What Does Isaiah 16:7 Mean?
Therefore Moab will howl for Moab, the whole of him will howl. You will moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth; surely they are struck down.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.THE KEY
The collapse turns grief back upon its own name: Moab howls for Moab.
THE MEANING
The repeated howl makes grief reverberate through the name itself: Moab cries for Moab, and every voice joins the cry. The people mourn the foundations of Kir-hareseth and those who are struck down; the loss reaches both the place and its people. Moab (מוֹאָב, Mōʾāb, “from a father”) carries its origin even as the people grieve their own name.
THE ROOT
יָלִיל
yālîl
GROWS FROM
ילל
yalal
To howl or wail.
The Hebrew repeats this howl around Moab’s name, making grief sound like an echo that spreads through the people. English gives the action, but the repeated sound makes the lament itself reverberate.
ALSO GROWS
yālal: To howl or wail.
יָלַל
The verb names the sustained cry that the verse repeats.
yelālāh: A howl or wailing.
יְלָלָה
This related noun gives the cry a recognizable form: grief voiced aloud.
תֶּהְגּוּ
tehgû
GROWS FROM
הגה
hagah
To murmur, utter softly, or moan.
“moan” in this verse is tehgû. The verb translated “mourn” carries the sound of a low utterance, so this grief is voiced rather than silent. The same root can describe inward musing, joining the people’s spoken lament to an inner one.
ALSO GROWS
hāgāh: To murmur, mutter, or meditate.
הָגָה
Its range joins the low sound of lament to inward thought.
hegyôn: Musing or meditation.
הֶגְיוֹן
This related noun shows that the root can name an inward utterance as well as a spoken one.
THE PATTERN
When a place and its people are brought low, their ruin becomes a shared lament voiced across the land.
In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth. On their rooftops and in their streets everyone howls, and the weeping comes down.Therefore I will howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab. My heart shall moan for the men of Kirheres.And the kings of the earth, who sold themselves with her and feasted with her, shall weep and beat their breasts over her when they look upon the smoke of her burning.THE THREAD
Therefore I will howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab. My heart shall moan for the men of Kirheres.Both verses use ילל (yalal, “to howl or wail”) and turn the cry toward Moab itself. Jeremiah’s “I will howl for Moab” lets you hear Isaiah’s repeated name not just as a place, but as the center of grief.
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