Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 48

Introduction

CHAPTER 48

:-. PROPHECY AGAINST MOAB.

It had taken part with the Chaldeans against Judea (2 Kings 24:2). Fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, when also he attacked Egypt (2 Kings 24:2- :) and Ammon (2 Kings 24:2- :). [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10:9,7]. Jeremiah in this prophecy uses that of Isaiah 15:1-16, amplifying and adapting it to his purpose under inspiration, at the same time confirming its divine authority. Isaiah, however, in his prophecy refers to the devastation of Moab by the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser; Jeremiah refers to that by Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 1

1. Nebo—a mountain and town of Moab; its meaning is "that which fructifies."

Kiriathaim—a city of Moab, consisting of two cities, as the word signifies; originally held by the Emim ( :-).

Misgab—meaning "elevation." It lay on an elevation.

Verse 2

2. no more praise— ( :-).

in Heshbon—The foe having taken Heshbon, the chief city of Moab ( :-), in it devise evil against Moab ("it") saying, Come, c. Heshbon was midway between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok it was the residence of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and afterwards a Levitical city in Gad ( :-). There is a play on words in the Hebrew, "Heshbon, Hashbu." Heshbon means a place of devising or counsel. The city, heretofore called the seat of counsel, shall find other counsellors, namely, those who devise its destruction.

thou shall be cut down . . . Madmen—rather, by a play on words on the meaning of madmen ("silence"), Thou shalt be brought to silence, so as well to deserve thy name ( :-). Thou shalt not dare to utter a sound.

Verse 3

3. Horonaim—the same as the city Avara, mentioned by PTOLEMY. The word means "double caves" (Nehemiah 2:10; Isaiah 15:5).

Verse 4

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

Verse 5

5. going up of Luhith . . . going down of Horonaim—Horonaim lay in a plain, Luhith on a height. To the latter, therefore, the Moabites would flee with "continual weeping," as a place of safety from the Chaldeans. Literally, "Weeping shall go up upon weeping."

Verse 6

6. They exhort one another to flee.

heath—or the juniper (see on Jeremiah 48:1). MAURER translates, "Be like one naked in the wilderness." But the sense is, Live in the wilderness like the heath, or juniper; do not "trust in" walls (Jeremiah 48:1- :) [GROTIUS]. (Compare Matthew 24:16-18).

Verse 7

7. thy works—namely, fortifications built by thy work. Moab was famous for its fortresses (Jeremiah 48:18). The antithesis is to Jeremiah 48:6, "Be . . . in the wilderness," where there are no fortified cities.

thou . . . also—like the rest of the surrounding peoples, Judah, c.

Chemosh—the tutelary god of Moab (Numbers 21:29 Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:7; 2 Kings 23:13). When a people were vanquished, their gods also were taken away by the victors (Jeremiah 43:12).

Verse 8

8. the valley . . . shall perish—that is, those dwelling in the valley.

Verse 9

9. Give wings, c.— ( :-). Unless it get wings, it cannot escape the foe. "Wings," the Hebrew root meaning is a "flower" ( :-) so the flower-like plumage of a bird.

Verse 10

10. work of . . . Lord—the divinely appointed utter devastation of Moab. To represent how entirely this is God's will, a curse is pronounced on the Chaldeans, the instrument, if they do it negligently (Margin) or by halves (Judges 5:23); compare Saul's sin as to Amalek (1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:9), and Ahab's as to Syria (1 Kings 20:42).

Verse 11

11. settled on . . . lees—(See on :-; :-). As wine left to settle on its own lees retains its flavor and strength (which it would lose by being poured from one vessel into another), so Moab, owing to its never having been dislodged from its settlements, retains its pride of strength unimpaired.

emptied from vessel, &c.—To make it fit for use, it used to be filtered from vessel to vessel.

scent—retaining the image: the bouquet or perfume of the wine.

Verse 12

12. wanderers—rather, "pourers out," retaining the image of :-, that is, the Chaldeans who shall remove Moab from his settlements, as men pour wine from off the lees into other vessels. "His vessels" are the cities of Moab; the broken "bottles" the men slain [GROTIUS]. The Hebrew and the kindred Arabic word means, "to turn on one side," so as to empty a vessel [MAURER].

Verse 13

13. ashamed—have the shame of disappointment as to the hopes they entertained of aid from Chemosh, their idol.

Beth-el— (1 Kings 12:27; 1 Kings 12:29) —that is, the golden calf set up there by Jeroboam.

Verse 15

15. gone up . . . gone down—in antithesis.

out of her cities—Rather, "Moab . . . and her cities are gone up," namely, pass away in the ascending smoke of their conflagration (Joshua 8:20; Joshua 8:21; Judges 20:40). When this took place, the young warriors would go down from the burning citadels only to meet their own slaughter [GROTIUS]. English Version is somewhat favored by the fact that "gone out" is singular, and "cities" plural. The antithesis favors GROTIUS.

Verse 16

16. near—to the prophet's eye, though probably twenty-three years elapsed between the utterance of the prophecy in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ( :-) and its fulfilment in the fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 17

17. bemoan—Not that Moab deserves pity, but this mode of expression pictures more vividly the grievousness of Moab's calamities.

all ye that know his name—those at a greater distance whom the fame of Moab's "name" had reached, as distinguished from those "about him," that is, near.

strong staff . . . rod—Moab is so called as striking terror into and oppressing other peoples (Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 14:4; Isaiah 14:5); also because of its dignity and power (Psalms 110:2; Zechariah 11:7).

Verse 18

18. ( :-).

dost inhabit—now so securely settled as if in a lasting habitation.

thirst—Dibon, being situated on the Arnon, abounded in water ( :-). In sad contrast with this, and with her "glory" in general, she shall be reduced not only to shame, but to the want of the commonest necessaries ("thirst") in the arid wilderness (Jeremiah 48:6).

Verse 19

19. Aroer—on the north bank of the Arnon, a city of Ammon (Deuteronomy 2:36; Deuteronomy 3:12). As it was on "the way" of the Moabites who fled into the desert, its inhabitants "ask" what is the occasion of Moab's flight, and so learn the lot that awaits themselves (compare 1 Samuel 4:13; 1 Samuel 4:16).

Verse 20

20. Answer of the fleeing Moabites to the Ammonite inquirers (Jeremiah 48:19; Isaiah 16:2). He enumerates the Moabite cities at length, as it seemed so incredible that all should be so utterly ruined. Many of them were assigned to the Levites, while Israel stood.

in Arnon—the north boundary between Moab and Ammon (Jeremiah 48:19; Numbers 21:13).

Verse 21

21. plain— ( :-). Not only the mountainous regions, but also the plain, shall be wasted.

Holon—(Compare :-).

Jahazah— (Numbers 21:23; Isaiah 15:4).

Mephaath— (Joshua 13:18; Joshua 21:37).

Verse 22

22. Beth-diblathaim—"the house of Diblathaim": Almon-diblathaim ( :-); "Diblath" ( :-); not far from Mount Nebo (Numbers 33:46; Numbers 33:47).

Verse 23

23. Beth-gamul—meaning "the city of camels."

Beth-meon—"the house of habitation": Beth-baalmeon ( :-). Now its ruins are called Miun.

Verse 24

24. Kerioth— (Joshua 15:25; Amos 2:2).

Bozrah—(See on Amos 2:2- :); at one time under the dominion of Edom, though belonging originally to Moab (Genesis 36:33; Isaiah 63:1). Others think the Bozrah in Edom distinct from that of Moab. "Bezer" (Isaiah 63:1- :).

Verse 25

25. horn—the emblem of strength and sovereignty: it is the horned animal's means of offense and defense (Psalms 75:5; Psalms 75:10; Lamentations 2:3).

Verse 26

26. drunken—(see on :-; Jeremiah 25:17). Intoxicated with the cup of divine wrath, so as to be in helpless distraction.

magnified . . . against . . . Lord—boasted arrogantly against God's people, that whereas Israel was fallen, Moab remained flourishing.

wallow in . . . vomit—following up the image of a drunken man, that is, shall be so afflicted by God's wrath as to disgorge all his past pride, riches, and vainglory, and fall in his shameful abasement.

he also . . . derision—He in his disaster shall be an object of derision to us, as we in ours have been to him (Jeremiah 48:27). Retribution in kind.

Verse 27

27. ( :-).

a derision—The Hebrew has the article: referring to :-, "Was not Israel (the whole nation) the object of derision to thee?" Therefore, Moab is to suffer as formerly for its exultation over the calamity ( :-) of the ten tribes under the Assyrian Shalmaneser ( :-), so now for its exultation over the fall of Judah, under the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar. God takes up His people's cause as His own (Obadiah 1:10-13).

was he . . . among thieves— (Jeremiah 2:26). Proverbial. What did Israel do to deserve such derision? Was he detected in theft, that thou didst so exult over him in speaking of him? Though guilty before God, Israel was guiltless towards thee.

since—"since ever" thou didst begin speaking of him.

skippedst for joy—at Israel's calamity [CALVIN]; or, "thou didst shake thy head" in "derision" [MAURER].

Verse 28

28. Doves often have their nests in the "sides" of caverns. No longer shalt thou have cities to shelter thee: thou shalt have to flee for shelter to caves and deserts (Psalms 55:6; Psalms 55:8; Song of Solomon 2:14).

Verse 29

29. pride— (Isaiah 16:6; Isaiah 16:7). Moab was the trumpeter of his own fame. Jeremiah adds "loftiness and arrogancy" to Isaiah's picture, so that Moab had not only not been bettered by the chastisement previously endured as foretold by Isaiah, but had even become worse; so that his guilt, and therefore his sentence of punishment, are increased now. Six times Moab's pride (or the synonyms) are mentioned, to show the exceeding hatefulness of his sin.

Verse 30

30. I know—Moab's "proud arrogancy" (Jeremiah 48:29) or "wrath," against My people, is not unknown to Me.

it shall not be so—The result shall not be so as he thinks: his lies shall not so effect what he aims at by them. CALVIN translates, "his lies are not right (that is, his vauntings are vain because God will not give them effect); they shall not do so" as they project in their minds, for God will set at naught their plans.

Verse 31

31. I will cry . . . for . . . Moab—Not that it deserves pity, but the prophet's "crying" for it vividly represents the greatness of the calamity.

Kir-heres—Kir-hareseth, in Isaiah 16:7; see on Isaiah 16:7- :. It means "the city of potters," or else "the city of the sun" [GROTIUS]. Here "the men of Kir-heres" are substituted for "the foundations of Kir-hareseth," in Isaiah 16:7- :. The change answers probably to the different bearing of the disaster under Nebuchadnezzar, as compared with that former one under Shalmaneser.

Verse 32

32. with the weeping—with the same weeping as Jazer, now vanquished, wept with for the destruction of its vines. The same calamity shall befall thee, Sibmah, as befell Jazer. The Hebrew preposition here is different from that in Isaiah 16:9, for which reason MAURER translates, "with more than the weeping of Jazer." English Version understands it of the continuation of the weeping; after they have wept for Jazer, fresh subject of lamentation will present itself for the wasting of the vine-abounding Sibmah.

plants . . . gone over . . . sea of Jazer—As the Septuagint reads "cities of Jazer," and as no traces of a lake near Jazer are found, the reading of English Version is doubtful. Retaining the present reading, we avoid the difficulty by translating [GROTIUS], "Thy plants (that is, citizens: alluding to the 'vine') are gone over the sea (that is, shall be transported beyond the sea to Cyprus, and such distant lands subject to Babylon; and this, too, in summertime), whereas Jazer (that is, the men of Jazer) reached the sea" (shore only, but are not transported beyond the sea); so that worse shall befall thee than befalls Jazer.

spoiler—Nebuzara-dan.

Verse 33

33. the plentiful field—rather, "Carmel": as the parallel "land of Moab" requires, though in Isaiah 16:10, it is "the plentiful field." Joy is taken away as from the nearer regions (Canaan and Palestine), so from the farther "land of Moab"; what has happened to Judah shall befall Moab, too (Jeremiah 48:26; Jeremiah 48:27) [MAURER]. However, Moab alone seems to be spoken of here; nor does the parallelism forbid "plentiful field" answering to "Moab." English Version is therefore better.

shouting—repeated; as at the conclusion of the vintage, men sing over and over again the same cry of joy. A shouting shall be heard, but not the joyous shouting of laborers treading the grapes, but the terrible battle cry of the foe.

Verse 34

34. From the cry of Heshbon, &c.—Those who fly from Heshbon on its capture shall continue the cry even as far as Elealeh . . . . There will be continued cries in all quarters, from one end to the other, everywhere slaughter and wasting.

as an heifer of three years old—Moab heretofore not having known foreign yoke, and in its full strength, is compared to an heifer of three years old, never yet yoked, nor as yet worn out with many birth-givings (compare Note, see on :-).

waters . . . of Nimrim—that is, the well-watered and therefore luxuriant pastures of Nimrim.

desolate—The Hebrew is stronger: not merely shall be "desolate," but desolation itself multiplied: plural, "desolations." The most fertile tracts shall be dried up.

Verse 35

35. him that offereth—namely, whole burnt offerings as the Hebrew requires [GROTIUS]. Compare the awful burnt offering of the king of Moab ( :-).

high places— ( :-).

Verse 36

36. (See on :-; :-).

like pipes—a plaintive instrument, therefore used at funerals and in general mourning.

riches . . . gotten—literally, the abundance . . . that which is over and above the necessaries of life. GROTIUS translates, "They who have been left remaining shall perish"; they who have not been slain by the enemy shall perish by disease and famine.

Verse 37

37. (See on :-; Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah 15:3).

upon all . . . hands—that is, arms, in which such cuttings used to be made in token of grief (compare Zechariah 13:6).

Verse 38

38. vessel . . . no pleasure—(See on Jeremiah 48:2); a vessel cast aside by the potter as refuse, not answering his design.

Verse 39

39. it—Moab.

How . . . how—prodigious, yet sure to happen.

turned the back—not daring to show her face.

derision . . . dismaying to all—a derision to some; a dismaying to others in beholding such a judgment of God, fearing a like fate for themselves.

Verse 40

40. he—Nebuzara-dan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar.

as . . . eagle—not to bear them "on eagles' wings" (Exodus 19:4; Deuteronomy 32:11; Deuteronomy 32:12), as God does His people, but to pounce on them as a prey (Jeremiah 49:22; Deuteronomy 28:49; Habakkuk 1:8).

Verse 41

41. as . . . woman in . . . pangs— (Isaiah 13:8).

Verse 42

42. (See on :-).

Verse 43

43, 44. (See on :-).

Verse 44

44. When thou thinkest thou hast escaped one kind of danger, a fresh one will start up.

Verse 45

45. under . . . shadow of Heshbon—They thought that they would be safe in Heshbon.

because of the force—that is, "they that fled because of the force" of the enemy: they that fled from it. GLASSIUS translates, "through want of strength." So the Hebrew particle is translated ( :-), "faileth of fatness," that is, "faileth through want of fatness"; also :-.

but a fire, c.—copied in part from Sihon's hymn of victory (Numbers 21:27 Numbers 21:28). The old "proverb" shall hold good again. As in ancient times Sihon, king of the Amorites, issued forth from his city, Heshbon, as a devouring "flame" and consumed Moab, so now the Chaldeans, making Heshbon their starting-point, shall advance to the destruction of Moab.

midst of Sihon—that is, the city of Sihon.

corner of Moab—that is, Moab from one corner to the other.

crown of . . . head—the most elevated points of Moab. Making some alterations, he here copies Balaam's prophecy (Numbers 21:28- :). Margin there translates "princes" for corners; if so, "crown of . . . head" here refers to the nobles.

tumultuous ones—sons of tumult; those who have tumultuously revolted from Babylon. Heshbon passed from the Amorite to the Israelite sway. Moab had wrested it from Israel and helped the Chaldeans against the Jews; but revolting from Babylon, they brought ruin on themselves in turn.

Verse 46

46. Copied from :-.

Verse 47

47. Restoration promised to Moab, for the sake of righteous Lot, their progenitor (Genesis 19:37; Exodus 20:6; Psalms 89:30-33). Compare as to Egypt, Jeremiah 46:26; Ammon, Jeremiah 49:6; Elam, Jeremiah 49:6- :. Gospel blessings, temporal and spiritual, to the Gentiles in the last days, are intended.