Bible Strands
Isaiah 15:7
So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah delivers a divine oracle against Moab, describing the immediate aftermath of a sudden ecological and military collapse. The message targets the Moabite leadership and populace as their environment fails and panic sets in.
The words — The Hebrew phrase יִתְרָה עָשָׂה (yitrah asah) literally means "the wealth that it has made," and נַחַל הָעֲרָבִים (nachal ha'aravim) translates to "the wadi of the poplars." These terms specify the physical relocation of accumulated goods across a known geographical landmark.
The thread — The displacement of wealth accompanies prophetic lament in Jeremiah 48:36, where Moab's loss triggers mourning. The image of carrying possessions near waterways parallels the exile scene in Psalm 137:1, where captives weep by the rivers of Babylon.
Why it lands — The text states that fleeing with accumulated goods across a drying watercourse cannot halt systemic ruin. It asks the reader to acknowledge that material security offers no defense against sudden, comprehensive judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 48:36 Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres, because the wealth they acquired has perished.
- Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
- Isaiah 5:29 Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Isaiah 10:14 My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
- Nahum 2:12 The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.