The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 288

for the men of Kir-Heres." Borne take the words as given from the throne in reply. "If Moab continues to show so little penitence, it cannot be assisted; and therefore the pro.Phet, however it grieves him, must leave Moa.b to her further chastisements" (Ewa.Id). It seems intended that we should look upon Moab's language here as insin- cere, and therefore unacceptable. We may remind ourselves or the spiritual les&0n, "God draws near to the lowly, but recognizes the proud afar off." It is pride which keeps us aloof from blessings that might be had by stooping; it is pride which makes us blind to opportunity, insensible to the bitter lessons of experience, and lays u~ open t.o further chastisements.-J. Vere. 7-14.-Lament over Moa:b. I. Mo.&B's SELP'-LA!ilffTATION. "Moab will w.1il for Moab; everything will wail." In her misery and distress, she reflects on her beauty. A fair land is like a fair maiden, and her desolation excites the like poignant self-pity. "I know not a greater grief," said Dante, "than to recall the happy time in the midst of dist.ress." The picture of Moab's former happine.9s. The vineyard and all its gladdening associations represent the endearing charms of the land. These are no more to be enjoyed in the smitten and drooping fields of Kir-Hareseth and Heshbon. Once a splendid vine threw its noble branches and its trailing shoots far over the borders of the land to the north, to Jazer, near the Dead Sea. The lords of the heathen have beaten it down. II. THE PROPHET'S SYllPATHY WITH THE LAMENT. He, too, will bewail the noble vine of Sibmah; he will water Heshbon and Elealeh with his tears, a.a he thinb of the wild uproar that fell upon the midst of the harvest of fruit and corn. In the irony of grief he uses a figure of speech very expressive. The hedad was the shout raised by the treaders of the grapes. It was a mighty heaven-rending cry, giving forth in full volume the joy and thankfulness of the rustic heart of the tillers (cf. Jer. xxv. 30). There was another shout of different import, one that fell like a knell upon the ear-the yell of a swarming host of invaders, of Jer. Ii. 14, bursting in upon the summer fruits and the vintage (Jer. xlviii. 32). Then, instead of the rich flow of the trodden grape, there will be "the red rain that makes the battle-harvest grow.n The silence of desolation succeeds to the sounds of rejoicing. There is a silence "more dreadful than severest sounds." It is the silence of scenes once thronged with life, and resounding with cheerful songs and cries. The prophet, as he muses, finds "Remembrance wake with all her bUBY train, Swell at his heart and turn the past to paiD." Joy and exultation is withdrawn from the fruit-fields, and in the vineyards there is no jubilation or shouting; no treader treads wine in the presses, and the shout of the vinta.gers is at end. "The sounds of population fail; No cheerful murmurs fluctuate in the gale.... Thy sports are fled, nnd e.11 thy charms withdrawn : Amidst thy bowers the tyrant's he.nd is seen, And desolation saddens e.11 thy green." The prophet's inmost heart is touched, his feelings vibrate like the strings of a harp at the sound of Moab's woes. In like manner Jeremiah compares his heart to the flute. The poet B!!d the prophet are indeed organs of the world's sorrows. And indeed these sorrows turn to music even at the worst., when interpreted by the heart of him who is in sympathy with the universal and eternal love. They a.re " tears most ,acred n which are "shed for others' pain," a.nd athwart them the rainbow of hope 11eldom fails to glimmer. So here. III. A GLIMPSE OP' HOPE. He sorrows over Moab, becnuse Moab does not know the living God. But "when Moab, in the pressure of the further calamities of the futun•, aaain appears, as now in his idol-temple, or wearies himself, vainly wringing his hand~, a~d in utter despair, then he will be ashamed of his god Chemosh, and learn true humility in Jehovah." So Ewald, who thinks that the last words, necessary to com- plete the sense, have been lost. Like the priests of Baal calling Ul}On their god from morning to noon, and saying," 0 Ilaal, hear us I" and when there was no voice, nor &IJ.Y  282 THE BOOK OF TRE PROPHET ISAIAII, (on, xvi, 1-14.