The Prophet Balaam in Isaiah 16:1-5

Instead of being destroyed by the scepter of the lion of Judah, Moab was invited to join his peaceable kingdom.

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

The oracle against Moab works through the general themes of the Heptateuch. The final step is missing as a sign that the nation would be cut off like Adam: Moab would be denied a memorial, given no rest among the tombs of his fathers. Within this structure, the key to this passage is its Numbers theme.

The internal structure of Cycle 2D4 works through the Ten Commandments (according to the Jewish “scroll” division) as the light of the Law for the king of Judah (Psalm 119:105; Deuteronomy 17:18-20). Its five tiers also descend through the domains of the Tabernacle to rebuild the house of David, the great grandson of Boaz.

CYCLE 2D4
Testing/Purification – Numbers:
Judah’s Mercy upon Moab

(Isaiah 16:1-5)

Priesthood Submission to heaven		Kingdom Dominion on earth
I No false gods A call to renew Moab’s tribute on arrival to Edom in the south (16:1a)	TRANSCENDENCE Above	II No false oaths to God to the “bridal” Temple upon “daughter Zion” (16:1b)
III Sabbath defiled As birds frightened from their nest (16:2a)	HIERARCHY Natural mediation	IV No living long in the land “daughter Moab” also migrates to Ammon in the north (16:2b)
V No murder (spare the men) A call upon the rulers of Edom and Ammon to rule justly (16:3a)	ETHICS Beside	VI No adultery (spare the women) and shelter the fugitives of Moab (16:3b)
VII No theft (false blessings) They must protect the outcasts from the plunderers (16:4a)	OATH/SANCTIONS Cultural mediation	VIII No perjury (false curses) God vows that after the invaders are completely cut off (16:4b)
IX No coveting the house He will re-establish the priestly throne of David (16:5a)	SUCCESSION Below	X No coveting the contents judging justly and cultivating righteousness (16:5b)

In an unexpected interlude, the Numbers Cycle of the Moab oracle reaches into the ancient past and the distant future. As the Kingdom step of the oracle, its subject is the Messianic destiny of Judah.

The primary referent is the oracles of Balaam, the prophet hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel in the wilderness. Under divine inspiration, Balaam instead announced that the scepter of Judah would crush cousin Moab’s forehead “and the crown of all the sons of pride” (Numbers 24:17). Brother Edom would likewise be dispossessed, and a son of Jacob would take dominion and destroy the survivors. In that light, this message offering to withhold the destruction of the survivors mentioned in Isaiah 15:9 is a great mercy.

The secondary referent is another allusion to Moab’s rebellion against Jehoram, the king of Israel. Mesha, the king of Moab, was a sheep breeder, and he was under tribute to King Ahab for a great number of lambs. When Ahab died, Mesha rebelled (2 Kings 3:4-5).

The Lord’s offer of mercy here is in no way a justification of the tyranny suffered by Moab under the king of Israel. God punished the Northern kingdom under Assyria to a greater extent than He punished Moab. So this is not a call to reinstitute Ahab’s tribute.

Instead, Moab is here invited to provide lambs as a freewill gift to the Temple of God in appreciation for His merciful offer. This contrast between tributes to God and tributes to men is another expression of the core theme of the Scriptures: submission to heaven brings dominion on earth. As Samuel noted, the seizure of persons and property by the king in return for protection from men is a far greater burden than the tokens required by the priests in return for the protection of God (1 Samuel 8). The Lord gives kings to men, but men are to trust in God, not in the rulers who are but His servants (Psalm 82; Psalm 146).

The kings of Ephraim in the north would be no more, but the God of Hezekiah would raise up the seed of David in the south. The king of Moab had protected David’s parents from King Saul (1 Samuel 22:3), and when David subdued the Moabites, he did not exploit them. They became his servants and brought him gifts (2 Samuel 8:2). So this “Balaamite” prophecy was another call to recognize Judah’s divinely-appointed office in the present, one that would be vindicated in the future when Jerusalem was restored after the fall of the Babylonian oppressor.

Instead of being destroyed by the scepter of the lion of Judah (Genesis 48:9-10), Moab was invited to join his peacable kingdom. Instead of being eaten by lions (Isaiah 15:9), the submission of Moab’s remnant to the lion of Judah would garner his mediation as a lamb of God.

This exhortation to humility was important advice not only for the present situation, but also for the choice that would be given to all peoples from India to Ethiopia under the rule of Persia: to side with Haman against the Jews, or to side with the Jews against Haman. This was a choice between the scepter of Edom (Haman was a descendant of Esau via his grandson, Amalek) and the scepter of Judah. Even in spiritual terms, the rocky clefts of Edom, Moab’s rival to the south, would offer little or no protection.

It is significant that this passage is at the liturgical center (and Day 4) of the central step of the Jachin column (see page 424).

Firstly, the “star” of Judah would ascend to drive Chemosh into exile (Jeremiah 48:7). This prefigured Christ’s ascension to heaven to drive out the devil at the liturgical center of history (Revelation 12:9). Judah’s submission to God would bring the delegation of His spiritual scepter: to Judah after the exile (Jeremiah 31:31-34); to Christ (Matthew 28:18), the son heralded by a star (Matthew 2:2), who is Himself “the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16); and then, to the Messiah’s spiritual offspring, both scepter and star (Revelation 2:26-28).

Secondly, this was a call to the line of Boaz to receive the whoring daughters of Lot (Genesis 19:36; Numbers 25:1) under its wings that they might be redeemed as the daughters of Ruth (Ruth 2:12).

As mentioned, the passage works through the Ten Words as the light of the Law for the king of Judah (Psalm 119:105; Deuteronomy 17:18-20). Its five tiers also descend through the domains of the Tabernacle to rebuild the house of David, the great grandson of Boaz.

• (16:1ab) The “lamb” is collective, a continual or “standing” lamb like the “morning and evening” lambs that ascended to purchase every day from judgment as the beginning of a new creation (Exodus 29:38-42; Revelation 5:6). Having arrived in Edom, whose capital was Selah (“the rock,” 2 Kings 14:7), the survivors who fled south were subject to Judah. The offering was to ascend from the lesser mountain below to the greater mountain above, from the natural firstborn sons (Moab and Esau) to Jacob, the firstborn of God (Exodus 4:22), This pictured also the ascent of Israel via the wilderness from “Adamic” Sinai to “bridal” Zion.
• (16:2ab) The action now ascends from the “red earth” of Edom below to the “heavenly waters” of the Arnon River above, near the border between Moab and Ammon. As frightened birds, and as a desperate Moabitess, people also fled north across the deep gorge where Mesha claims to have constructed a highway. Jeremiah 48:9 reprises the image of startled birds with a call to give wings to Moab that she might fly away from her desolate cities.
• (16:3ab) The Ethics tier exchanges murder (the killing of the men) and adultery (the rape of the women) for justice and loyalty. The reference is to Balaam’s use of a common military tactic: sending in women to distract the men that the invaders might attack unhindered. The exhortation is to the nations that received the refugees: Edom in the south and Ammon in the north. They were not to treat Moab in the way that Moab, Ammon, and Edom treated Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:28-29; 23:4-5).
• (16:4ab) These “brother” nations were not to revel in the spoiling of Moab as he suffered under the curse of God. Edom was later condemned for rejoicing in the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar (Obadiah 1:10-14; Psalm 137:7). The reason is that the same curse would befall the oppressor, and Edom and Ammon would answer for their lack of brotherly generosity.
  To highlight the totality of Babylon’s end, this Sanctions Stanza is an Adamic “tabernacle” that will be torn down: the extortioner will end (head); the devastation will cease (hand); and the oppressors will be consumed (foot). The word “oppressors” is literally “they that trample under foot.”
• (16:5ab) The Succession tier finally brings justice to the earth. In contrast to the houses of Babylon and the unfaithful kings of Israel, the fallen Tabernacle of David would be re-established upon Zion (Amos 9:11-12). God judged Judah along with Moab under Babylon, but His favor for Israel would be demonstrated in the restoration, not of Israel’s disobedient kings, but of the true religion. The Jews would teach the nations to walk in the ways of the Lord until the Messiah. Edom and Ammon were to be wise and just rulers in the knowledge that they would be accountable to a wise and just king. Like the Lamb, such a king is not only a light in the darkness, but also a shelter from the sun (Revelation 7:15-17; 21:22-25), a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:2).

Stanza analysis

(16:1) The two Stanzas as “Ten Words” are constructed so as to work in two ways. In the first arrangment, the two vertical columns compare the words of one Stanza to the other. The first column is the Adam/Edom ruler (for the curse upon the ground) and the second is the Eve temple (for the curse upon the womb).

Transcendence	Send	via the wilderness
Hierarchy	the lamb	unto
Ethics	to the ruler	the mount
Oath/Sanctions	of the land	of daughter
Succession	from Selah	Zion

In the second arrangement, the words are five dyads of related pairs. The rock of Esau rules in the desert but the mountain of Jacob inherits the blessing.

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