Isaiah: Trusting The Holy One Who Rules The World (XVI)

Judgment On Moab (15:1-16:14)

Neal Pollard

The judgment oracles continue, but Moab is a different kind of subject than the heathen nations of Assyria and Babylon. Moab is a relative. Genesis 19:30-38 tells us that the nation of Moab was the result of incest between Lot and his firstborn daughter. There is intense rivalry between the Israelites and Moabites almost from the beginning. Balak, who tried to get Balaam to curse Israel, was the king of Moab (Num. 21:21ff). The first oppression in the cycle of the judges was brought by Eglon, the king of Moab (Jud. 3:12-31). Moab rebelled against Israel, causing the divided kingdom of Israel and Judah to fight Moab together (2 Ki. 3). Solomon’s heart was conquered, in part, by Moabite women who led him to worship their god, Chemosh, leading God to punish him by causing his kingdom to divide (1 Ki. 11). So, in passages like Psalm 60:8, Jeremiah 48, and our text today, inspired writers speak of Moab as the enemy of God’s people.

These two chapters neatly divide into four parts. To use James Smith’s words, there is a lamentation (15:1-9), a petition (16:1-5), a devastation (16:6-12), and a prediction (16:13-14). All of this oracle is forward-facing, looking at the future judgment of this people who could not be relied upon for help due to their own, coming demise. 

THE LAMENTATION (15:1-9)

In the north, they would be laid waste and undone (1). They would weep and wail, shave and wear sackcloth, and their soldiers would cry aloud and tremble (2-4). No place in this part of the country would be free from lamentation. Fleeing to the south would bring no relief. Not only would the weeping continue (5), but they would find destruction, desolation, and drought (6-8). The cries and wailing extended to the whole country because there was nowhere to go to escape the predators out for blood (9)! 

THE PETITION (16:1-5)

Moab cries out to Judah for help. As they escape their invaders, they must ask for permission to cross into Judah’s territory. They are refugees running from an army, and in their terror are trying to find someplace to go. They want to sit “in the tent of David” (5). They want shelter and haven until “the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land” (4).

THE DEVASTATION (16:6-12)

A recurring theme reemerges here, that of pride, arrogance, insolence, and boasting (6) being rewarded with wailing (7), mourning (7), being stricken (7), and languishing (8). Earlier days of comfort and ease are replaced with a reversal of fortunes and emotions. Raisin cakes, summer fruit, harvest, flowing wine presses, joy, gladness, and songs are now forgotten, replaced by weeping, the drenching of tears, moaning, weariness, and empty prayers (10-12). Sin carries a high price tag, which Isaiah illustrates for Moab in vivid detail.

THE PREDICTION (16:13-14)

Isaiah predicts the fate of Moab. It is specific–“in three years” (14). It is descriptive, in that they will go from a multitude to very few and feeble. God had warned about their sin in the past (13), but this would soon transpire. Chapter 20 will talk about the invasion of Sargon, and, as Smith puts it, “The prediction finds fulfillment in 715 b.c. when Sargon directed a campaign against the Arabians. To reach his destination, Sargon swept through the length of Moab from north to south murdering and plundering as he went” (The Major Prophets, 64). This is the very tragedy Isaiah is predicting for wicked Moab.

These judgment oracles are repeated reminders of a proverbial truth, that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34). No matter how secure and prosperous a country may perceive itself to be, this can change quickly. The culprit is apostasy, abandoning God’s will for self and sin.