Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 15

Verses 1-14

Lament Over the Destruction of Moab (15:1—16:14)

Among the prophecies against foreign nations in the prophetic books, Isaiah 15, 16 are unusual in their beauty and in the depth of feeling expressed. Moab as a people with a monarchy was established on the plateau east of the Dead Sea in the thirteenth century b.c. During the twelfth and eleventh centuries it had expanded northward to the area directly east of the northern tip of the Dead Sea, having taken over the tribal area previously occupied by the Israelite tribe of Reuben. In the tenth century the country had become a vassal kingdom of David (2 Kings 3:4-27), but it had been able to secure its independence shortly after 850 b.c. Most of the chief towns and geographical features of the country are mentioned in these two chapters, and the theme concerns their destruction. The whole country is to be laid waste, and in 16:9 and 11 the author of the lament expresses his own deep sorrow over what has happened.

The date, authorship, and context of this lament have occasioned considerable discussion. According to 16:13-14, the lament is something spoken concerning Moab in the past but now within three years the Lord has decreed its fulfillment. In the case of Moab during the ninth and eighth centuries, insufficient information is available to enable us to determine the background of the destruction in question. In 16:1-5 there is the suggestion that some Moabites requested asylum in Judah, and 16:4-5 looks forward to the time when a new David will sit on the throne of Jerusalem and rule Moab in justice and righteousness. In the period between 652 and 648 b.c. a great revolt against Assyria broke out in Babylon, and apparently throughout the Assyrian empire. Judah seems to have been involved, so that the Judean king was summoned to Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:11). At that time Arabian tribes of the Syrian desert overran the eastern settled lands of Syria and Palestine. It may have been this event which marked the end of Moab as an independent state. In any case the state of Moab seems to have disappeared during the course of the seventh century, and Isaiah 15-16 would appear to have been a lament of an Israelite written for the occasion. Its conclusion in the Isaiah literature indicates that it was considered prophecy (16:13-14). Certain verses of the poem are used also in a lament over Moab preserved in Jeremiah 48, although the latter lacks the touch of emotion and compassion which is in Isaiah. In any case there seems to have been a parent composition to which both these laments go back, but the history of it is very difficult to establish.