Context No. 2376 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 16:6-14: in context

6We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing. 7Therefore Moab will wail for Moab. Everyone will wail. You will mourn for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth, utterly stricken. 8For the fields of Heshbon languish with the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its choice branches, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness. Its shoots were spread abroad. They passed over the sea. 9Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen. 10Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there will be no singing, neither joyful noise. Nobody will tread out wine in the presses. I have made the shouting stop. 11Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres. 12It will happen that when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and comes to his sanctuary to pray, that he will not prevail. 13This is the word that the LORD spoke concerning Moab in time past. 14But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as a worker bound by contract would count them, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

Isaiah delivers an oracle against Moab, and it opens by naming the charge: Moab is very proud, full of arrogance and boasting, and his boastings come to nothing. Judgment is coming; within three years the glory of Moab will be brought low. But the strange turn is what the prophet does with that news. He weeps. My heart sounds like a harp for Moab, he says, I will water you with my tears.

Moab is the enemy, and the oracle does not excuse its pride. Yet the prophet refuses to gloat over its fall. He grieves the ruined vineyards, the silenced harvest songs, the wine presses gone quiet. The judgment is just, and still it is mourned. There is no relish here in an enemy getting what it deserved, only sorrow that pride has brought a people to this. It is a hard example to follow: to hold that a thing is deserved and to weep over it at the same time.

When someone I resent finally faces the consequences of their pride, can I grieve their fall rather than savor it?

Sources

Isaiah 16:6: We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of his arrogance, his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.
Isaiah 16:9: I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the battle shout has fallen.
Isaiah 16:11: Therefore my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir Heres.