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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. XVI.
This chapter continues and concludes the burden of Moab. In it,
I. The prophet gives good counsel to the Moabites, to reform what was
amiss among them, and particularly to be kind to God’s people, as the
likeliest way to prevent the judgments before threatened,
II. Fearing they would not take this counsel (they were so proud), he
goes on to foretel the lamentable devastation of their country, and the
confusion they should be brought to, and this within three years,
| Exhortations to Moab. | B. C. 725. |
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1 Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the
wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
2 For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the
nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.
3 Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night
in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him
that wandereth.
4 Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to
them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an
end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the
land.
5 And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall
sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and
seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.
God has made it to appear that he delights not in the ruin of sinners
by telling them what they may do to prevent the ruin; so he does here
to Moab.
I. He advises them to be just to the house of David, and to pay the
tribute they had formerly covenanted to pay to the kings of his line
(v. 1):
Send you the lamb to the ruler of the land. David made the
Moabites tributaries to him,
They became his servants, and brought gifts. Afterwards they
paid their tribute to the kings of Israel
and paid it in lambs. Now the prophet requires them to pay it to
Hezekiah. Let it be raised and levied from all parts of the country,
from Selah, a frontier city of Moab on the one side, to the
wilderness, a boundary of the kingdom on the other side: and let it
be sent, where it should be sent, to the mount of the daughter of
Zion, the city of David. Some take it as an advice to send a lamb
for a sacrifice to God, the ruler of the earth (so it may be
read), the Lord of the whole earth, ruler of all lands, the land of
Moab as well as the land of Israel, “Send it to the temple built on
Mount Zion.” And some think it is in this sense spoken ironically,
upbraiding the Moabites with their folly in delaying to repent and make
their peace with God. “Now you would be glad to send a lamb to Mount
Zion, to make the God of Israel your friend; but it is too late: the
decree has gone forth, the consumption is determined, and the
daughters of Moab shall be cast out as a wandering bird,”
v. 2.
I rather take it as good advice seriously given, like that of Daniel to
Nebuchadnezzar when he was reading him his doom,
Break off thy sins by righteousness, if it may be a lengthening of
thy tranquillity. And it is applicable to the great gospel duty of
submission to Christ, as the ruler of the land, and our ruler: “Send
him the lamb, the best you have, yourselves a living sacrifice. When
you come to God, the great ruler, come in the name of the Lamb, the
Lamb of God. For else it shall be” (so we may read it) “that,
as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so shall the daughters of
Moab be. If you will not pay your quit-rent, your just tribute to
the king of Judah, you shall be turned out of your houses: The
daughters of Moab (the country villages, or the women of your
country) shall flutter about the fords of Arnon, attempting that
way to make their escape to some other land, like a wandering bird
thrown out of the nest half-fledged.” Those that will not submit to
Christ, nor be gathered under the shadow of his wings, shall be as a
bird that wanders from her nest, that shall either be snatched up
by the next bird of prey or shall wander endlessly in continual
frights. Those that will not yield to the fear of God shall be made to
yield to the fear of every thing else.
II. He advises them to be kind to the seed of Israel
(v. 3):
“Take counsel, call a convention, and consult among yourselves what is
fit to be done in the present critical juncture; and you will find it
your best way to execute judgment, to reverse all the unrighteous
decrees you have made, by which you have put hardships upon the people
of God, and, in token of your repentance for them, study now how to
oblige them, and this shall be accepted of God more than all
burnt-offering and sacrifice.”
1. The prophet foresaw some storm coming upon the people of God,
perhaps the good people of the ten tribes, or of the two and a half on
the other side Jordan, whose country joined to that of Moab, and who,
by the merciful providence of God, escaped the fury of the Assyrian
army, had their lives given them for a prey, and were reserved for
better times, but were put to the utmost extremity to shift for their
own safety. The danger and trouble they were in were like the scorching
heat at noon; the face of the spoiler was very fierce upon them and the
oppressor and extortioner were ready to swallow them up after stripping
them of what they had.
2. He bespeaks a shelter for them in the land of Moab, when their own
land was made too hot for them. This judgment they must execute; thus
wisely must they do for themselves, and thus kindly must they deal with
the people of God. If they would themselves continue in their
habitations, let them now open their doors to the distressed dispersed
members of God’s church, and be to them like a cool shade to those that
bear the burden and heat of the day. Let them not discover those
that absconded among them, nor deliver them up to the pursuers that
made search for them: “Betray not him that wandereth, nor
deliver him up” (as the Edomites did,
“but hide the outcasts.” This was that good work by which
Rahab’s faith was justified, and proved to be sincere,
“Nay, do not only hide them for a time, but, if there be occasion, let
them be naturalized: Let my outcasts dwell with thee, Moab
(v. 4);
find a lodging for them and be thou a covert to them. Let them
be taken under the protection of the government, though they are but
poor, and likely to be a charge to thee.” Note,
(1.) It is often the lot even of those who are Israelites indeed to be
outcasts, driven out of house and harbour by persecution or war,
(2.) God owns them when men reject and disown them. They are
outcasts, but they are my outcasts. The Lord knows those
that are his wherever he finds them, even where no one else knows them.
(3.) God will find a rest and shelter for his outcasts; for, though
they are persecuted, they are not forsaken. He will himself be their
dwelling-place if they have no other, and in him they shall be at home.
(4.) God can, when he pleases, raise up friends for his people even
among Moabites, when they can find none in all the land of Israel that
can and dare shelter them. The earth often helps the woman,
(5.) Those that expect to find favour when they are in trouble
themselves must show favour to those that are in trouble; and what
service is done to God’s outcasts shall no doubt be recompensed one way
or other.
3. He assures them of the mercy God had in store for his people.
(1.) That they should not long need their kindness, or be troublesome
to them: For the extortioner is almost at an end already, and
the spoiler ceases. God’s people shall not be long outcasts; they
shall have tribulation ten days
(Rev. ii. 10),
and that is all. The spoiler would never cease spoiling if he might
have his will; but God has him in a chain. Hitherto he shall go, but
no further.
(2.) That they should, ere long, be in a capacity to return their
kindness
(v. 5):
“Though the throne of the ten tribes be sunk and overturned, yet the
throne of David shall be established in mercy, by the mercy they
receive from God and the mercy they show to others; and by the same
methods may your throne be established if you please.” It would engage
great men to be kind to the people of God if they would but observe, as
they easily might, how often such conduct brings the blessing of God
upon kingdoms and families. “Make Hezekiah your friend, for you will
find it your interest to do so upon the account both of the grace of
God in him and the presence of God with him. He shall sit upon the
throne in truth, and then he does indeed sit in honour and sit
firmly. Then he shall sit judging, and will then be a protector
to those that have been a shelter to the people of God.” And see in him
the character of a good magistrate.
[1.] He shall seek judgment; that is, he shall seek occasions of
doing right to those that are wronged, and shall punish the injurious
even before they are complained of: or he shall diligently search into
every cause brought before him, that he may find where the right lies.
[2.] He shall hasten righteousness, and not delay to do justice,
nor keep those long waiting that make application to him for the
redress of their grievances. Though he seeks judgment, and deliberates
upon it, yet he does not, under pretence of deliberation, stay the
progress of the streams of justice. Let the Moabites take example by
this, and then assure themselves that their state shall be
established.
| The Pride of Moab; The Threatening against Moab; The Doom of Moab. | B. C. 725. |
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6 We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud:
even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but
his lies shall not be so.
7 Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for
the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are
stricken.
8 For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah:
the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants
thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through
the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone
over the sea.
9 Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of
Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh:
for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is
fallen.
10 And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful
field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither
shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in
their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and
mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.
12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is
weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to
pray; but he shall not prevail.
13 This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab
since that time.
14 But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as
the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be
contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall
be very small and feeble.
Here we have,
I. The sins with which Moab is charged,
v. 6.
The prophet seems to check himself for going about to give good counsel
to the Moabites, concluding they would not take the advice he gave
them. He told them their duty (whether they would hear or whether they
would forbear), but despairs of working any good upon them; he would
have healed them, but they would not be healed. Those that will not be
counselled cannot be helped. Their sins were,
1. Pride. This is most insisted upon; for perhaps there are more
precious souls ruined by pride than by any one lust whatsoever. The
Moabites were notorious for this: “We have heard in both ears
of the pride of Moab; it is what all their neighbours cry out
shame upon them for. He is very proud; the body of the nation is
so, forgetting the baseness of their origin and the brand of infamy
fastened upon them by that law of God which forbade a Moabite to
enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever,
Deut. xxiii. 3.
We have heard of his haughtiness and his pride. It is not the
rash and rigid censure of one of two concerning them, but it is the
character which all that know them will give of them. They are a proud
people, and therefore they will not take good counsel when it is given
them. They think themselves too wise to be advised; therefore they will
not take example by Hezekiah to do justly and love mercy. They scorn to
make him their pattern, for they think themselves able to teach him.
They are proud, and therefore will not be subject to God himself nor
regard the warnings he gives them. The wicked, in the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God. They are proud, and therefore
will not entertain and protect God’s outcasts; they scorn to have any
thing to do with them.” But this is not all:–
2. “We have heard of his wrath too (for those that are very
proud are commonly very passionate), particularly his wrath against the
people of God, whom therefore he will rather persecute than protect.
3. It is with his lies that he gains the gratifications of his
pride and his passion; but his lies shall not be so; he shall
not compass his proud and angry projects as he hoped he should.” Some
read it, His haughtiness, his pride, and his wrath, are greater than
his strength. “We know that, if we lay at his mercy, we should find
no mercy with him, but he has not power equal to his malice. His pride
draws down ruin upon him; for it is the preface to destruction, and he
has not strength to ward it off.”
II. The sorrows with which Moab is threatened
(v. 7):
Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab. All the inhabitants shall
bitterly lament the ruin of their country. They shall complain one to
another: Every one shall howl in despair, and not one shall
either see any cause or have any heart to encourage his friend.
Observe,
1. The causes of this sorrow.
(1.) The destruction of their cities: For the foundations of
Kir-haraseth shall you mourn. That great and strong city, which had
held out against a mighty force
should now be levelled with the ground, either burnt or broken down,
and its foundations stricken, bruised and broken (so the word
signifies); they shall howl when they see their splendid cities turned
into ruinous heaps.
(2.) The desolation of their country. Moab was famous for its fields
and vineyards; but those shall all be laid waste by the invading army,
See,
[1.] What a fruitful pleasant country they had, as the garden of the
Lord,
It was planted with choice and noble vines, with principal
plants, which reached even to Jazer, a city in the tribe of
Gad. The luxuriant branches of their vines wandered, and wound
themselves along the ranges on which they were spread, even through
the wilderness of Moab. There were vineyards there. Nay, they were
stretched out, and went even to the sea, the Dead Sea:
the best grapes grew in their hedge-rows.
[2.] How merry and pleasant they had been in it. Many a time they had
shouted for their summer fruits, and for their harvest, as the
country people sometimes do with us when they have cut down all their
corn. They had had joy and gladness in their fields and
vineyards, singing and shouting at the treading of their
grapes. Nothing is said of their praising God for their abundance,
and giving him the glory of it. If they had made it the matter of
their thanksgiving, they might still have had it the food and fuel of
their lusts; see therefore,
[3.] How they should be stripped of all. “The fields shall
languish, all the fruits of them being carried away or trodden
down; they cannot now enrich their owners as they have done, and
therefore they languish. The soldiers, called here the lords of the
heathen, shall break down all the plants, though they were
principal plants, the choicest that could be got. Now the
shouting for the enjoyment of the summer fruits has fallen, and is
turned into howling for the loss of them. The joy of harvest has
ceased; there is no more singing, no more shouting, for the treading
out of wine. They have not what they have had to rejoice in, nor have
they a disposition to rejoice; the ruin of their country has marred
their mirth.” Note, First, God can easily change the note of
those that are most addicted to mirth and pleasure, can soon turn their
laughter into mourning and their joy into heaviness. Secondly,
Joy in God is, upon this account, far better than the joy of harvest,
that it is what we cannot be robbed of,
Destroy the vines and the fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a
carnal heart to cease,
But a gracious soul can rejoice in the Lord as the God of its salvation
even when the fig-tree does not blossom and there is no fruit in the
vine,
In God therefore let us always rejoice with a holy triumph, and in
other things let us always rejoice with a holy trembling, rejoice as
though we rejoiced not.
2. The concurrence of the prophet with them in this sorrow: “I will
with weeping bewail Jazer, and the vine of Sibmah, and look with a
compassionate concern upon the desolations of such a pleasant country.
I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon! and mingle them with
thy tears;” nay
(v. 11),
it appears to be an inward grief: My bowels shall sound like a harp
for Moab; it should make such an impression upon him that he should
feel an inward trembling, like that of the strings of a harp when it is
played upon. It well becomes God’s prophets to acquaint themselves with
grief; the great prophet did so. The afflictions of the world, as well
as those of the church, should be afflictions to us. See
III. In the close of the chapter we have,
1. The insufficiency of the gods of Moab, the false gods, to help them,
“Moab shall be soon weary of the high place. He shall spend his
spirits and strength in vain in praying to his idols; they cannot help
him, and he shall be convinced that they cannot.” It is seen that it is
to no purpose to expect any relief from the high places on earth; it
must come from above the hills. Men are generally so stupid that they
will not believe, till they are made to see, the vanity of idols and of
all creature-confidences, nor will come off from them till they are
made weary of them. But, when he is weary of his high places, he will
not go, as he should, to God’s sanctuary, but to his sanctuary,
to the temple of Chemosh, the principal idol of Moab (so it is
generally understood); and he shall pray there to as little purpose,
and as little to his own case and satisfaction, as he did in his high
places; for, whatever honours idolaters give to their idols, they do
not thereby make them at all the better able to help them. Whether they
are the dii majorum gentium–gods of the higher order, or
minorum–of the lower order, they are alike the creatures of
men’s fancy and the work of men’s hands. Perhaps it may be meant of
their coming to God’s sanctuary. When they found they could have no
succours from their own high places some of them would come to the
temple of God at Jerusalem, to pray there, but in vain; he will justly
send them back to the gods whom they have served,
Judg. x. 14.
2. The sufficiency of the God of Israel, the only true God, to make
good what he had spoken against them.
(1.) The thing itself was long since determined
(v. 13):
This is the word, this is the thing, that the Lord has spoken
concerning Moab, since the time that he began to be so proud, and
insolent, and abusive to God’s people. The country was long ago doomed
to ruin; this was enough to give an assurance of it that it is the
word which the Lord has spoken; and, as he will never unsay what he
has spoken, so all the power of hell and earth cannot gainsay it, or
obstruct the execution of it.
(2.) Now it was made known when it should be done. The time was before
fixed in the counsel of God, but now it was revealed: The Lord has
spoken that it shall be within three years,
v. 14.
It is not for us to know, or covet to know, the times and the
seasons, any further than God has thought fit to make them known,
and so far we may and must take notice of them. See how God makes known
his mind by degrees; the light of divine revelation shone more and
more, and so does the light of divine grace in the heart. Observe,
[1.] The sentence passed upon Moab: The glory of Moab shall be
contemned, that is, it shall be contemptible, when all those things
they have gloried in shall come to nothing. Such is the glory of this
world, so fading and uncertain, admired awhile, but soon slighted. Let
that therefore which will soon be contemptible in the eyes of others be
always contemptible in our eyes in comparison with the far more
exceeding weight of glory. It was the glory of Moab that their
country was very populous and their forces were courageous; but where
is her glory when all that great multitude is in a manner swept away,
some by one judgment and some by another, and the little remnant that
is left shall be very small and feeble, not able to bear up
under their own griefs, much less to make head against their enemies’
insults? Let not therefore the strong glory in their strength nor the
many in their numbers.
[2.] The time fixed for the execution of this sentence: Within three
years, as the years of a hireling, that is, at the three years’ end
exactly, for a servant that is hired for a certain term keeps account
to a day. Let Moab know that her ruin is very near, and prepare
accordingly. Fair warning is given, and with it space to repent, which
if they had improved, as Nineveh did, we have reason to think the
judgments threatened would have been prevented.
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