Isaiah 15:3

"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."

Key Reflection

In Isaiah 15:3, the people of Moab are depicted mourning the destruction that has befallen their cities and religious centers like Bayith and Dibon. The imagery of baldness and cut-off beards underscores the profound grief and desolation; these physical signs were common in ancient Near Eastern cultures to symbolize deep sorrow and humiliation, indicating a severe calamity that has struck Moab.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

In their streets -Publicly. Everywhere there shall be lamentation and grief. Some shall go into the streets, and some on the tops of the houses. They shall gird themselves with sackcloth -The common token of mourning; and also worn usually in times of humiliation and fasting. It was one of the outward acts by which they expressed deep sorrow (Genesis 37:34;2Sa 3:31;1 Kings 21:27;2 Kings 19:1;Job 16:15; the note atIsaiah 3:24). On the tops of the houses -The roofs of the houses in the East were, and still are, made flat, and were places of resort for prayer, for promenade, etc. The prophet here says, that all the usual places of resort would be filled with weeping and mourning.

Related Verses

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