Isaiah 16:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 16:14
But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.
a noise · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
remnant
וּשְׁאָ֥רu.she.'Ar
H7605
a remainder · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
very
מְעַ֛טme.'At
H4592
a little or few (often adverbial or compar.) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
small
מִזְעָ֖רmiz.'Ar
H4213
fewness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
feeble
ל֥וֹאLo'
H3808
not (the simple or abs. negation) · negative particle
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 21:16 For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:
Isaiah 23:9 The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.
Jeremiah 48:42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.
Jeremiah 48:46-47 Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.
Genesis 31:1 And he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father’s; and of that which was our father’s hath he…
Deuteronomy 15:8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
Esther 5:11 And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and…
Isaiah 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 16:6–end
Here we have, I. The sins with which Moab is charged, Isa 16:6. The prophet seems to check himself for going about to give good counsel to the Moabites, concluding they would not take the advice he gave them. He told them their duty (whether they would hear or whether they would forbear), but despairs of working any good upon them; he would have healed them, but they would not be healed. Those that will not be counselled cannot be helped. Their sins were, 1. Pride. This is most insisted upon; for perhaps there are more precious souls ruined by pride than by any one lust whatsoever. The Moabites were notorious for this: "We have heard in both ears of the pride of Moab; it is what all their ne…
three years . . . hireling--Just as a hireling has his fixed term of engagement, which neither he nor his master will allow to be added to or to be taken from, so the limit within which Moab is to fall is unalterably fixed (Isa 21:16). Fulfilled about the time when the Assyrians led Israel into captivity. The ruins of Elealeh, Heshbon, Medeba, Dibon, &c., still exist to confirm the inspiration of Scripture. The accurate particularity of specification of the places three thousand years ago, confirmed by modern research, is a strong testimony to the truth of prophecy.
Already, Tiglath-pileser had carried away the people of Damascus to Kir, in the fourth year of Ahaz (Kg2 16:9); but now in Hez…
But now the Lord hath spoken,.... Something else. What follows is a distinct prophecy from the former, and has a date annexed to it, when it should be fulfilled: the former prophecy relates to the utter destruction of the Moabites by the Babylonians, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar; of which Jeremiah, Jeremiah 48:1 prophesies, in much the same language as Isaiah; and so Jarchi observes, that the final destruction of Moab was by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar: but this was of a lesser nature, and to be accomplished in a short time, either by Shalmaneser, or by Sennacherib king of Assyria, or Esarhaddon his son:
saying, within three years, as the year of an hireling; that is, precisely and exactly…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 14.) And now the Lord has spoken, saying: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be taken away from all the multitude of people, and only a few will be left, small and insignificant. This prophecy, as we have said before, is directed against the Moabites after the death of Ahaz, during the reign of Hezekiah, when the ten tribes were taken into captivity by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. Therefore, just as a hired worker eagerly awaits the end of the day and night to receive his predetermined wage, so after three years, when the Assyrians come, Moab will be destroyed and only a few will be left in the land to rebuild the ruined cities and cultivate the deserted fields. It is also possible to predict about the Babylonian captivity, that after the capture of Jerusalem and the passage of three years, Moab will be devastated by the Chaldeans, either because no rest will be given to them within a period of three years.
(Verse 14) And now the Lord has spoken, saying: In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be taken away from all its people, and only a few will be left, not many. The three years, in which the glory of Moab will be taken away from all its people, whether many in number or rich in wealth, as translated by the LXX, are to be understood mystically. For just as the mercy of the Lord is in weights and measures, so too do the torments and punishments have their measure. After these three years have passed, in which only a few will be left, not many, then the ingloriousness will cease. And this should be noted, that according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, when the days are counted for years for the Israelites (Ezek. IV), that is, the ten tribes which had sinned grievously, they are reckoned as three hundred and ninety years, as it is written in Hebrew, not one hundred and ninety years, as the Vulgate edition has it: and for the Jews, in which there was the Temple of God, forty years. For he who is small deserves mercy, but the powerful endure torment forcefully (Wis. VI). And the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it, will be beaten severely (Luke XII). Therefore Moab, because he was a foreigner, not of the people of God, but having turned away from error, will be left small and humble, and inglorious, not for many years, but only for three. These are the years that we read about elsewhere: Remember the days of old (Isaiah XLVI), and again: I have considered the days of old, and have kept the eternal years in mind (Psalm LXXVI, 6). For if he served the shadows and copies according to the flesh of Israel, and all their solemnity was a type of future things, why do not the present times of this year also foreshadow future times? Concerning which, we read in another place: What will you do in the days of the assembly, and in the days of the feast of the Lord? And what is joined, Like the days of a hireling (Hosea 9:5), shows that false teaching does everything for profit and gain. For every hireling, and he that is not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf snatches them, and scatters the sheep: and the hireling flees, because he is a hireling: and has no care for the sheep (John 10). Therefore, I think that strangers and hirelings should not eat of…
Dictionary and topics
Moabites · Prophesies respecting: To destroyed in three years — Prophesies respecting: To destroyed in three years
Servants · Hired: Engaged by the year — Hired: Engaged by the year
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Three years. The time is fixed, not only for the sake of certainty, but likewise that believers may not become faint through longer delay. He alludes to agreements among men, in which it is customary to fix the time agreed on, which the parties are not at liberty to transgress. This is especially the case in the labors of hirelings, from whom Scripture frequently draws a comparison in this respect, that they earnestly long for the appointed day when they shall receive their reward; for they groan, as it were, under the burden, and grievously dislike their daily toils. (Job 7:1, 2, 14:6; Isaiah 21:16.) In this way the Lord says, that he fixes a day for the Moabites, in which they shall not es…
The massa is now brought to a close, and there follows an epilogue which fixes the term of the fulfilment of what is not predicted now for the first time, from the standpoint of the anticipated history. "This is the word which Jehovah spake long ago concerning Moab. And now Jehovah speaketh thus: In three years, like years of a hireling, the glory of Moab is disgraced, together with all the multitude of the great; a remnant is left, contemptibly small, not great at all." The time fixed is the same as in Isa 20:3. Of working time the hirer remits nothing, and the labourer gives nothing in. The statement as to the time, therefore, is intended to be taken exactly: three years, not more, rather…
Within three years, counting each day (literally Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them; see also 21:16): A man who had sold himself into servitude for a period of time would calculate how much time remained right down to the final day. This verse refers to events that are unknown. • The glory of Moab will be ended, probably because of the Assyrian conquest of Moab (late 700s BC). • only a feeble few will be left alive: Though decimated by war, the Moabites still existed during Nehemiah’s time (Neh 13:23).
Rashi on Isaiah 16:14
And now, the Lord has spoken to bring the retribution near to them.
In three years like the years of a hireling Because of three years that they aided Sennacherib when he besieged Samaria, and they aided him without compensation, as though they were his hirelings, the glory of Moab shall, therefore, be debased among the rest of Sennacherib’s multitudes, for he swept them away into captivity from the midst of that army and went away. And so it is related in Seder Olam (ch. 23): He swept away the Ammonites and the Moabites who aided him when he besieged Samaria three years, to fulfill what is said: “Three years like the years of a hireling, etc.” It can further be explained as follows: “Three…
