Isaiah 15:7

WEB

Therefore they will carry away the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have stored up, over the brook of the willows.

KJV

Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

Commentary

Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up,.... The great substance which the Moabites had got, and hoarded up: shall they carry away to the brook of the willows; either the Moabites should carry their substance to some brook, it may be near Nimrim, where many willows grew, and cast it into the brook, or lay it by the brook side, in some priv ate place, or under and among the willows, to preserve it from the enemy; or else the meaning is, that their enemies should take what they had with a great deal of labour got, and with a great deal of care had laid up, and carry it to the brook of the willows, some place without the city, and there divide it; or to the valley of the Arabians (q), as some render it, some part of Arabia lying between Moab and Babylon, whither they might carry it, in order to the conveyance of it into their own country at a proper time: it may be observed, that the country of Moab came after this into the hands of the Arabians; and, according to Jerom, the valley of Arabia lay in the way from Moab to Assyria; but it may be rendered "the valley of the willows", and design the land of Babylon, or Babylon itself, which was built in a plain, or on a flat by the river Euphrates, out of which many canals and rivulets were cut and derived, near to which willows in great abundance grew; as they usually do in marshy and watery places; hence the Jews in Babylon are said to hang their harps upon the willows which were by its rivers; so Jarchi thinks the land of Babylon is meant, and compares it with Psa 137:1 which sense is approved of by Bochart and Vitringa. The Septuagint version is, "I will bring upon the valley the Arabians, and they shall take it;'' and the Targum is, "their border, which is by the western sea, shall be taken from them.'' (q) "in vallem Arabum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.