Isaiah 15:5-7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

My heart shall cry out for Moab— Hitherto the prophet had set forth the lamentation of the Moabites; but seeing these future evils as it were present to his own mind, he compassionates their griefs, and declares his own participation of their sorrows: the meaning of the next clause is, "His fugitives wander even unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old;" that is to say, sending forth their cries by weeping and lamenting, like a heifer, &c." Three years old is mentioned only to denote a full-grown heifer; the lowing of which, naturalists have remarked, is deeper and more affecting than that of the male: but Jeremiah, in the 34th verse of his 48th chapter, has given us the true exposition. It is not certain what place Luhith was; but we may hence collect, clearly enough, that it was some elevated tract or ascent in the extremity of Moab. Bishop Lowth reads it, yea, to the ascent of Luith with weeping shall they ascend: and instead of my heart shall cry out, &c. in the first clause, The heart of Moab crieth within her. Horonaim was also a city of Moab, situated probably in the descent from Luhith. The prophet in the next verses sets forth the causes of lamentation among the inhabitants of this southern part of Moab. The first is the desolation of their fruitful fields, Isaiah 15:6. (See Numbers 32:3-36.) Nimrim seems to have been celebrated for its fine fountains and waters. The other cause of grief is set forth in the 7th verse; which should be rendered, Because the remnant which they had made and laid up, shall they [the Assyrians] carry away to, or beyond, the valley of willows, or the Arabians. Vitringa thinks that the just rendering is, The valley of the willows, and that Babylon is hereby denoted, the banks of the Euphrates abounding with willows. See Psalms 137:2 and Bochart Hieroz. p. 1. lib. viii. c. 7.