Bible Strands
Isaiah 16:8
For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the cities of Moab, specifically Heshbon and Sibmah, during a declaration of coming judgment and agricultural devastation.
The words — The Hebrew אֻמְלָל ('um.lal) literally means "it has withered," describing the total drying of the crops. The phrase בַּעֲלֵי גּוֹיִם (ba.'a.lei go.yim) translates as "rulers of the nations," identifying the foreign forces that trampled the former abundance.
The thread — Heshbon and Sibmah appear in Numbers 32:3 and Numbers 32:38 as established Moabite settlements, while Isaiah 15:4 echoes this lament by pairing Heshbon with Elealeh in a cry of distress.
Why it lands — The text records the physical ruin of fertile land and the humiliation of its former reach by foreign troops. It demands a reader acknowledge the concrete reality of divine judgment on Moab's prosperity.
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
For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.
Cross-references
- Numbers 32:38 as well as Nebo and Baal-meon (whose names were changed), and Sibmah. And they renamed the cities they rebuilt.
- Isaiah 15:4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within.
- Numbers 32:3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,
- Joshua 13:19 Kiriathaim, Sibmah, Zereth-shahar on the hill in the valley,
- Joshua 13:25 The territory of Jazer, all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the Ammonites as far as Aroer, near Rabbah;
- 2 Samuel 1:21 O mountains of Gilboa, may you have no dew or rain, no fields yielding offerings of grain. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.
- Isaiah 10:7 But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.
- Isaiah 16:9 So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest.
- Isaiah 24:7 The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
- Jeremiah 27:6 So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.