The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 276

An heifer of three yeara old. Those who with "the waters or Nirnrim." Their derend this rendering refor the simile either " desolation" was probably caused by the to Zoor, or to Moab, or to the fugitives. enemy stopping up the sources (2 Kings iii. Hoving regard to the parallel posse.ge of 19, 25; 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4). The hay is Jeremioh (xlviii. 34), we may prononnce withered away. There is luxuriant vage- the lllst explanation to be the best. The tation in the we.dye a.ncl ghors a.t the southern resemblance to the heifer will consist in end of the Dead Sea, especially in the Ghor- the c#es uttered. To many critics, how- es-Safiyeh. the Wady Numeira, o.nc:I the ever, this idea appears harsh, and the alter• Wady el-Mantara (' Quarterly Stakment' native is proposed of regarding Eglath- of Palest. Expl. Fnnd, October, 1880, pp. the word translated " heifer "-as a. place, 252, 254). and the epithet, "of three years old," as Ver. 7.-The abundanoe, etc.; i.e. "the really meaning "the third." Attempts a.re property which they have been able to ma.de t-0 show the existence of three Egla.the eave and ra.rry off with them." This, find- in these parts; but they a.re not very suc- ing no place of refuge in their own territory, cessful; nor is any instance adduced of a. they convey to their southern border, where city being distinguished from others of the "the brook of the willows" separa.tes their same name by e. numerical suffix. The country from Edom, with the intention, no rendering of -the Authorized Version may donbt, of transporting it across the brook. therefore stand, the comparison being re- Ver, 8.-Eglaim ... Beer-Elim. Unknown garded as one of the fugitive Moabites to a. sites on the borders of Moab, both probably heirer in its third year, "rushing along with towards the south. The enemy ha8 come iu loud, hopeless bellowings" (Kay). By the from the north, and has dri,·en the popula- mounting up of Luhith, This ascent 118.S not tion southwards. A hope has been enter- been identified. It should have been on the tained or the pursuit slackening; but it is way from Moab proper to Zoar. The way disappointed. The enemy callSell grief and of Koronaim. On tha Moe.bile Stone "howling" in every pa.rt of the territ.ory. Horona.i.m is mentioned as a town of the Ver. 9.-The waters of Dimon. It is Edomites attacked and taken by Mesha thought that "Dimon" is here put for (ll, 31-33). It lay probably south or south- "Dibon," in order to assimilate the sound ee.st of the Dead Sea.. The Moabites, :flying to the.t of dam, ;blood. St. Jerome says from their invaders, seek a refuge in the that in his day the place wa.s called indif- territories or Edom and Judah, weeping and ferently by either name. If we accept this wailing as they go, view, "the waters of Dimon" will probably Ver. 6.-The waters of Nim.rim lhall be be those of the Amon, near which Dibon desolate. The Wady Numeira is e. we.ter- was situated (see the comment on ver. 2). oourse running into the Dead Sea from the I will bring more ; literally, I will bring cast, half-way between the promontory called additions; i.e. additional calamities, which the " Lisan" and the sea's southern ex- will cause the stream of the Arnon to flow tremity. It is fed by" six or seven springs" with blood. Lions; or, a lion. Perhaps (' Quarterly Statement' of Palest. Expl. Nebucha.dnezzlll (Jer. iv. 7), who is said by Fund, October, 1880, p. 254)-" plenteous Josephus to have conquered the Moabites, or brooks gusliing from the lofty hills" (Tri.s- possibly Asshur-bani-pal, who overran the tra.m), and boasts along its bauks a number country a.bout B,c. 645 (G. Smith, 'History of "well-watered gardens." There lll no of Asshur-bani-pal,' p. 259). ree.son to doubt the identity of this stream