*H The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed in the night, it is silent.
Ver. 1. Moab. Which would be visited in three years' time (c. xvi. 14.) either by Ezechias, or by Sennacherib, though history be silent on this head. The Moabites had been very cruel. Amos i. and ii. — Night. Suddenly. C. — Their misery was so much the greater. W. — Ar. The capital. C.
*H The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places to mourn over Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.
Ver. 2. House. Prot. "he is come up to Baiith," (H.) or the royal family is gone to the temple of their idol, Chamos, to lament. S. Jer. M. C. — Shaven. As in mourning. Jer. xlviii. 37.
* Footnote * Jeremias 48 : 37
For every head shall be bald, and every beard shall be shaven: all hands shall be tied together, and upon every back there shall be haircloth.* Footnote * Ezechiel 7 : 18
And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and fear shall cover them and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon all their heads.*H Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard even to Jasa. For this shall the well appointed men of Moab howl, his soul shall howl to itself.
Ver. 4. Itself. Every one shall deplore his own distress.
*H My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall flee unto Segor a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping: and in the way of Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of destruction.
Ver. 5. My. A charitable heart will grieve for the misfortune of an enemy. W. — I shall join in the general lamentations, though Moab has always been so great an enemy of Israel. C. — Sept. "the heart of Moab cries in itself to Segor." H. — We will retire thither. Chal. — Bars. Princes. Prot. "his fugitives shall," &c. — Heifer. Strong and ungovernable. Heb. "to Heglath and to Shelishia for," &c. though we may as well adhere to the Vulg. Sept. &c.
*H For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.
Ver. 6. Nemrim. Or Nemra, (Num. xxxii. 3.) to the north of Segor. C. — The country around hence became barren. S. Jer.
*H According to the greatness of their work, is their visitation also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the willows.
Ver. 7. Willows. That is, as some say, the waters of Babylon; others render it a valley of the Arabians, (Ch.) or "of crows," to which their bodies will be exposed. C. lvii. 6.
*H For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab: the howling thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim the cry thereof.
Ver. 8. Cry. Of iniquity, or rather of grief.
*H For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I will bring more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall flee of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
Ver. 9. Dibon. Sept. &c. read, "Dimon," which signifies, "blood." I will give it a better claim to this appellation. — Lion. Nabuchodonosor. C. — Sept. "I will bring the Arabs up on Dimon, and will take away the seed of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Adama." H.