a nest (as fixed) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
daughters
בְּנ֣וֹתbe.Not
H1323
a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms… · noun, common feminine plural construct
Moab
מוֹאָ֔בmo.'Av
H4124
Moab · proper noun, a place name
fords
מַעְבָּרֹ֖תma'.ba.Rot
H4569
a crossing-place (of a river · noun, common feminine plural absolute
Arnon
לְאַרְנֽוֹןle.'ar.Non
H769
the Arnon · preposition + proper noun, a place name
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
Proverbs 27:8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.
Judges 11:18 Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of…
Numbers 21:13-15 From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites:…
Deuteronomy 2:36 From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city to…
Deuteronomy 3:8 And we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unt…
Deuteronomy 3:12 And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave…
Joshua 13:16 And their coast was from Aroer, that is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the river, and all the plain by…
Isaiah 13:14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one int…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 16:1-5
God has made it to appear that he delights not in the ruin of sinners by telling them what they may do to prevent the ruin; so he does here to Moab.
I. He advises them to be just to the house of David, and to pay the tribute they had formerly covenanted to pay to the kings of his line (Isa 16:1): Send you the lamb to the ruler of the land. David made the Moabites tributaries to him, Sa2 8:2. They became his servants, and brought gifts. Afterwards they paid their tribute to the kings of Israel (Kg2 3:4), and paid it in lambs. Now the prophet requires them to pay it to Hezekiah. Let it be raised and levied from all parts of the country, from Selah, a frontier city of Moab on the one side, to t…
cast out of . . . nest--rather, "as a brood cast out" (in apposition with "a wandering bird," or rather, wandering birds), namely, a brood just fledged and expelled from the nest in which they were hatched [HORSLEY]. Compare Isa 10:14; Deu 32:11.
daughters of Moab--that is, the inhabitants of Moab. So Kg2 19:21; Psa 48:11; Jer 46:11; Lam 4:22 [MAURER].
at the fords--trying to cross the boundary river of Moab, in order to escape out of the land. EWALD and MAURER make "fords" a poetical expression for "the dwellers on Arnon," answering to the parallel clause of the same sense, "daughters of Moab."
John Gill on Isaiah 16:2
For it shall be,.... Or, "otherwise it shall be" (z); if ye do not pay this tribute:
that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest: or, "as a wandering bird, the nest sent out": that is, as a bird that has forsaken its nest, and wanders about, and its young ones are turned out of the nest, scarcely fledged, and unable to shift for themselves, but flutter about here and there, trembling and frightened, see Proverbs 26:2,
so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon: turned out of their houses, wandering up and down, not knowing where to go; unable to help themselves, and in the utmost fright and consternation, fleeing to the very borders of their land, as the fords of Arnon were,…
(Verse 2) And it shall be, like a flying bird, and like young birds flying from the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in the crossing of the Arnon. They will return to the order they had taken: When I have set, it says, those who fled from Moab, and the remnants of the land, against the fiercest lion, who will break their limbs and bones, then the fearful shall fly away, and all the daughters, that is, the towns and cities of the province of Moab, shall migrate in the crossing of the Arnon, which is the boundary of the Amorites and the Moabites. However, transcensum et hic ponens, captivitatem significat.
(Chapter 16, Verse 1) Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the desert rock to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. This, we interpret, is not history, but prophecy. However, every prophecy is wrapped in riddles and, with interrupted sentences, while speaking of one thing, goes on to another: lest if it preserves the order of Scripture, it be not a prophecy, but a narrative. And the meaning is: O Moab, over whom the lion will rage, and from whom not even remnants will be able to be saved, take solace in this: The Immaculate Lamb will come forth from you, who will take away the sins of the world, who will rule over the whole earth. From the rock of the desert, that is, from Ruth, who, widowed by the death of her husband, bore Obed and from Obed, Jesse, and from Jesse, David, and from David, Christ. But by the mountain of the daughters of Zion, we shall interpret either the city itself, Jerusalem, or according to the sacred understanding, the Church, which is established on the summit of virtues.
Then, as for Job, that pattern of patience, what mysteries are there not contained in his discourses? Commencing in prose the book soon glides into verse and at the end once more reverts to prose. By the way in which it lays down propositions, assumes postulates, adduces proofs and draws inferences, it illustrates all the laws of logic. Single words occurring in the book are full of meaning. To say nothing of other topics, it prophesies the resurrection of humankind's bodies at once with more clearness and with more caution than anyone has yet shown. "I know," Job says, "that my redeemer lives, and that at the last day I shall rise again from the earth; and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another. This my hope is stored up in my own bosom." I will pass on to Joshua, son of Nun3—a type of the Lord in name as well as in deed—who crossed over Jordan, subdued hostile kingdoms, divided the land among the conquering people and who, in every city, village, mountain, river, hill-torrent and boundary which he dealt with, marked out the spiritual realms of the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, of the church. In the book of Judges every one of the popular leaders is a type. Ruth the Moabite fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: "Send you a lamb, O Lord, as ruler of the land from the rock of the wilderness to the mount of the daughter of Zion." Under the figures of Eli's death and the slaying of Saul, Samuel shows the abolition of the old law. Again in Zadok and in David he bears witness to the mysteries of the new priesthood and of the new royalty. The third and fourth books of Kings called in Hebrew Malachim give the history of the kingdom of Judah from Solomon to Jeconiah, and of that of Israel from Jeroboam the son of Nebat to Hosea, who was carried away into Assyria. If you merely regard the narrative, the words are simple enough, but if you look beneath the surface at the hidden meaning of it, you find a description of the small numbers of the church and of the wars that the heretics wage against it. The twelve prophets whose writings are compressed within the narrow limits of a single volume have typical meanings far different from their literal ones. Hosea speaks many times of Ephraim, of Samaria, of Joseph, of Jezreel, of a wife of whoredoms and of children of…
Dictionary and topics
Ford — Mention is frequently made of the fords of the Jordan (Josh. 2:7; Judg. 3:28; 12:5, 6), which must have been very numerous; about fifty perhaps. The most notable was that of Bethabara. Mention is…
Arnon · Fords of — Fords of
Birds · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Moabites · Prophesies respecting: Desolation and grief — Prophesies respecting: Desolation and grief
Rivers · Many, fordable in some places — Many, fordable in some places
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).
John Calvin on Isaiah 16:2
It shall be as a bird let loose. [251] The Prophet now shows what he meant by the former mockery, that the Moabites ought not at that time to think of sending sacrifices, because they will not be able to provide for their safety in any other way than by leaving their native country. By the metaphor of birds he describes the terror with which they shall be struck, so that they will flee even at the rustling of a leaf. He threatens that the Moabites, who had abused their tranquillity, shall have a trembling and wearisome flight.
Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 16:2
The advice does not remain without effect, but they embrace it eagerly."And the daughters of Moab will be like birds fluttering about, a scared nest, at the fords of the Arnon." "The daughters of Moab," like "the daughters of Judah," for example, in Psa 48:12, are the inhabitants of the cities and villages of the land of Moab. They were already like birds soaring about (Pro 27:8), because of their flight from their own land; but here, as we may see from the expression תהיינה ... והיה, the simile is intended to depict the condition into which they would be thrown by the prophet's advice. The figure (cf., Isa 10:14) as well as the expression (cf., Isa 17:2) is thoroughly Isaiah's. It is a stat…
A request for asylum.
16:1 Moab was known for its sheep (see 2 Kgs 3:4). The lambs were sent as tribute to Judah in recognition of Judah’s sovereignty over Moab. • Sela (the cliff), an unknown remote site, was apparently where the Moabites escaped through the desert.
Rashi on Isaiah 16:2
like a wandering bird from its nest.
driven from the nest like young birds driven from their nest, who roam and wander, so shall the villages of Moab wander to the fords of the Arnon.