World English Bible
- The burden of Moab. For in a night, Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing. For in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to nothing.
- They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.
- In their streets, they clothe themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
- Heshbon cries out with Elealeh. Their voice is heard even to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud. Their souls tremble within them.
- My heart cries out for Moab! Her nobles flee to Zoar, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for they go up by the ascent of Luhith with weeping; for on the way to Horonaim, they raise up a cry of destruction.
- For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate; for the grass has withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.
- Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.
- For the cry has gone around the borders of Moab, its wailing to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beer Elim.
- For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.
Isaiah 15 begins with two cities lost “in a night.” Then the sound spreads: from streets to rooftops, from town to town, until the whole land seems to be crying. The prophet gives us a map of Moab, but it is drawn in grief rather than roads.
Moab was no nameless enemy. Its people traced their ancestry to Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Ruth, David’s great-grandmother, was a Moabite. And an ancient inscription called the Mesha Stele names places familiar from this chapter, including Dibon and Nebo. That stone records a king’s victories. Isaiah records what victory monuments leave out: shaved heads, frightened soldiers, ruined water, and families carrying their remaining goods toward a stream.
The chapter’s first word, translated “burden” in the World English Bible, can mean an oracle that must be borne. Later, the refugees “carry away” what they have stored up. In Hebrew, burden and carry share a root. Isaiah bears a hard word; Moab bears what it can salvage. But neither prophet nor refugees can carry this disaster lightly.
Then comes the startling turn: “My heart cries out for Moab!” (World English Bible, Isaiah 15:5). Is this Isaiah speaking, or does the prophet’s voice carry something of God’s own sorrow? Either way, judgment has not made him cold. He does not wait to discover whether Moab’s tears amount to repentance before allowing himself to grieve. Their suffering is real, and so is his compassion.
That is a difficult lesson for those of us who can speak rightly about evil yet feel little for those caught in its ruin. The chapter does not ask us to pretend Moab is innocent. Its final image is a lion threatening even the survivors. Isaiah lets the warning stand. But he also refuses to let the warning silence the weeping.
Later, Jesus would weep over Jerusalem while speaking plainly of its coming destruction (Luke 19:41–44). His tears did not weaken the truth; they showed the heart with which he spoke it. When we pray for a people we fear, or mourn suffering in a place we have been taught to despise, we begin to bear a burden more like his.
For further reading: Ruth 1:16–17; Isaiah 53:4; Galatians 6:2. A fitting hymn is O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, keep my heart tender when I must face hard truths. Teach me to see those I call enemies as people whose grief you hear. Help me bear their burdens in prayer and in love. Amen.