Isaiah 15:8

For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) The cry is gone round about . . .—The extent of the lamentation is emphasised by naming its farthest points. It reaches (1) Eglaim (“two pools”), probably the same as the En-Eglaim of Ezekiel 47:10, as near the Dead Sea. Eusebius (Onomast.) names it as eight miles south of Areopolis or Rabbath Moab. Josephus mentions a town Agalla as near Zoar (Ant. xii. 1, 4); (2) Beer-Elim (“the well of the terebinths”), perhaps the same as the “well” on the borders of Moab of Numbers 21:16.

(8) The waters of Dimon.—Probably the same as Dibon, the name being slightly altered (m and b, as labial letters, are closely connected in all languages) so as to resemble the Hebrew word for “blood” (dam), or dum (“silent”). Men should call the stream no more by the name of Dimon, but by that of the blood, or the silent river. (See Note on Isaiah 21:11.)

I will bring more . . .—i.e., sorrow upon sorrow. The “lions” are either literally such, as in 2Kings 17:25, prowling through the streets of the deserted city (see Notes on Isaiah 13:21), or symbols of Assyrian or other invaders (Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 5:6).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-9 The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites. - This prophecy coming to pass within three years, would confirm the prophet's mission, and the belief in all his other prophecies. Concerning Moab it is foretold, 1. That their chief cities should be surprised by the enemy. Great changes, and very dismal ones, may be made in a very little time. 2. The Moabites would have recourse to their idols for relief. Ungodly men, when in trouble, have no comforter. But they are seldom brought by their terrors to approach our forgiving God with true sorrow and believing prayer. 3. There should be the cries of grief through the land. It is poor relief to have many fellow-sufferers, fellow-mourners. 4. The courage of their soldiers should fail. God can easily deprive a nation of that on which it most depended for strength and defence. 5. These calamities should cause grief in the neighbouring parts. Though enemies to Israel, yet as our fellow-creatures, it should be grievous to see them in such distress. In ver. 6-9, the prophet describes the woful lamentations heard through the country of Moab, when it became a prey to the Assyrian army. The country should be plundered. And famine is usually the sad effect of war. Those who are eager to get abundance of this world, and to lay up what they have gotten, little consider how soon it may be all taken from them. While we warn our enemies to escape from ruin, let us pray for them, that they may seek and find forgiveness of their sins.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the cry is gone round about ... - The cry of distress and calamity has encompassed the whole land of Moab. There is no part of the land which is not filled with lamentation and distress.

The howling - The voice of wailing on account of the distress.

Unto Eglaim - This was a city of Moab east of the Dead Sea, which, Eusebius says, was eight miles south of Ar, and hence, says Rosenmuller, it was not far from the south border of Moab. It is mentioned by Josephus ("Ant." xiv. 1), as one of the twelve cities in that region which was overthrown by Alexander the Great.

Unto Beer-elim - literally, "the well of the princes." Perhaps the same as that mentioned in Numbers 21:14-18, as being in the land of Moab, and near to Ar:

The princes digged the well,

The nobles of the people digged it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Eglaim—(Eze 47:10), En-eglaim. Not the Agalum of Eusebius, eight miles from Areopolis towards the south; the context requires a town on the very borders of Moab or beyond them.

Beer-elim—literally, "the well of the Princes"—(so Nu 21:16-18). Beyond the east borders of Moab.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Their cry fills all the parts of the country.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the cry is gone found about the borders of Moab,.... The cry of destruction and howling because of it; the places mentioned, as is observed by some, being upon the borders of the land. Heshbon was on the north east, Elealeh on the north west, Jahaz on the south west, Horonaim further west, Zoar the utmost west, and the places following seem to be upon the borders likewise:

the howling thereof unto Eglaim; which word signifies a border, and so the Arabic word Agalon; some take it to be the same with the brooks of Arnon, Numbers 21:13 said so be the border of Moab:

and the howling thereof unto Beerelim; the same with Beer, Numbers 21:16 called Beerelim, or "the well of the mighty ones", being dug by the princes of Israel, Numbers 21:18.

Geneva Study Bible

For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. Summing up the effect of the previous description and explaining the forsaking of the land.

the cry (of destruction, Isaiah 15:5) is gone round …] We should expect the two places in the second half of the verse to mark the extreme limits of the country—the “Dan and Beersheba” of Moab. Eglaim is probably the village Αἰγαλείμ mentioned by Eusebius as lying 8 Roman miles S. of Rabba. Beer-elim (“well of the mighty ones”?) is unknown, but has been plausibly identified with the “well” (Bě’çr) of Numbers 21:16-18, in northern Moab.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Eglaim... Beer-Elim. Unknown sites on the borders of Moab, both probably towards the south. The enemy has come in from the north, and has driven the population southwards. A hope has been entertained of the pursuit slackening; but it is disappointed. The enemy causes grief and "howling" in every part of the territory. Isaiah 15:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

As Moabitis has thus become a great scene of conflagration, the Moabites cross the border and fly to Idumaea. The reason for this is given in sentences which the prophet again links on to one another with the particle ci (for). "Therefore what has been spared, what has been gained, and their provision, they carry it over the willow-brook. For the scream has gone the round in the territory of Moab; the wailing of Joab resounds to Eglayim, and his wailing to Beeer-Elim. For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: for I suspend over Dimon a new calamity, over the escaped of Moab a lion, and over the remnant of the land." Yithrâh is what is superfluous or exceeds the present need, and pekuddâh (lit. a laying up, depositio) that which has been carefully stored; whilst ‛âsâh, as the derivative passage, Jeremiah 48:36, clearly shows (although the accusative in the whole of Isaiah 15:7 is founded upon a different view: see Rashi), is an attributive clause (what has been made, worked out, or gained). All these things they carry across nachal hâ‛arâbim, i.e., not the desert-stream, as Hitzig, Maurer, Ewald, and Knobel suppose, since the plural of ‛arâbâh is ‛arâboth, but either the Arab stream (lxx, Saad.), or the willow-stream, torrens salicum (Vulg.). The latter is more suitable to the connection; and among the rivers which flow to the south of the Arnon from the mountains of the Moabitish highlands down to the Dead Sea, there is one which is called Wadi Sufsaf, i.e., willow-brook (Tzaphtzphh is the name of a brook in Hebrew also), viz., the northern arm of the Seil el-Kerek. This is what we suppose to be intended here, and not the Wadi el-Ahsa, although the latter (probably the biblical Zered

(Note: Hence the Targ. II renders nachal zered "the brook of the willows." See Buxtorf, Lex. chald. s.v. Zerad.))

is the boundary river on the extreme south, and separates Moab from Edom (Kerek from Gebal: see Ritter, Erdk. xv 1223-4). Wading through the willow-brook, they carry their possessions across, and hurry off to the land of Edom, for their own land has become the prey of the foe throughout its whole extent, and within its boundaries the cry of wailing passes from Eglayim, on the south-west of Ar, and therefore not far from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47:10), as far as Beer-elim, in the north-east of the land towards the desert (Numbers 21:16-18; עד must be supplied: Ewald, 351, a), that is to say, if we draw a diagonal through the land, from one end to the other. Even the waters of Dibon, which are called Dimon here to produce a greater resemblance in sound to dâm, blood, and by which we are probably to understand the Arnon, as this was only a short distance off (just as in Judges 5:19 the "waters of Megiddo" are the Kishon), are full of blood,

(Note: דם מלאוּ, with munach (which also represents the metheg) at the first syllable of the verb (compare Isaiah 15:4, לּו ירעה, with mercha), according to Vened. 1521, and other good editions. This is also grammatically correct.)

so that the enemy must have penetrated into the very heart of the land in his course of devastation and slaughter. But what drives them across the willow-brook is not this alone; it is as if they forebode that what has hitherto occurred is not the worst or the last. Jehovah suspends (shith, as in Hosea 6:11) over Dibon, whose waters are already reddened with blood, nōsâphōth, something to be added, i.e., a still further judgment, namely a lion. The measure of Moab's misfortunes is not yet full: after the northern enemy, a lion will come upon those that have escaped by flight or have been spared at home (on the expression itself, compare Isaiah 10:20; Isaiah 37:32, and other passages). This lion is no other than the basilisk of the prophecy against Philistia, but with this difference, that the basilisk represents one particular Davidic king, whilst the lion is Judah generally, whose emblem was the lion from the time of Jacob's blessing, in Genesis 49:9.