Moabites would howl and cry, in their flight, when they were to make a loud, doleful noise, like the lowing of a heifer. I rather fuppofe, with fome learned men, that the words, thus tranflated, may fignify the name of another place befide Zoar, to which the fugitives ran for fhelter.— For by the mounting up of Lubith with weeping shall they go it up. Whether Luhith was a rock, a city, or fortrefs, it seems to have been fituated on a confiderable eminence, and the afcent to it was probably very fteep. In climbing their way up, for fafety, the Moabites were to weep, and bewail the loffes which they had fuftained, the riches they had left behind them, the friends of which they had been bereaved, and the great dangers to which they were ftill expofed. Placing their happiness in the poffeffion of worldly good things, having nothing defirable to expect beyond this prefent life to fupport their minds, and unable to govern their paffions, they gave way to immoderate grief; they were diffolved in tears, they wept, they cried, they howled.-For in the way of Horonaim, they fhall raise up a cry of destruction. There were probably two Horons; the one of which was called the Upper, and the other the Lower, for the fake of diftinction. The name fignifies caverns; and was given to the place because it abounded with caves * See Gen. xix. 20, 21, 22. N VOL. II. and |