Isaiah 15:6 - Meaning and Application

Here the prophet goes on to describe the sad cries that would be heard across the whole land of Moab when the Assyrian army took it as plunder. By this point, the alarm has spread everywhere, as in Isaiah 15:8. Every part of the country is thrown into panic. The cry has reached Eglaim, a city at one end of the land, and Beer-elim, a city at the other.

Where sin has spread widely, and all people have corrupted their way, what else should be expected but wide destruction? Two things are named here as causes of this mourning.

First, the waters of Nimrim are desolate, as in Isaiah 15:6. This means the country has been plundered and left poor, and its wealth has been swept away by the winning army. War usually brings famine with it. If you look at the fields that were once well watered, fields that gave both beauty and food, you find them eaten bare, carried off by enemy raiders, and what is left is trampled into mud by their horses. If an army camps on green fields, their green soon disappears.

Look also into the houses, and they are stripped as well, as in Isaiah 15:7. The wealth they gained by skill and hard work, and the things they stored up with much care and confidence, are carried away to the brook of the willows. Either the owners hid their goods there, or the enemies took them there to pack them up and send them home, perhaps by water, to their own land. Those who are eager to gather much of this world often do not think about how quickly it can all be taken away. Great wealth can attract robbers, and what people trust to protect them often ends up exposing them instead. In hard times, great riches often become a heavy burden, adding to the owner’s worry or to the enemy’s strength. As the old saying goes, the traveler with nothing on him can laugh when a robber stops him.

Second, the waters of Dimon are turned into blood, as in Isaiah 15:9. This means many of the people are killed, so that the waters near the cities, whether rivers or pools, are stained with human blood shed like water. Dimon means “bloody,” and the place will match its name. It may have been the place in Moab where the waters looked like blood to the Moabites in the days of Elisha, which helped lead to their defeat (2 Kings 3:22-23). But now God says he will bring even more on Dimon, more blood than was seen or expected then. He will bring additional judgments, for he still has more punishments in store for them.

Even after this, his anger is not turned away. When God acts in judgment, he will bring it to completion. Many more words of curse will be added to the list, as in Jeremiah 36:32. Some people flee and escape, while others stay behind and are left as the remnant of the land. But God will send lions, wild beasts of prey, upon both groups, and they will finish off those who escaped the sword. Those who keep sinning without repenting, even when they are spared from one judgment, are only being kept for another.