Genesis 2 in Isaiah 15:1-4

Isaiah subtly and ironically subverts Genesis 2 in order to ridicule Moab’s origin. Mo-ab means “Who’s your father?”

For the introduction to this section (Isaiah 15-16), see Isaiah’s Kill List – Part 2.

CYCLE 2D1
The Mourning of Moab

(Isaiah 15:1-4)

Identification of the governing structure of the biblical texts is not only a window into the minds of the inspired authors, but also into the mind of the Spirit of God—the one who gathers and integrates. The Initiation of the oracle against Moab is a good example.

In an interesting twist, the Creation Cycle does not track Genesis 1. Instead, it subtly and ironically subverts Genesis 2 in order to ridicule Moab’s origin. Mo-ab means “Who’s your father?” Moab was the son of Lot with his oldest daughter (Genesis 19:37).

Because this taunt is a subtle allusion by means of a structural correlation, it is doubtful that it is aimed specifically at Moab. Rather, it is a condemnation of all those who, like Adam but unlike Abraham, fail to wait upon the Lord for the fertility and prosperity He promised and instead seek it by their own devices. Lot moved to the corrupt city of Sodom for its fertile land, and his daughters corrupted themselves for fertilized wombs. So Moab serves here as another example of the perversion of the promises in Genesis 2 by the theft of fruit in Genesis 3, a sin that is common to all mankind.

But there is a positive note inherent in this bitter comparison. The only hope for the Moabites was the salvation that would come through Israel. Only Israel would rise again from this sweeping judgment of the nations, and the ministry of the Jews across the empire (especially after their national vindication under Esther and Mordecai) also reached their disempowered “relatives.”

The seed of hope hidden here is the marriage of Ruth the faithful Moabitess to the mighty Boaz. After the disastrous end to the era of Israel’s judges, the Book of Ruth serves as the Genesis of the era of the kings. Barrenness in land and womb was turned to fertility by a faithful “Adam” who rescued a helpless “Eve” who bore Messianic offspring. Again, Moab was serving as an example, this time to all the Gentiles of the world. Indeed, every Israelite marriage pictured the union of Israel (the circumcised, priestly male) with the Noahic multitude (the royal, bridal number that cannot be counted).

As we consider the steps in this Cycle, we must keep in mind the deliberate typological correlations between the global days of Genesis 1 (the establishment of the physical order) and the local events of Genesis 2 (the establishment of the social order). Refer to and compare the charts on pages 382-383. Moreover, the prophet has Genesis 2, the Book of Ruth, and the conquest of Moab running simultaneously in the text as a threefold cord, which is a challenge.

• (15:1) There is no man: Adam was intended to serve as a light for all men but instead filled the world with darkness, a spiritual veil. Instead of “evening and morning” there is a doubling of the night. The sun stood still for Joshua but Moab’s clock would stop at midnight. The ruling lights of Chemosh would be put out in a sudden, desolating darkness.
  This twofold night alludes to the creation of the Firmament. Ar (“watchful”) is the watchman on the city wall (the waters above); and Kir (“dig”) is often used in relation to fortifications against invaders (the waters below). These cities were swept away in a flood of Babylonian troops.
  Ar and Kir were in the territory of Moab, but those mentioned in 15:2-4 were in a district claimed by Reuben and Gad. That fertile tract was the cause of ongoing dispute between Israel and Moab.
• (15:2a) The empty sanctuary: Dibon would have been the first to hear the news from Ar and Kir. A comparison with Jeremiah 48:18 shows that the word “daughter” (bath, as in Bathsheba) has been mistaken for “house” (bayith or beth, as in Bethel) which is rendered “temple.” The men having been slain, “daughter Dibon” is made another childless daughter of Lot. Like the daughter of Jephthah (Judges 11:29-40), the city mourns her relegation to service as a temple virgin, a living “ascension” on the high places. This anti-bridal symbol is the female equivalent of the Moabite prince offered upon the city wall as an anti-Passover.
  The Moabite stone, which verifies and expands upon the biblical accounts of Israel’s interactions with Moab, and mentions cities named in Isaiah’s prophecy, was discovered at Dibon.
• (15:2b) Mountain & rivers: The offices of the dry land and the sea in were represented by the Edenic mountain and its rivers. Those positions are taken up here in a second merism by Nebo (“high”) and Medeba (“to gently flow down”). (This Nebo is not the mountain where Moses died.) The tears of the wailing Moabites flow from the heights of their territory to its depths. The imagery evokes the juxtaposition of Babylon’s rivers and weeping willows with the tears of the Jews living there in exile (Psalm 137:1-2).
  Perhaps the repetition of consonant sounds in Nebo, Medeba, and Moab is deliberate.
• (15:2c-3a) Ritual death: This Stanza corresponds to God’s prohibition of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. For exalting himself and “stealing fruit,” Moab would surely die (see Jeremiah 48:37, 42). Shaving when grieving expressed the nakedness of birth and death (Job 1:21). But here the practices of mourning also portray the shame of disobedient Adam as a spiritual infant and his being clothed with humility instead of glory.
  The baldness also relates to the curses of the Law pronounced from Mount Ebal, which means “bald,” in contrast to the fertility of “blessed” Mount Gerizim (Deuteronomy 11:26-29).
• (15:3b) Birds and beasts: The “head-and-body” aspect of the chiasm expressed in the shaving and the rough clothing (the tower-man, cultus) is now expressed in cries from the housetops (above) and market places (below) (the city-woman, culture).
  The image links Genesis 2 to the “resurrection” motif of the Transformation step. The corpses of those slain in battle were left for the birds (above) and the beasts (below) (1 Samuel 17:44-46). Without a grave there would be no memory of them. Adam’s naming of the birds and beasts without his own mate is another bitter reminder of Moab’s barrenness under the judgment of God.
• (15:4a) Construction of the bride: The man was “formed” but the woman was “built.” That word was next used of Cain building a city. The first city mentioned here is Heshbon, the city of Sihon (Numbers 21:26) and Jeremiah’s prophecy against Moab even mentions Sihon by name (Jeremiah 48:45). This ties the Genesis 2 “city” theme to the Conquest/Vindication step. Nearby Elealah shared a similar fate, and Jahaz was where Israel actually fought Sihon (Numbers 21:23). The Hebrew words for “build” and “son” are often punned, since a woman is “built up” by having sons. But Moab suffers deconstruction and bereavement, and Isaiah evokes the destruction of the cities of the plain in Genesis 19:23-24.
• (15:4b) Adam’s testimony: Since most of Moab’s males of fighting age will have been slain, all the vocalizing up until now has been “bridal.” The surviving soldiers (perhaps as a human “gleanings” after this bloody harvest) express their grief over Moab’s desolate cities in a parody of Adam’s celebration over his bride. Jeremiah 48:41 hammers this home: “…the cities shall be taken and the strongholds seized. The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains…”
  The final irony for Moab is found in the correspondence between the end of Genesis 2 and the actions of Lot’s daughters. Since their husbands, unlike Ruth, did not leave their pagan parents and cleave to a faithful spouse, they instead became “one flesh” with their own father.

Stanza analysis

• (15:1) The two columns of the Genesis Stanza are Edenic trees. Moab is mentioned at the beginning, middle, and end. It begins in the Kingdom column as a people. Like Ar and Kir, it receives the oracle as a “bridal” congregation. But at the middle and the end, it is in the Priesthood column to be cut off as a son.
• The darkness of God’s cloud comes to Moab in Line 1/Day 1 (the Ark). The star of Moab is cut off in Line 4/Day 4 (the Lampstand), and the sun and moon gods, like Adam and Eve, are cut off in Line 7/Day 7 (the Shekinah).
• Ar (the watchman) is slain at Ascension/Leviticus, and Kir (the wall) is destroyed at Conquest/Joshua. The priestly and kingly triplets in Lines 2-4 and 5-7 are also a double witness.
• The divine imperative “surely” makes this Stanza the Initiation of the Cycle. The word ki (“surely” or “because”) is used seven times in the Creation account (“that it was good” six times, and “because in it he rested”) and the only element of the process for which is not used is the Firmament. The message here is that the destruction of Moab’s ruling lights is judged by God—in a double legal witness—to be a good thing that will bring rest.

Details of Book 1 of The Shape of Isaiah are here.