EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(32)
O vine of Sibmah.—Here again we have an echo of
Isaiah 16:9. Sibmah appears in
Joshua 13:19 as assigned to the Reubenites, in the region east of Jordan. After that date it does not appear again till we find it in these prophetic notices. Jerome (
Comm. in Isa.Jeremiah 5) names it as a strong city about half a mile from Heshbon, but its site has not been identified by modern travellers. It would appear from these notices to have been famous for vineyards that extended to Jazer. The city so named, identified with the modern
Es Szir,had belonged to the Amorites (
Numbers 21:32, there spelt
Jaazer)
,and lay between Heshbon and Bashan, about fifteen miles north of the former city. It passed afterwards into the possession of the Gadites (
Joshua 13:25;
2Samuel 24:5), and was evidently, when the two prophets wrote, in that of the Moabites. The phrase “weeping of Jazer” implies that it was to share in the desolation of Sibmah. The “sea of Jazer” (if the text is right, the LXX. giving “city”) must have been some inland lake or pond, which has not since been identified. The “sea” of the parallel passage of
Isaiah 16:8 is commonly interpreted of the Dead Sea. The “summer fruits” were the figs and pomegranates which were commonly cultivated together with the vine.
48:14-47. The destruction of Moab is further prophesied, to awaken them by national repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a personal repentance and reformation to prepare for it. In reading this long roll of threatenings, and mediating on the terror, it will be of more use to us to keep in view the power of God's anger and the terror of his judgments, and to have our hearts possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath, than to search into all the figures and expressions here used. Yet it is not perpetual destruction. The chapter ends with a promise of their return out of captivity in the latter days. Even with Moabites God will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. The Jews refer it to the days of the Messiah; then the captives of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin and Satan, shall be brought back by Divine grace, which shall make them free indeed.
Or, "More than the weeping of Jazer" over its ruined vineyards "will I weep for thee, O vine of Sibmah." Compare the marginal reference. Jazer lies in an upland valley about 15 miles north of Heshbon.
Thy plants ... - "Thy branches are gone over the sea, i. e." the power of Moab is felt even on the western side of the Dead Sea; "they reached etc."
32. with the weeping—with the same weeping as Jazer, now vanquished, wept with for the destruction of its vines. The same calamity shall befall thee, Sibmah, as befell Jazer. The Hebrew preposition here is different from that in Isa 16:9, for which reason Maurer translates, "with more than the weeping of Jazer." English Version understands it of the continuation of the weeping; after they have wept for Jazer, fresh subject of lamentation will present itself for the wasting of the vine-abounding Sibmah.
plants … gone over … sea of Jazer—As the Septuagint reads "cities of Jazer," and as no traces of a lake near Jazer are found, the reading of English Version is doubtful. Retaining the present reading, we avoid the difficulty by translating [Grotius], "Thy plants (that is, citizens: alluding to the 'vine') are gone over the sea (that is, shall be transported beyond the sea to Cyprus, and such distant lands subject to Babylon; and this, too, in summertime), whereas Jazer (that is, the men of Jazer) reached the sea" (shore only, but are not transported beyond the sea); so that worse shall befall thee than befalls Jazer.
spoiler—Nebuzara-dan.
We read of this
vine of Sibmah also
Isaiah 16:8,9. Both Sibmah and Jahaza were places in the portion of Reuben,
Joshua 13:18,19. Sibmah was doubtless a place famous in those days for vines and vineyards. This Jahaza or
Jazer was, as it should seem, first taken and carried into captivity, which caused a great lamentation. The prophet foretells such a weeping for Sibmah as was for Jazer. By plants he means the inhabitants of Sibmah, which he prophesieth should be carried into captivity over the Dead Sea. As an aggravation of the judgment that should come upon them, God, by his prophet, tells them that the spoiler should come upon them in their vintage and harvest time.
O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer,.... Sibmah was a city in the land of Moab abounding with vines, but now should be destroyed; and Jazer another city in the same country, which was destroyed before the other; and therefore its destruction should be lamented and wept over, as that had been: or "from", or "after the weeping of Jazer" (h); when that is over, or from thence will I go in course as the desolation proceeds, to weep for Sibmah: or I will weep for that "more than the weeping of Jazer" (i); make a greater lamentation for it than for Jazer; or, as some, than Isaiah made for Jazer; of which see
Isaiah 16:9;
thy plants are gone over the sea; the Dead sea; meaning the inhabitants of Sibmah, the governors and common people, who were gone over sea into captivity, as it is generally understood:
they reach even to the sea of Jazer; a lake or confluence of water near to Jazer, called a sea; as it was usual with the Jews to call such seas; as the sea of Tiberias, and the like: this spread of the plants seems to refer to the multitudes of those that belonged to Sibmah, and the villages of it, which extended beyond the Dead sea, even to the sea of Jazer; but as fruitful as this vine was, and extensive as its branches were, they should come to destruction:
the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits, and upon thy vintage: the king of Babylon, who came upon them with his army in the summer season, and at the time of their vintage, and devoured the fruits of their vines and fig trees, with which this country abounded; and so impoverished and ruined them. The Targum of the whole is,
"therefore as I have brought an army against Jazer, so I will bring slayers against Sibmah; they that carry them captive have waded; they have passed through the sea; they are come to the sea of Jazer; upon thy harvest, and upon thy vintage, the spoilers are fallen.''
(h) "a fletu", Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Schmidt. (i) "Supra fletum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gataker.
O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants have gone over the sea, they reacheven to the sea{s} of Jazer: the spoiler hath fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.(s) Which city was in the utmost border of Moab: and by this he signifies that the whole land would be destroyed and the people carried away.
