Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities,.... Or, "the shoulder of Moab" t; that part of their country where their greatest strength lay, So the Targum renders it,
"the strength of Moab;''
where their principal cities were, their frontier towns, and fortified places, as appears by what follows:
from his cities which are on his frontiers; or, "from his Ars" u,
from his cities which are at his end; at the extreme part of the land, upon the borders of his countries; the two cities of Ar and Aroer,
the glory of the country; as the above cities were, and what follow:
Bethjeshimoth; this was formerly in the tribe of Reuben, now in the possession of the Moabites, and one of their principal cities,
Baalmeon; the same with Bethbaalmeon, and which was also of the tribe of Reuben, Joshua 13:17, in Jerom's time it was a large village in Moab, about nine miles from Heshbon: some think by Meon is meant Menes, or Osiris the god of the Egyptians, and so this might be a temple of his; or at least he might have a temple in it, from whence it had its name:
and Kirjathaim; or the double city, built also by the Reubenites,
Numbers 32:37, now in the hands of the Moabites, ten miles from Medeba; on this side of the country of Moab, and through these cities, the Lord threatens to open a way for their enemies to enter in and destroy them, as follows:
t כתף τον ωμον, Sept.; "humerum", V. L. Montanus. u מהערים "ab ipsis", Haris, Junius & Tremellius, Polanus.