The Prophet speaks again generally of the whole country. It is said that the land of Moab was afflicted; not that it was so then; but to make certain the prophecy, he speaks of the event as having already taken place; for the prophets, as it is well known, speaking in the person of God, relate things as yet hidden, as though they had been completed. He says that the little ones of Moab so cried as to be heard. [1] This is much more emphatic than if he had said that men and women cried out; for children do not soon perceive what is going on, for their understanding is not great. Men and women howl when threatenings only are announced; but little children are not moved but by present evils, and except they are actually beaten, they are not affected; and then they hardly distinguish between some slight evil and death. Hence, when the Prophet says that the little ones of Moab were heard in their crying, he means that the grievousness of its calamity would be extreme, as that little children, as though wise before their time, would perceive the atrocious cruelty of their enemies. It follows, --

Footnotes

1 - Here all the versions and the Targum differ. The Vulg. only has "little ones;" the Syr. has "her poor," the Sept. take "Zoar" to be intended, according to Isaiah 15:5, the word tsvrh, instead of tsvryh. The passage in Isaiah confirms this reading, though not found in any copies. Then the verse would read thus, -- Broken is Moab, They made the cry heard at Zoar. This is substantially the version of Venema. -- Ed.

Moab - Probably the city elsewhere called Ar-Moab. See the Septuagint of this verse.

Moab is destroyed,.... Either the whole nation in general; so the Targum,
"the kingdom of Moab is broken;''
and so Abarbinel; or a city so called, which some take to be the city Areopolis. Jerom (g) says, that Moab is a city of Arabia, now called Areopolis; and which also has the name of Rabbathmoab, or "grand Moab";
her little ones have caused a cry to be heard; seeing their parents killed, and they left desolate, and in the hands of the enemy; and not only so, but just going to be dashed in pieces by them. The Targum interprets it, her governors; and so Jarchi, who thinks they are so called, because they are lesser than kings. Kimchi and Ben Melech suggest, that these are called so by way of contempt. The word "tzeir" signifies both "little" and "great", as the learned Pocock (h) has abundantly proved.
(g) De locis Hebrews. fol. 87. H. & 93. B. (h) Not. Miscell. in Port. Mosis, p. 17, 18.

little ones . . . cry--heightening the distress of the scene. The foe does not spare even infants.