בליל In the night of.¹ ליל is in the construct state. It is an elliptical expression for in the night of such and such a day of the week.²

footnotes: ¹ A. V., In the night. ² An ellipsis, as supposed here by I. E. would be very unnatural; the qualified word may easily be omitted, but not the qualifying; we omit, e.g the house, but not the qualifying genitive. If לֵיל could only be the construct state, the whole sentence, שדד ער מואב, should be taken as the genitive; comp. Gen. 1:1, Hos. 1:1. See I. E. on Is. 21:11, and Moznaim, On the elliptical phrases in the Bible.

מואב In Moab.³ במואב═מואב; the preposition ב is omitted.⁴

footnotes: ³ A. V., Of Moab. ⁴ Ar and Kir being proper nouns, cannot govern a genitive; ער מואב and קיר מואב are therefore explained by I. E. to be identical with ער במואב and קיר במואב.

נדמה Was destroyed.⁵ Comp. ודמיתי and I shall destroy⁶ (Hos. 4:5).

footnotes: ⁵ A. V., Brought to silence. ⁶ On Hos. 4:5, I. E. remarks that דמה followed by אל signifies to be similar, without אל to destroy.

Kir. Name of a province of Moab; comp. Am. 9:7

הבית The inhabitant of Bayith.⁷ יושב הבית═הבית;

footnotes: ⁷ A. V., To Bajith.

Bayith is a place in Moab.⁸

footnotes: ⁸ I. E. does not take the high places as in apposition to Bajith and Dibon, because Dibon is mentioned as the name of a town which the Gadites had built (Numb. 32:34), while במה a high place, is only a sanctuary for worship and sacrifice.

To the high places. In order to worship the idols.

Their heads. The heads of the Moabites.

גרועה A cutting. It is a noun, (not a participle); comp. חבלתו חוב his pledge for the debt⁹ חבלתו בחוב═חבלתו חוב, or by extending the force of the preposition before בל ראשיו, and referring it also to כל זקן. (Ez. 18:7).

footnotes: ⁹ גרועה can be participle passive fem. Kal of גדע to cut, or a noun like גבורה victory. (Ex. 32:18); the former is rejected, probably because וקן is masculine. It is, however, not clear why reference is made to Ez. 18:7; if it were only to prove the existence of a form פְּעוּלָה for nouns, better examples could be given, and even from the book of Isaiah itself; עזובה (6:12) is declared by I. E. to be a noun; and ובחברתו And with his stripes (53:5) is certainly nearer and more similar to גְּדוּעָה than is חֲבֹלָתוֹ. The quotation is perhaps intended to be an example for the omission of the preposition ב before כל וקן. This ellipsis is explained by I. E. in two ways; by assuming that the preposition is sometimes omitted, e.g.

The preposition ב on before כל ראשיו governs also .¹⁰כל זקן Comp. Gen. 49:25.¹¹

footnotes: ¹⁰ The passage is to be rendered, according to I. E., And on every beard is cutting. ¹¹ The words referred to are מאל אביך ויעזרך ואת שדי, which are equal to מאל אביך ויעזרך ומאת שדי By the Lord of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty.

In their streets. In the streets of the Moabites.¹²¹²

footnotes: ¹² The masculine suffix is referred to the inhabitants, the feminine to the country; in the former case יושב inhabitant or עם people, in the latter ארץ (f.) land is supplied. ¹² The masculine suffix is referred to the inhabitants, the feminine to the country; in the former case יושב inhabitant or עם people, in the latter ארץ (f.) land is supplied.

גגותיה Her roofs. The roofs of the country.

ייליל Shall howl. Comp. ייטיב he will do good¹³ (Job 24:31); in both cases the sounding of the radical is an anomaly.

footnotes: ¹³ The regular future Hiphil of יטב is יִיִטִיב, that of ילל is יִיִלִיל.

נפשו ירעה לו His soul shall cry out unto him.¹⁴ The soul of Moab shall cry out¹⁵ unto him, or the soul of every one of the armed soldiers will shout and say.

footnotes: ¹⁴ A. V., His life shall be grievous unto him. ¹⁵ ירעה is derived by I. E. from רוע ═ ירע to cry out.

למואב For Moab.

בריחיה ונו׳ Her bars, etc.¹⁶ The bars of the country cry, etc.; comp. Howl, O gate (14:31); or Her bars have been brought to Egypt,¹⁷ whence the king of Assyria was coming,¹⁸ or to Zoar¹⁹ near Sodom; in either case ענלת שלישיה a heifer of three years oldis in apposition to Zoar;²⁰ or בריחיה being equivalent to בורחיה —not to ברוחיה for how could a participle passive be formed of a neuter verb!—her fugitive men came to Zoar.

footnotes: ¹⁶ A. V., His fugitives. ¹⁷ Zoan is, according to Targum and LXX., Tanis on the Nile. It is remarkable that I. E. identifies Zoar and Zoan, while he is generally opposed to the supposition of an interchange of letters, except אֹ הֹ וֹ יֹ. ¹⁸ Against Jerusalem, after having conquered Moab. ¹⁹ See Gen. 13:10, 19:22. ²⁰ I. E. does not explain why Zoar or Zoan is called a heifer of three years old. According to Kimchi, because a heifer of three years old is big and strong.

יעערו They shall raise up. The second ע is not radical, but the reduplication of the radical ע. The form is irregular.²¹

footnotes: ²¹ The regular Polel of עור is יְעֹרֵרוּ.

Nimrim. Name of a place.²²

footnotes: ²² It is not clear whether I. E. takes only נמרים or מי נמרים together, as the name of the place; the latter is more probable.

משמות Desolation.²³ It is a noun; for were it participle Hiphil of a verb (שמם) ע״ע, the ש would have Hirek (מְשִׁמּוֹת)

footnotes: ²³ A. V., Desolate.

יתרה Abundance. A noun.

עשה He hath gotten. Comp. Deut. 8:17.

ופקדתם And that which they have laid up. Comp. פקדון that which hath been delivered him to keep (Lev. 5:23).—They will carry their treasures to the willows of the brook, to hide them there, or better they will carry away their treasures by boats on a certain river in their land, which flows between willows; that is, they will carry their property to another place, where it may be kept for them.

עד Unto. To be repeated before באר אלים unto Beer Elim.

דם Blood. The blood of the slain of Moab.

נוספות Additional evils.²⁴ Supply רעות evils; comp. מלות עזות═עזות impertinent words (Prov. 18:23).

footnotes: ²⁴ A. V., More.

כי אשית For I will bring. To be repeated before לפלטת: for I will bring against the remnant of Moab a lion, namely the king of Assyria.