Isaiah 15 delivers a lamenting burden against Moab, describing its devastation as swift, total, and filled with public mourning from city to city. The chapter moves through shattered shrines, shaved heads, dried waters, fleeing refugees, and blood-filled streams, so that Moab's collapse is heard as both a national catastrophe and a cry that even the prophet cannot narrate without grief.
This chapter is important because Isaiah's judgment on Moab is not coldly detached; it reveals that divine judgment can be announced with tears as well as certainty. The oracle shows how prideful neighboring nations are not beyond God's reach, while also training readers to hear judgment in a register of compassion rather than triumphalism.
A continuous BSB reading flow. Turn on the guide when you want authored orientation; leave it off when you simply want the text.
T1his is the burden against Moab: 2Dibon goes up to its temple 3In its streets they wear sackcloth; 4Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
5My heart cries out over Moab; 6The waters of Nimrim are dried up, 7So they carry their wealth and belongings
8For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. 9The waters of Dimon are full of blood,
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