NOTES for Is 15:1-16:14
The disasters awaiting Judah’s neighbors do not escape the prophet’s inner vision, and we hear a prophecy about the coming military defeat of Moab, a pagan people related to the Israelites. The Israelites fought the Moabites many times, but they nevertheless remained kinsmen who spoke languages as similar as could be. Now a common enemy is advancing against both peoples.
In delivering the prophecy, Isaiah does not conceal that the disasters approaching Moab flow directly from the sinful deeds of its people, for which they must now answer. He might have stopped after stating this fact, but we hear Isaiah’s living sympathy for the Moabites and feel his compassion for them. The prophet wants to hope that the Moabites will be able to repent and change their ways, but, alas, this does not happen. Their repentance is insincere and formal, and such “repentance” is needed neither by God nor, in truth, by those who repent. All this causes still greater pain to the prophet, who sympathizes with those who suffer but also sees that they have not drawn the necessary conclusions from what happened to them.