Isaiah 15 : A Prophecy Against Moab

^{Chapter 15 records Isaiah's prophecy about the divine judgement that is to befall the Moabites.  The land of Moab was east of the Dead Sea. This prophecy was fulfilled within three years of Isaiah making it, and helped to give credibility to all of his prophesies.} 

^{The Moabites were descendants of Lot through his incestuous relationship with the older of his two daughters to whom she bore a son whom she named Moab. His younger daughter also had a son by him named Ben-Ammi, and he became the father of the Ammonites. Both Moab and Ammon were enemies of Israel. (Read Genesis 19: 30-38)}

^{The Moabites were Israel's enemy from the beginning, and they oppressed Israel, invaded their land and fought against both Saul and David. Because they had set themselves against Israel and treated it so badly, they would be severely dealt with by God.}

¹ A prophecy against Moab:   Ar in Moab is ruined,
   destroyed in a night!
Kir in Moab is ruined,
   destroyed in a night!
² Dibon goes up to its temple,
   to its high places to weep;
   Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba.
Every head is shaved
   and every beard cut off.
³ In the streets they wear sackcloth;
   on the roofs and in the public squares
they all wail,
   prostrate with weeping.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out,
   their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz.
Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out,
   and their hearts are faint.
 ⁵ My heart cries out over Moab;
   her fugitives flee as far as Zoar,
   as far as Eglath Shelishiyah.
They go up the hill to Luhith,
   weeping as they go;
on the road to Horonaim
   they lament their destruction.
⁶ The waters of Nimrim are dried up
   and the grass is withered;
the vegetation is gone
   and nothing green is left.
⁷ So the wealth they have acquired and stored up
   they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.
⁸ Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab;
   their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim,
   their lamentation as far as Beer Elim.
⁹ The waters of Dimon are full of blood,
   but I will bring still more upon Dimon —
a lion upon the fugitives of Moab
   and upon those who remain in the land.