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Jesaja 15:7
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the abundance: Isaiah 5:29, Isaiah 10:6, Isaiah 10:14, Nahum 2:12, Nahum 2:13
to the: Psalms 137:1, Psalms 137:2
brook of the willows: or, valley of the Arabians
Reciprocal: Job 40:22 - the willows Jeremiah 48:36 - the riches Ezekiel 17:5 - he placed
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up,.... The great substance which the Moabites had got, and hoarded up:
shall they carry away to the brook of the willows; either the Moabites should carry their substance to some brook, it may be near Nimrim, where many willows grew, and cast it into the brook, or lay it by the brook side, in some private place, or under and among the willows, to preserve it from the enemy; or else the meaning is, that their enemies should take what they had with a great deal of labour got, and with a great deal of care had laid up, and carry it to the brook of the willows, some place without the city, and there divide it; or to the valley of the Arabians q, as some render it, some part of Arabia lying between Moab and Babylon, whither they might carry it, in order to the conveyance of it into their own country at a proper time: it may be observed, that the country of Moab came after this into the hands of the Arabians; and, according to Jerom, the valley of Arabia lay in the way from Moab to Assyria; but it may be rendered "the valley of the willows", and design the land of Babylon, or Babylon itself, which was built in a plain, or on a flat by the river Euphrates, out of which many canals and rivulets were cut and derived, near to which willows in great abundance grew; as they usually do in marshy and watery places; hence the Jews in Babylon are said to hang their harps upon the willows which were by its rivers; so Jarchi thinks the land of Babylon is meant, and compares it with Psalms 137:1 which sense is approved of by Bochart and Vitringa. The Septuagint version is,
"I will bring upon the valley the Arabians, and they shall take it;''
and the Targum is,
"their border, which is by the western sea, shall be taken from them.''
q על נחל הערבים "in vallem Arabum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Therefore, the abundance they have gotten - Their wealth they shall remove from a place that is utterly burned up with drought, where the waters and the grass fail, to another place where they may find water.
To the brook of willows - Margin, ‘The valley of the Arabians.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘I will lead them to the valley of the Arabians, and they shall take it.’ So Saadias. It might, perhaps, be called the valley of the Arabians, because it was the boundary line between them and Arabia on the south. Lowth renders it, ‘To Babylon.’ The probability is, that the prophet refers to some valley or brook that was called the brook of the willows, from the fact that many willows grew upon its bank. Perhaps it was the small stream which flows into the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and which forms the boundary of Arabia Petrea of the province of Jebal. They withdrew toward the south, where toward Petra or Sela they had their property in herds Isaiah 16:1, for probably the invader came from the north, and drove them in this direction. Lowth, and most commentators, suppose that ‘they’ in this verse refers to the enemies of Moab, and that it means that they would carry away the property of Moab to some distant place. But the more probable meaning is, that when the waters of the Nimrim should fail, they would remove to a place better watered; that is, they would leave their former abode, and wander away. It is an image of the desolation that was coming upon the land.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Isaiah 15:7. "Shall perish"] אבדו abadu or אבדה abadeh. This word seems to have been lost out of the text: it is supplied by the parallel place, Jeremiah 48:36. The Syriac expresses it by עבר aber, praeteriit, "he hath passed;" and the Chaldee by יתבזזון yithbazezun, diripientur.
To the brook of the willows - "To the valley of willows"] That is, to Babylon. Hieron. and Jarchi in loc., both referring to Psalms 137:2. So likewise Prideaux, Le Clerc, &c.