Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 15:5

"My heart crieth out for Moab; her nobles [flee] unto Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction." — Isaiah 15:5 (ASV)

My heart shall cry out for Moab ... — The prophet, though a stranger to Moab and belonging to a hostile people, is touched with pity at the sight—the fugitives fleeing before the army coming from the north to Zoar, at the extreme south of the Dead Sea (see the note on Genesis 19:22), in the wild scare of a frightened heifer still untamed by the yoke (Jeremiah 31:18, Jeremiah 48:34, and Jeremiah 1:11). The English word “fugitives” corresponds to the marginal reading of the Hebrew. The main Hebrew text (which the Vulgate follows) reads, “his bars reach unto Zoar;” but it is not easy to connect this with the context.

By the mounting up of Luhith ... — No city has been identified as bearing this name. Probably “the ascent of Luhith” (the name may indicate a staircase made of boards) was the well-known approach (Jeremiah 48:5) to a Moabite sanctuary. Eusebius (in his Onomasticon) speaks of it as being between Zoar and Areopolis (Rabbath Moab). Horonaim (mentioned here and in Jeremiah 48:3, Jeremiah 48:5, and Jeremiah 48:34) is as little known as its companion. The name, which in Hebrew means “two caverns,” is, perhaps, descriptive of the nature of the sanctuary. The point of the description is that when the fugitives reach Horonaim, they are met with the cry of destruction: “All is over.”