Eglath-shelishiyah

"Eglath-shelishiyah" ("the third Eglath" or "the three-year-old heifer") appears in the prophetic laments of both Isaiah and Jeremiah against Moab (Isaiah 15:5, Jeremiah 48:34). In Isaiah's oracle, the fugitives of stricken Moab "cry as far as Eglath-shelishiyah... they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping; on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction." Jeremiah's parallel oracle echoes the same geography of mourning. The phrase "eglath shelishiyah" is enigmatic: it can be read as a poetic image (a three-year-old heifer reaching its full prime, used as a metaphor for Moab's wealth and youth being cut down) or as a literal place name. Most modern translators treat it as a place name in southern Moab, possibly identified with Khirbet el-Mereiwah or a site near the Brook of the Willows. Either way it stands as one of the haunting markers of Moab's coming desolation, a doomed town whose name itself sounded the note of mourning.