Of Moab. Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Woe to Nebo! For it is laid waste. Kiriathaim is disappointed. It is taken. Misgab is put to shame and broken down.
The praise of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her: ‘Come! Let’s cut her off from being a nation.’ You also, Madmen, will be brought to silence. The sword will pursue you.
The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!
Moab is destroyed. Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
For they will go up by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping. For at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.
For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken. Chemosh will go out into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
The destroyer will come on every city, and no city will escape; the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken.
Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get herself away: and her cities will become a desolation, without anyone to dwell in them.
“Cursed is he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.
“Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.
Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will send to him those who pour off, and they will pour him off; and they will empty his vessels, and break their containers in pieces.
Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
“How do you say, ‘We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?’
Moab is laid waste, and they have gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
“The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.
All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, ‘How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!’
“You daughter who dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you. He has destroyed your strongholds.
Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch. Ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, ‘What has been done?’
Moab is disappointed; for it is broken down. Wail and cry! Tell it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.
Judgment has come on the plain country, on Holon, on Jahzah, on Mephaath,
on Dibon, on Nebo, on Beth Diblathaim,
on Kiriathaim, on Beth Gamul, on Beth Meon,
on Kerioth, on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,” says Yahweh.
“Make him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh. Moab will wallow in his vomit, and he also will be in derision.
For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock. Be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss.
“We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud in his loftiness, his pride, his arrogance, and the arrogance of his heart.
I know his wrath,” says Yahweh, “that it is nothing; his boastings have done nothing.
Therefore I will wail for Moab. Yes, I will cry out for all Moab. They will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.
With more than the weeping of Jazer I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah. Your branches passed over the sea. They reached even to the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruits and on your vintage.
Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one will tread with shouting. The shouting will be no shouting.
From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah; for the waters of Nimrim will also become desolate.
Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab,” says Yahweh, “him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his gods.
Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir Heres. Therefore the abundance that he has gotten has perished.
For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
On all the housetops of Moab, and in its streets, there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which no one delights,” says Yahweh.
“How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So will Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.”
For Yahweh says: “Behold, he will fly as an eagle, and will spread out his wings against Moab.
Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized. The heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh.
Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says Yahweh.
“He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation,” says Yahweh.
“Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire has gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the middle of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity.
“Yet I will reverse the captivity of Moab in the latter days,” says Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 This prophecy is against the Moabites, who, though they…
This prophecy is against the Moabites, who, though they derived their origin from Lot, and were of the same blood with the Israelites, had yet been inimical to them. This prophecy would be uninteresting, were we not to remember the history on which the application and use of what is said depends. We have said that the Moabites, as the father of their nation was Lot, were connected by blood with the Israelites; they ought then to have retained the recollection of their brotherhood, and to have dealt kindly with them; for God had spared them when the people of Israel entered into the land of Canaan. The Israelites, we know, passed through the borders of Moab without doing any harm to them, because it was God’s purpose, from a regard to Lot, to preserve them for a time. But this people never ceased to contrive all manner of plots against God’s people; and, as we shall hereafter see, when the state of that people became embarrassed, they cruelly exulted over them, and became more insolent than avowed enemies. Hence God prophesied against them, that the Israelites might know, as we reminded you yesterday, that their miserable condition was not overlooked by God, and that though he chastised them, yet some hope of mercy remained, as he undertook their cause and would be their defender. It was then no small comfort which this prophecy brought to the faithful; for they thus knew that God was still their father, though apparently he seemed to be severe to them. We now perceive the design of what is here said.
The case of the Moabites was different from that of the Egyptians, for the Egyptians were wholly aliens to the chosen people; but the Moabites, as we have said, were related to them. They were therefore willful, and as it were intestine enemies; and nature itself ought to have taught them to acknowledge the Israelites as their brethren, and to cultivate mutual kindness. This cruelty and ingratitude were so hateful to God, that at length he punished them most severely. But as the Moabites remained in quietness when Judea was laid waste, and the city Jerusalem destroyed, after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, and the banishment of the ten tribes to distant countries, it behooved the faithful to exercise patience, which could not have been done without hope. It was this then that Jeremiah had in view, even to sustain the minds of the godly with the expectation of God’s judgment, which he here denounces on the Moabites.
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He says, Against Moab; and then it follows, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel By the first term he designates the immense power of God, and reminds them that God is the judge of the whole world, and that his kingdom extends over all nations; but by the second expression he bears testimony to the love with which he had embraced the children of Abraham, because he had been pleased to choose them as his peculiar inheritance. Woe, he says, on Nebo; which was a city in the land of Moab; because laid waste, ashamed, taken is Kiriathaim He names here, as we see, some cities, and he will name more as he proceeds. Ashamed then and taken is Kiriathaim; and Misgab is ashamed and torn, or broken in mind. It follows, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 40, 43, 45, 46, 47 These were cities of the Moabites, which Nebuchadnezzar took…
These were cities of the Moabites, which Nebuchadnezzar took before he went to fight against Necho king of Egypt.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–47 Jer 48:1 Against Moab thus saith the LORD of…
Jer 48:1 Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled: Kiriathaim is confounded [and] taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.
Ver. 1. Against Moab.] That bastardly brood, infamous for their inveterate hatred of God’s Israel, at whom they were anciently irked, fretted, vexed, though no way provoked, {Num 22:3} whom also they outwitted, by the counsel of Balaam, in the business of Baal-peor, {Num 25:1-3; Num 25:16-18} had been plagued and judged by the kings of Israel, by David especially, as also by Sennacherib, {Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14} but were no whit amended; and are therefore here, and Eze 25:9, threatened with utter destruction by the Chaldeans, and that very much in a scoffing way; like as they were a proud, petulant, scornful people, despisers of all other nations, but especially of the Jews, their near neighbours and allies.
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Woe unto Nebo.] Their oracular city, as it may seem by the name. See Isa 15:2.
Kiriathaim is confounded.] It is of a dual form, and so seemeth to have been Bipolis, a double city; as was of old Jerusalem, and as are now Rome, Prague, Craeovia.
Misgab is confounded.] It signifieth the high place, and is the same, say some, with Bamoth, {Num 21:20} and Selah. {Isa 16:1}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47 The prophet having, Jer 46; denounced God’s judgment against…
The prophet having, Jer 46; denounced God’s judgment against Egypt, and against the Philistines, Jer 47, in this chapter he cometh to do the like against the Moabites. Moab, the father of these Moabites, was the son of Lot, Gen 19:37. the Moabites’ country lay in the way the Israelites went to Canaan, Num 21:11,13, near the country of the Ammonites. Balak was king of it when the Israelites passed by it, who sent for the sorcerer Balaam to curse them, Num 22:5, who, Num 24:5, &c., blessed them. They seduced the Israelites to adultery and idolatry, Num 25:1.
Moab was a large country, and had many cities; we shall have divers of them named in this chapter; the first that we read of Nebo in holy writ is Num 32:3,38. Reuben built both that and Kirathaim, as may be read there, Num 32:38,39. It was also the name of a mountain, Deu 34:1. It should seem that in Jeremiah’s time, the Moabites had got both the possession of Nebo, and Kiriathaim, and
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Misgab, of which we read no more in Scripture. It seems to be a city built upon some hill or high place. The prophet threateneth ruin to all these three cities.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 14 We may observe in these verses,
We may observe in these verses,
I. The author of Moab's destruction; it is the Lord of hosts, that has armies, all armies, at his command, and the God of Israel (Jer 48:1), who will herein plead the cause of his Israel against a people that have always been vexatious to them, and will punish them now for the injuries done to Israel of old, though Israel was forbidden to meddle with them (Deu 2:9), therefore the destruction of Moab is called the work of the Lord (Jer 48:10), for it is he that pleads for Israel; and his work will exactly agree with his word, Jer 48:8.
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II. The instruments of it: Spoilers shall come (Jer 48:8), shall come with a sword, a sword that shall pursue them, Jer 48:2. "I will send unto him wanderers, such as come from afar, as if they were vagrants, or had missed their way, but they shall cause him to wander; they seem as wanderers themselves, but they shall make the Moabites to be really wanderers, some to flee and others to be carried into captivity." These destroyers stir up themselves to do execution; they have devised evil against Heshbon, one of the principal cities of Moab, and they aim at no less than the ruin of the kingdom: Come, and let us cut it off from being a nation (Jer 48:2); nothing less will serve the turn of the invaders; they come, not to plunder it, but to ruin it. The prophet, in God's name, engages them to make thorough work of it (Jer 48:10): Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully, this bloody work, this destroying work; though it goes against the grain with men of compassion, yet it is the work of the Lord, and must not be done by the halves. The Chaldeans have it in charge, by a secret instinct (says Mr. Gataker), to destroy the Moabites, and therefore they must not spare, must not, out of foolish pity, keep back their sword from blood; they would thereby bring a sword, and a curse with it, upon themselves, as Saul did by sparing the Amalekites and Ahab by letting Benhadad go. Thy life shall go for his life. To this work is applied that general rule given to all that are employed in any service for God, Cursed by he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully or negligently, that pretends to do it, but does it not to purpose, makes a show of serving God's glory, but is really serving his own ends and carries on the work of the Lord no further than will suit his own purposes, or that is slothful in business for God and takes neither care nor pains to do it as it should be done, Mal 1:14. Let not such deceive themselves, for God will not thus be mocked.
III. The woeful instances and effects of this destruction. The cities shall be laid in ruins; they shall be spoiled (Jer 48:1) and cut down (Jer 48:2); they shall be desolate (Jer 48:9), without any to dwell therein; there shall be no houses to dwell in, or no people to dwell in them, or no safety and ease to those that would dwell in them. Every city shall be spoiled and no city shall escape. The strongest city shall not be able to secure itself against the enemies' power, nor shall the finest city be able to recommend itself to the enemies' pity and favour. The country also shall be wasted, the valley shall perish, and the plain be destroyed, Jer 48:8. The corn and the flocks, which used to cover the plains and make the valleys rejoice, shall all be destroyed, eaten up, trodden down, or carried off. The most sacred persons shall not escape: The priests and princes shall go together into captivity. Nay, Chemosh, the god they worship, who, they hope, will protect them, shall share with them in the ruin; his temples shall be laid in ashes and his image carried away with the rest of the spoil. Now the consequence of all this will be, 1. Great shame and confusion: Kirjathaim is confounded, and Misgah is so. They shall be ashamed of the mighty boasts they have sometimes made of their cities: There shall be no more vaunting in Moab concerning Heshbon (so it might be read, Jer 48:2); they shall no more boast of the strength of that city when the evil which is designed against it is brought upon it. Nor shall they any more boast of their gods (Jer 48:13); they shall be ashamed of Chemosh (ashamed of all the prayers they have made to and all the confidence they put in that dunghill deity), as Israel was ashamed of Beth-el, of the golden calf they had at Beth-el, which they confided in as their protector, but were deceived in, for it was not able to save them from the Assyrians; nor shall Chemosh be able to save the Moabites from the Chaldeans. Note, Those that will not be convinced and made ashamed of the folly of their idolatry by the word of God shall be convinced and made ashamed of it by the judgments of God, when they shall find by woeful experience the utter inability of the gods they have served to do them any service. 2. There will be great sorrow; there is a voice of crying heard (Jer 48:3) and the cry is nothing but spoiling and great destruction. Alas! alas! Moab is destroyed, Jer 48:4. The great ones having quitted the cities to shift for their own safety, even the little ones have caused a cry to be heard, the meaner sort of people, or the little children, the innocent harmless ones, whose cries at such a time are the most piteous. Go up to the hills, go down to the valleys, and you meet with continual weeping (weeping with weeping); all are in tears; you meet none with dry eyes. Even the enemies have heard the cry, from whom it would have been policy to conceal it, for they will be animated and encouraged by it; but it is so great that it cannot be hid, 3. There will be great hurry; they will cry to one another, "Away, away! flee; save your lives (Jer 48:6); shift for your own safety with all imaginable speed, though you escape as bare and naked as the heath, or grig, or dry shrub, in the wilderness; think not of carrying away any thing you have, for it may cost you your life to attempt it, Mat 24:16-18. Take shelter, though it be in a barren wilderness, that you may have your lives for a prey. The danger will come suddenly and swiftly; and therefore give wings unto Moab (Jer 48:9); that would be the greatest kindness you could do them; that is what they will call for, O that we had wings like a dove! for unless they have wings, and can fly, there will be no escaping."
IV. The sins for which God will now reckon with Moab, and which justify God in these severe proceedings against them. 1. It is because they have been secure, and have trusted in their wealth and strength, in their works and in their treasures, Jer 48:7. They had taken a great deal of pains to fortify their cities and make large works about them, and to fill their exchequer and private coffers, so that they thought themselves in as good a posture for war as any people could be and that none durst invade them, and therefore set danger at defiance. They trusted in the abundance of their riches and strengthened themselves in their wickedness, Psa 52:7. Now, for this reason, that they may have a sensible conviction of the vanity and folly of their carnal confidences, God will send an enemy that will master their works and rifle their treasures. Note, We forfeit the comfort of that creature which we repose that confidence in which should be reposed in God only. The reed will break that is leaned upon. 2. It is because they have not made a right improvement of the days of the peace and prosperity, Jer 48:11. (1.) They had been long undisturbed: Moab has been at ease from his youth. It was an ancient kingdom before Israel was, and had enjoyed great tranquillity, though a small country and surrounded with potent neighbours. God's Israel were afflicted from their youth (Psa 129:1, Psa 129:2), but Moab at ease from his youth. He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, has not known any troublesome weakening changes, but is as wine kept on the lees, and not racked or drawn off, by which it retains its strength and body. He has not been unsettled, nor any way made uneasy; he has not gone into captivity, as Israel have often done, and yet Moab is a wicked idolatrous nation, and one of the confederates against God's hidden ones, Psa 83:3, Psa 83:6. Note, There are many that persist in unrepented iniquity and yet enjoy uninterrupted prosperity. (2.) They had been as long corrupt and unreformed: He has settled on his lees; he has been secure and sensual in his prosperity, has rested in it, and fetched all the strength and life of the soul from it, as the wine from the lees. His taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed; he is still the same, as bad as ever he was. Note, While bad people are as happy as they used to be in the world it is no marvel if they are bad as they used to be. They have no changes of their peace and prosperity, therefore fear not God, their hearts and lives are unchanged, Psa 55:19.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–46 Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts, the…
Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... The prophecy concerning Moab is introduced with these epithets of God, partly to observe that the God of Israel was the only true God, in opposition to the gods of Moab, and other nations; and partly to point out his omnipotence, being able to perform what he here predicts and threatens; as also to suggest, that for the enmity of the Moabites to his people Israel, and their contempt of them, which is taken notice of in this chapter, and the ill treatment of them, the Lord would now take vengeance on them. Some render it, "concerning Moab" (z); because every thing that is here said is not against it; the chapter concludes in favour of it; though the far greater part, and ever, all but the last verse, is against it. This prophecy, according to Josephus (a), had its fulfilment about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem;
woe unto Nebo, for it is spoiled; its walls broken down; its houses demolished; its inhabitants destroyed, and plundered of their riches; this, in prophetic language, is represented as done, because of the certainty of it. Of this city See Gill on Isa 15:2; It is thought to be an oracular one, where was a temple of their idol; and from whence their priests gave out oracles, promising peace, and prosperity and safety, to Moab; and therefore the desolation of that is first prophesied of, to show that no dependence was to be had on those lying oracles;
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Kirjathaim is confounded and taken; a city in the tribe of Reuben, which afterwards came into the hands of the Moabites, Jos 13:19. The word is of the dual form; and it might be a double city, like Jerusalem, consisting of a lower and upper city; or it might be divided by a river; or, as Kimchi and Ben Melech think, it was so called because it had two towers in it. It seems to be the same with Kir of Moab, Kirharesh, and Kirhareseth, Isa 15:1; when it was taken by the Chaldeans, the inhabitants were confounded, as having looked upon the place, and boasted of it, as impregnable;
Misgab is confounded and dismayed; so called from its being built on a high place, and well fortified; though some think that this is not the proper name of a place; but only signifies a high and fortified place both by nature and art; a place of refuge, where persons thought themselves safe; and so the Targum renders it,
"the house of their confidence;''
this, when besieged and taken by the Babylonians, threw the inhabitants into the utmost consternation and confusion. Some take it to be the same with Bamoth, a name of much the same signification, Jos 13:17; see Isa 15:2.
(z) "ad Moab", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "de Moabo", Vatablus, Cocceius. (a) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 36, 40, 43, 45, 47 The judgment of Moab, ver. 1-6. for their pride,…
The judgment of Moab, ver. 1-6. for their pride, ver. 7-10. for their security and human confidence, ver. 11-15. especially for their contempt of God, and insolence towards his people, ver. 26- 46. Their restoration, ver. 47.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28, 29, 32, 34, 37, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47 The following prophecy concerning the Moabites is supposed to
CHAPTER XLVIII
The following prophecy concerning the Moabites is supposed to
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have had its accomplishment during the long siege of Tyre in
the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The whole of this chapter is
poetry of the first order. The distress of the cities of Moab,
with which it opens, is finely described. The cries of one
ruined city resound to those of another, 1-3.
The doleful helpless cry of the children is heard, 4;
the highways, on either hand, resound with the voice of
weeping, 5;
and the few that remain resemble a blasted tree in the wide
howling waste, 6.
Chemosh, the chief god of the Moabites, and the capital figure
in the triumph, is represented as carried off in chains, with
all his trumpery of priests and officers, 7.
The desolation of the country shall be so general and sudden
that, by a strong figure, it is intimated that there shall be
no possibility of escape, except it be in the speediest flight,
8, 9.
And some idea may be formed of the dreadful wickedness of this
people from the consideration that the prophet, under the
immediate inspiration of the Almighty, pronounces a curse on
those who do the work of the Lord negligently, in not
proceeding to their utter extermination, 10.
The subject is then diversified by an elegant and
well-supported comparison, importing that the Moabites
increased in insolence and pride in proportion to the duration
of their prosperity, 11;
but this prosperity is declared to be nearly at an end; the
destroyer is already commissioned against Moab, and his
neighbours called to sing the usual lamentation at his funeral,
13-18.
The prophet then represents some of the women of Aroer and
Ammon, (the extreme borders of Moab,) standing in the highways,
and asking the fugitives of Moab, What intelligence? They
inform him of the complete discomfiture of Moab, 19-24,
and of the total annihilation of its political existence, 25.
The Divine judgments about to fall upon Moab are farther
represented under the expressive metaphor of a cup of
intoxicating liquor, by which he should become an object of
derision because of his intolerable pride, his magnifying
himself against Jehovah, and his great contempt for the
children of Israel in the day of their calamity, 26, 27.
The prophet then points out the great distress of Moab by a
variety of striking figures, viz., by the failure of the
customary rejoicings at the end of harvest, by the mournful
sort of music used at funerals, by the signs which were
expressive among the ancients of deep mourning, as shaving the
head, clipping the beard, cutting the flesh, and wearing
sackcloth; and by the methods of catching wild beasts in toils,
and by the terror and pitfall, 28-46.
In the close of the chapter it is intimated that a remnant
shall be preserved from this general calamity whose descendants
shall be prosperous in the latter days, 47.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLVIII
Verse 1. Against Moab] This was delivered some time after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Moabites were in the neighbourhood of the Ammonites, and whatever evils fell on the one would naturally involve the other. See Isa 15:1-9 and Isa 16:1-14 on this same subject.
Wo unto Nebo! for it is spoiled] This was a city in the tribe of Reuben, afterwards possessed by the Moabites. It probably had its name from Nebo, one of the principal idols of the Moabites.
Kiriathaim] Another city of the Moabites.
Misgab is confounded] There is no place of this name known, and therefore several learned men translate המשגב hammisgab, literally, The high tower, or fortress, which may apply to Kiriathaim, or any other high and well-fortified place.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 7, 11, 13, 18, 26, 28, 29, 31, 34, 40, 45, 47 Jer 48:1. Against Moab — Hebrew, למואב, To, or,…
Jer 48:1. Against Moab — Hebrew, למואב, To, or, concerning Moab, thus saith the Lord of hosts — This prophecy concerning the Moabites, as also the following which respect the Ammonites, Edomites, and other neighbouring nations, are supposed to have been fulfilled during the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar: see note on Jer 47:1. Many expressions and passages are found in this chapter which Jeremiah seems to have borrowed from a prophecy of Isaiah, chap. 15., and 16., concerning a like calamity which befell Moab, in all probability when Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, seized upon their cities and fortresses, and ravaged their country, on his march through it to invade the kingdom of Israel. By comparing the parallel places much light may be mutually thrown upon them. Kiriathaim, one of the cities of Moab, here mentioned, was given by Moses to the Reubenites, as appears by Jos 13:10, but the Moabites afterward recovered the possession of it. Blaney thinks the word which our translators have rendered Misgab, as if it were the proper name of a city, is rather to be considered as an appellative, especially as it has an article prefixed. He therefore renders it, the high fortress, observing that it may either mean Kiriathaim, before mentioned, or any other high fortress of Moab.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 47 Against Moab - Concerning Moab.
Against Moab - Concerning Moab.
Is confounded - Is brought to shame.
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Misgab - The high fort; some special fortress, probably Kir-haraseth 2Ki 3:25.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 20, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47 Moab. This people broke their covenant with Sedecias, yet…
Moab. This people broke their covenant with Sedecias, yet were punished for having entered into it, five years after the taking of Jerusalem. (Josephus) (St. Jerome, in chap. xxv. 32.) --- The same war is described by Ezechiel (xxv. 8.) and Sophonias, ii. 8. Many words of Isaias (xv., and xvi., and xxiv.) are adopted, though he speaks of what happened under Ezechias. --- Nabo, a town at the foot of that mountain, where Moses died, Deuteronomy xxxiv. It might have been famous for some pretended "oracle," Isaias xv. 2., and xlvi. 1. This chief city, with the rest, shall be destroyed. (Worthington) --- Cariathaim. This city, and most of the others, were repossessed by Moab after the Israelites were led into captivity. (Calmet) --- City. Hebrew Hammisgab, a fortress. (Vatable)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 5. Prophecy Against Moab (chap. 48)
5. Prophecy Against Moab (chap. 48)
Although Israel had received the command by Moses, not to oppress or make war on the Moabites (Deu_2:9), the Moabites on their part acted in a most hostile manner towards Israel, and according to Balaam’s counsel (Num_31:17), did them greater injury by seducing them to idolatry, than they could have done with weapons of war. In consequence of the command given by Moses, the Israelites took possession of none, of the country of the Moabites, but the Arnon, which had formed the boundary line between the Moabites and Ammonites (Num_21:13; Jdg_11:18), now formed that between Moab and Reuben (Deu_2:36; Jos_13:9). From this time the history of the relations between Israel and Moab falls into two periods. The first extends from the occupation of the transjordanic country to the subjugation of the Moabites by David (2Sa_8:2). During this period many struggles took place between the two nations with varying success (Jdg_3:12 sqq.; Jdg_3:28 sqq.; 1Sa_14:47). The second period embraces the subjection of the Moabites under David and his successors (after the division under the kings of Israel) to their revolt after the death of Ahab (2Ki_1:1; 2Ki_3:4-5). The third period again is one of hostility with varying success (2Ki_3:6-27; 2Ki_13:20), but closes with the occupation of the region to the north of the Arnon by the Moabites in consequence of the deportation of the East-jordanic Israelites by Tiglath Pileser (2Ki_15:29; 1Ch_5:6; 1Ch_5:26). The fourth period embraces their entire subsequent history. In this the only account we have of wars between the two nations is, that Moabitish troops were sent against Jehoiakim after his revolt from the Chaldeans (2Ki_24:2). Under Zedekiah we see the Moabites in league with Israel against the common enemy, the Chaldeans (Jer_27:1-3), of which Josephus (Ant. X., 9,7) that records that Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem subjugated the Ammonites and Moabites. In this fourth period fall the other prophecies against Moab, with the exception of the brief oracle, Amo_2:1-3, viz., those of Isaiah (Isa. 15. and 16. coll. Isa 25) Zephaniah (Zep_2:8-11), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 48.), Ezekiel (Eze_25:8-11).
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No-proof is needed that Jeremiah had occasion to direct a prophecy against this old hereditary foe. The account in 2Ki_24:2 shows that even specially at that time the disposition of the Moabites was hostile to Judah; for this prophecy certainly belongs to the time of Jehoiakim and before the fourth year, the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar not being mentioned. The form of the superscription favors its contemporaneousness with the first prophecy against Egypt (Jer_46:1-2). Comp. rems. on that passage. —Jeremiah’s object in this prophecy was evidently to reanimate, as it were, the former declarations of similar purport, and comprise them together for the sake of a powerful total effect. From ver.29 onwards, there is a constant, more or less free, use of older utterances. Of special importance appeared to our prophet the prophecy of Isaiah, itself reproducing an older oracle (Isa_16:13). He makes very extensive use of it, particularly of Jer_48:29-38. Amos also (comp. בְּנֵי־שָׁאוֹן, Jer_48:45, and הַקְרִיוֹת, Jer_48:24; Jer_48:41, with Amo_2:2). Zephaniah (comp. הִגְדִּיל, Jer_48:26; Jer_48:42, with Zep_2:8; Zep_2:10) and even older utterances of the Pentateuch (comp. Jer_48:45-46 with Num_21:28-29; Num_25:17) have not been left unemployed. Thus the prophecy has not only become very long, but many unevennesses have been produced by the introduction of foreign matters. Movers and Hitzig have thus been misled to assume various interpolations. Graf, however, has satisfactorily rebutted these attacks on the integrity of our text. As regards the structure of the discourse, it consists, according to the peculiarity of Jeremiah’s style, in pictures of various extent, of which we number eleven. The first five are predominantly occupied with the description of the punitive Judgment breaking in upon Moab (Jer_48:1-25), while the four following (Jer_48:26-42) have the reasons of this judgment for their subject. The last two pictures (Jer_48:43-44, and Jer_48:45-46) are related to the two main divisions as supplements, in so far as they contain nothing new, but draw only on two older sources, viz.: 1, a drastic passage by Isaiah, which moreover has nothing to do with Moab; 2, some declarations of the book of Numbers referring to Moab. The last verse is a consolatory glance forming a conclusion to the whole.
1. The Description of the Punitive Judgment (Jer_48:1-25)
1. The Devastation Proceeding from City to City
(Jer_48:1-5.)
1 Against Moab.
Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel:
Woe unto Nebo, for it is laid waste!
Confounded and taken is Kiriathaim!
Confounded and broken to pieces is the citadel [Misgab].
2 The glory of Moab is departed.
In Heshbon they have spun evil against her.
“Up! and let us cut her off from being a nation!”1
Thou also, O Madmen, art made mad [feeble]:2
Behind thee cometh the sword.
3 Hark! Crying from Choronaim—
Desolation and great ruin.
4 Broken in pieces is Moab!
They cry aloud towards Zoar.3
5 For the ascent of Luhith is ascended with weeping, with weeping.4
For on the descent of Choronaim are heard the oppressors5 of the cry of woe.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophet proclaims destruction to Moab by, as it were, sketching a great picture, in which we not only perceive the abomination of desolation embracing and, as it were, enveloping the whole country, but also distinguish particular points marked by glaring colors. In the enumeration of the cities there is a general progress from north to south.
Against Moab. The superscription leans for support on Jer_46:2. Comp. the introduction to chh. 46–51.
Jer_48:1. Thus saith … citadel. That the mountain Nebo is not meant, is seen from the verb, both in its sense and form (fem.). The city of Nebo (comp. Jer_48:22; Num_32:3; Num_32:38) was situated, according to the Onomasticon of Jerome, eight Roman miles south of Heshbon, while Mt. Nebo was six miles west of this city. Comp. Raumer, Paläst., S. 265.—Kiriathaim (comp. Jer_48:23; Gen_14:5; Num_32:37; Jos_13:19; Eze_25:9) is one of the oldest cities of the East-Jordanic district. Burkhardt (Travels in Syria, II., S. 626) found ruins of a place called Et-Taim, half an hour west of Medaba, which, however, does not well harmonize with the statement of Jerome, who places Καριάθα (Koroiatha, Kiriathaim), ten Roman miles west of Medaba. Comp. Raumer, S. 263, 4 et pass.; Herz.R.-Enc., VII., S. 710.
The citadel [Misgab]. It is very probable from the context that a definite locality is meant, for otherwise either the citadel of the last mentioned city must be intended, or the citadels of Moab generally. In both cases, however, we should expect the word to have a suffix. Hence the chief fortress of the Moabites, Kir-Moab, or Kir-heres (comp. Jer_48:31; Jer_48:36; Isa_15:1; Isa_16:7; Isa_16:11; 2Ki_3:25) has been correctly understood. No appeal can be made in behalf of this view to Isa_25:12, since it is extremely questionable whether a definite locality is there intended. Comp. Drechsler on Isa_25:12. On Kir-Moab, comp. Herz.R.-Enc. VII:, S. 558 sqq.
Jer_48:2. The glory … the sword. From Jer_48:29-30, we see that the Moabites were inclined to proud self-praise, but we cannot here take the word translated glory in the subjective sense, as the whole strophe has for its subject the destruction of real objects. It is, therefore, here as in Deu_26:19; Jer_13:11; Jer_51:4, the subject of their glory.—The name of the city Heshbon gives occasion for a play upon words. We translate “spun” after the example of Meier. Heshbon was then in the possession of the Ammonites (Jer_49:3). On arriving at the boundary the enemy projects his plan of attack. Comp. rems on Jer_48:45. After the deportation of the East-Jordanic tribes by Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki_15:29; 1Ch_5:26), the Moabites appear to have taken possession of their territory. Hence Isaiah (Jer_15:4; Jer_16:8-9) mentions Heshbon among the Moabitish cities. The Ammonites must have come subsequently into possession of the city. Comp. Graf, S. 554; Von Raumer, S. 202 and 289, 270.—A place called Madmen, in Moab, is not expressly mentioned elsewhere, but there seems to be a trace of it in the figure of the dung pit (Isa_25:10), to the choice of which Isaiah may have been occasioned by the existence of such a place, as Joseph Kimchi supposed. Besides a מַדְמֵנָהֹ is mentioned in Benjamin, Isa_10:31; a מַדְמַנָּה in Judah, Jos_15:31; a דִּמְנָה in Zebulon, Jos_21:35. Hence מַרְמֵן here also is not to be taken as an appellative, as some modern commentators would do, following the LXX., Vulg. and Syr., but as a proper noun.
Jer_48:3-5. Hark … cry of woe. From Choronaim (comp. Isa_15:5) a loud cry is heard, and at (he same time the noise of the city falling into ruins. Comp. Jer_4:6; Jer_6:1; Jer_50:22; Isa_59:7; Isa_60:18.—Graf has made it very probable that by Moab in Jer_48:14 is to be understood, not the country, but the city (Num_21:28; Isa_15:1; Num_22:36). The mention of several cities in connection, and the feminine gender of the verb (comp., however, the masculine in Jer_48:11) favor this. I refer also to Num_21:15, where עָר alone seems to be given as the name of the city.—The first hemistich of Jer_48:5 is taken almost verbatim from Isa_15:5, there being a difference only in the last words. As we have Luhith in Isaiah, without any difference in reading, we ore justified in following the Keri, which has the same here. From the other reading (לוּחוֹת= tables, boards) a suitable sense can be wrung only with difficulty. “Est usque hodie vicus inter Areopolin (i.e., Ar-Moab) et Zoarum nomins Luitha,” says Jerome in the Onomasticon. By For the declaration of the preceding verse, that the inhabitants of Ar-Moab cry towards Zoar, is explained, viz., the ascent of Luhith, which is on the road designated, they are seen to ascend weeping.—In the second half of the verse we find a much altered copy of the second half of the verse in Isa_15:5. Instead of “in the way of Horonaim” it is in Jeremiah, “in the descent of Horonaim.” The present form of the text appears to me to betray an effort after greater distinctness and closer correspondence to the topography. Hence the ascent of Luhith is opposed to the descent of Horonaim. He who would go from Ar-Moab to Zoar, would have to go down a declivity at Horonaim, and ascend an elevation at Luhith. Similarly Vitringa on Isa_15:5, only that he makes Luhith come first after Ar-Moab and Horonaim afterward, which, however, evidently contradicts the connection. In Isaiah it reads “they raise a cry of destruction,” and here it might be objected, how could those who go up by Luhith weep, because they raise a cry at Horonaim? When the ascent of Luhith is taking place, the descent of Horonaim lying in the rear is vacant. Or are the people of Horonaim supposed to have remained behind, when the stream of fugitives passed through from Ar-Moab? How could this stream raise a cry at Horonaim while ascending Luhith? They might, however, he anxious when they heard the oppressors behind them at Horonaim. I therefore think that צָרֵי, which has given the commentators so much trouble, and produced so many curiosities of exegesis, is quite correct. צָר is the oppressor; for צוּר is premere, urgere aliquem hostili modo. The genitive is to be taken in that wider and freer sense, which the construct state so frequently has. The oppressors of the cry of woe are those who cause the cry by their oppressions.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_48:2.—מִגוֹי. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 106, 6.
[2]Jer_48:2.—Whether תִּדֹּמִּי is Kal or Niphal, is doubtful. Both are possible. The Niphal meaning would correspond best to the connection. Comp. Olsh., § 243 d, with Ewald, § 140 b.
[3]Jer_48:3.—I concur with Graf in reading צוֹעֲרָה, following the LXX., instead of צְעוֹרֶיה. In Isa_15:5, which passage the prophet had in view here, the fugitives of Moab flee עַד צֹעַר, and in Jer_48:34 of this chapter, צֹעַר is mentioned with Choronaim. The reading ציערה which appears also to have led the LXX. astray, so that they write Ζογόρα instead of Σηγώρ, as they elsewhere leader צֹעַר (Gen_14:2; Gen_19:22 sqq.; Isa_15:5) seems to have arisen in a similar manner with יאושׁיהו ,שׁומע, etc. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:23. The analogy of Jer_14:3 finally produced the alteration into צְעוֹרֶיהָ.
[4]Jer_48:5.—יַעֲלֶה is a paronomasia with קַעֲלהֵ; grammatically it is the third person singular impersonal. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 101, 2 b. Instead of the second בְּכִי, we have בוֹ in the passage in Isaiah. It is natural to suppose that here בְּכִי arose from a blending of the following כִּי with the preceding בְּ, in consequence of indistinct or defective writing of the vowel. Delitzsch also (Jes., S. 207) attributes the reading to a mistake. It is not, however, to be denied that Jeremiah may possibly have written בְּכי. Then it would be more advisable to take the second as an emphatic rhetorical repetition of the first with omission of the preposition (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 8), than to give it the part of the subject. For, when we compare cases like עַיִן בְּעַיִן ,שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה, we must not forget that here the immediate juxtaposition of the two assonant words is essential.
[5]Jer_48:5.—Comp. צוְר with accus., and following עַל as a designation of the term. ad quem; Jdg_9:31; Isa_29:3, and on the construct state, as a substitute for the preposition, Naegelsb. Gr., § 64, 5 c. In accordance with the exegesis of this passage, as given below, we are neither to take צָרִים as an abstraction=angustiæ, nor with Hitzig to read צְרֵי (צֵרֵא), and regard this as the literal name, and connect it as a gloss with צְרִי, meaning the same nor with Graf to take צְרִי (which does not once occur in old Hebrew) is connection with = cry of murder.
2. Summons to flight, which yet will not secure safety
Jer_48:6-10
6 Flee, save your lives!
But they shall be6 like a forsaken one7 in the wilderness.
7 For on account of thy confidence in thy bungling work8
And in thy treasures shalt thou also be taken,
And Chemosh shall go into captivity,
His priests and his princes together,9
8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city,
And the city shall not be delivered;
The valley also shall perish,
And the plains shall be devastated—as10 Jehovah hath spoken.
9 Give wings11 unto Moab, for it will flee forth.
But its cities shall be desolation
Without any to dwell therein.
10 Cursed be he who doeth Jehovah’s work remissly,
And cursed be he who keepeth back his sword from blood.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe portrays the destruction threatening Moab by summoning the people to flight, but at the same time distinctly declaring that this would not avail. This summons is made in a double gradation: 1. Moab is simply called upon to flee (Jer_48:6 a), but it is directly remarked; that Moab would only barely escape and then be recaptured (Jer_48:6 b–7a), and that in consequence the entire people, idols, priests and princes at their head, would be carried into captivity, while all remaining immovable property would be destroyed (Jer_48:7 b, 8). 2. The means of flight are offered to Moab in a figure (9a) but, as the second half of the verse briefly intimates, the end will yet be the same, namely, devastation (Jer_48:9 b). It cannot also possibly be otherwise, for the Lord makes known His fixed resolution to destroy Moab, by threatening remissness or forbearance in the work of destruction with His curse (Jer_48:10).
Jer_48:6-8. Flee … hath spoken. The call to flee is evidently intended ironically, for the announcement directly follows that the condition of the fugitives will be an extremely wretched one, that they will indeed be again taken.—Like a forsaken one,—like Aroer. Three Aroers are known; in Judah (1Sa_30:26), in Gad (Num_32:34; Jos_13:25; Jdg_11:33, 2Sa_24:5), and in Reuben (Deu_2:36; Deu_3:12; Deu_4:18; Jos_12:2; Jos_13:9; Jdg_11:26). The first cannot possibly be meant. How one of the two others, whether that on the Arnon, or that further to the north, in the vicinity of Rabbath-Ammon, can be called “Aroer in the wilderness,” it is difficult to perceive. For if even on the basis of Isa_17:2, the city be supposed to be then destroyed, it is yet strange that a destroyed city should be designated as situated “in the wilderness,” since this expression by no means involves the idea of destruction. Hence I have adopted the alternate reading proposed, which is favored by what follows. Neither a city, nor a tree, nor ruins, can See and be taken, but this may easily happen to one nudatus et desertus in the wilderness. The causal sentence, Jer_48:7, has then the sense: thy flight will no longer procure thee protection, as one forsaken in the desert, finds out, for thou also (like other nations) wilt be taken. And this will be the punishment of Moab for having founded its happiness on false supports.—Chemoah (the Chethibh כִּמִישׁ is perfectly unique) was the national god of the Moabites and Ammonites (1Ki_11:7; 2Ki_23:13; Jdg_11:24). Moab is, therefore, called the people of Chemosh (Jer_48:46; Num_21:29); accordingly here, also, his princes are called princes of Chemosh. The idol goes into captivity when his image is carried away. Comp. Jer_49:8; Amo_1:15; Hos_10:5-6. The passage Amo_1:15 seems to have been in the prophet’s mind here, as in Jer_49:3.
Jer_48:8 describes the destruction of the immovable property; cities, valleys (all river-valleys in antithesis to elevated plains and mountains), and plains (מִישׁוֹר the plateau of Rabbath-Ammon, south as far as the Arnon. Comp. Deu_3:10; Deu_4:43; Jos_13:9; Jos_13:16-17; Jos_13:21; Jos_20:8; Raumer, Pal. S. 71 ff.)
Jer_48:9. Give wings … therein. In comparison with Jer_48:6 there is evidently a progress here; there it is a mere call to Fight, here the call is to at ford Moab the only still imaginable means for this, viz., wings. The one call is as ironical as the other. There is a strengthening of the irony in the word “for,” which designates the fleeing away as the object not of the speaker, but of Moab. Comp. Isa_16:2.—The second half of the verse corresponds as a brief synopsis to all that has been mentioned from Jer_48:6 b to Jer_48:8, as the result of the first summons (Jer_48:6 a). The expression is as in Jer_46:19; Jer_49:17; Jer_51:43; Jer_4:9, etc.
Jer_48:10. Cursed … from blood. These words are the foil to the foregoing description. On this background the irony appears in its full strength. From these words we perceive what was the true meaning of the summons to flight, and how much more bitter the severity is rendered by these contrasting announcements (Jer_48:6 b–Jer_48:8; Jer_48:9 b). Moab’s destruction is designated as the work of the Lord, because this is no more than the execution of a decree of judgment pronounced by Him. Comp. Jer_25:31; Jer_46:10; Jer_51:6.—Remissly. Comp. Pro_10:4; Pro_12:27.
Footnotes:
[6]Jer_48:6.—ותהינה. If the condition to be expected as a consequence of the flight were to be designated, וְהָיוּ or ותהינה would be grammatically more correct. Hence I take וְהָיוּ in the adversative sense, and the Imperf. as a simple announcement. The plural of the third person refers to the ideal plural contained in the collective נַפְשְׁכֶם.
[7]Jer_48:6.—It has been with reason supposed that כְּעַרְעַר is to be read instead of כְּעֲרוֹעֵר, according to the analogy of Jer_17:6 The opinion that the strange word was also the name of a city, and indeed of the well known Aroer, may easily have given occasion to the raiding of the text. The ancient translations vacillate: the LXX. translate ὄνος ἄγριος (עָרוֹר). Vulg.: myrica (virgultum humile et spinosum); Syrus: truncus arboris, stips. All these renderings lack proper etymological foundation, Gesenius (Commentary on Isa_7:2), and in his Thesaurus (S. 10, 74), fixes the meaning of rudera, ruinæ, on עֲרועֵר itself, but for this also there is no etymological basis.
[8]Jer_48:7.—The meaning of מַֽעַשִׂים is doubtful—bulwark, bungling work (idol images), property—the latter according to passages like Exo_23:16; 1Sa_25:2. But in these passages מַעֲשֶׁה denotes only the pursuit of agriculture and its products. An emphasis on this appears to be superfluous with אוֹצָרוֹת. Since immediately afterwards the disgraceful carrying away of the principal idol of Moab is expressly mentioned, the mention of these manufactured idols as vain supports is more suitable to the connection (Jer_50:16; Jer_10:3; Jer_10:9; Jer_25:6-7. Comp. Jer_49:4).
[9]Jer_48:7.—יחד (Chethibh) does not occur elsewhere in Jeremiah. In the parallel passages, also, we find יַחְדָּי.
[10]Jer_48:8.—אשׁר אמר י׳. This אֲשְׁר, whether we take it as=as, because, or which, is quite contrary to the usage of Jeremiah, since he always inserts אמֹר י׳ alone (Jer_6:15; Jer_30:3; Jer_33:11; Jer_33:13; Jer_49:2; Jer_49:18). J. D. Michaelis supposes it is ortum ex repetitione finalium literarum præcedentis, מישׁר. It is also wanting, according to him, in Cod. 72.
[11]Jer_48:9.—ציץ from the radical meaning micare, promicare, has also the meanings of “forehead plate” (of the high-priest, Exo_28:36-38), “flower,” and “wing,” in which last it occurs here. In Chaldee it is used for ala, Psa_139:9; for fin Lev_11:9. Comp. Buxtorf’s Lox. Chald., p. 1907. The choice both of this word and the following נָצא, seems to have been occasioned by an effort at paronomasia. For נָצָא also (properly נצה. Comp. נ֥וֹצָה, wing; Eze_17:3; Eze_17:7; Job_39:13—the א for the sake of uniformity with תֵּצֵא. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. § 93 d, Anm.), is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον.
3. The Transfusion
Jer_48:11-13
11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth,
And he lay still on his lees,
And was not drawn off from one vessel to another,12
Neither hath he gone into exile:
Therefore hath his taste remained in him,
And his fragrance hath not changed.
12 Therefore behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah,
That I will send unto him tilters, who shall tilt him up
And empty his vessels and dash his dishes in pieces.13
13 And Moab shall be put to shame by Chemosh,
As the house of Israel was put to shame by Bethel, their confidence.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In a very palpable figure the prophet compares Moab with wine, which has never been drawn off into another cask and has therefore retained its taste and scent unchanged (Jer_48:11). The Lord will transfuse Moab and cause his old cask to be broken in pieces (Jer_48:12), and then, like Israel, he will be put to shame by his idols.
Jer_48:11-13. Moab … their confidence. Since the Moabites took the land from the original inhabitants, the Emims (Deu_2:10), they had generally remained in quiet possession of it. They had never been carried into captivity, as had been the case with Israel in their stay in Egypt and the deportation of the ten tribes. That this is the meaning of the figure is expressly declared in Jer_48:11, by the words neither hath he gone into exile. It seems to me doubtful whether Jeremiah has reference to Isa_25:6; at any rate, on account of the difference in the main thoughts, the reference can be only cursory and verbal. Essentially the same thought, however, is expressed in the same words in Zep_1:12, whence it is probable that Jeremiah had this passage in mind. Four points are distinguished: 1. As a basis the fact that Moab has never been transfused. 2. The primary consequence that its taste and odor have remained. So far as this refers to the outward status rerum, a great degree of national prosperity is thus designated. In so far, however, as the words refer to the inward habitus, or to their relation to God and connected with this to His people, they express a sense unfavorable to Moab. They declare that Moab has never been thoroughly purified, never been freed from its enmity to the Lord and His people. 3. As a secondary consequence, it is mentioned, that a time of visitation is impending on Moab, since it cannot possibly be privileged against such a season. The instruments of the visitation are designated, in accordance with the figure in Jer_48:11, as coopers, who are to tilt up the old casks, empty and then break them in pieces. 4. As the final result it is mentioned that Moab will be put to shame by Chemosh as Israel by Bethel. The long undisturbed quiet was physically considered a benefit to Moab, but spiritually a gracious opportunity which it did not make use of. Hence Moab must become wise, like Israel, by loss and suffering (comp. 1Ki_12:28-33).
Footnotes:
[12]Jer_48:11.—On אֵל for עַל comp. rems. on Jer_10:1.
[13]Jer_48:12.—עָעָה, inclinare, only here and Jer_2:20 in Jeremiah. In צֹעִים, the object is Moab, or the wine representing it; since it is to be mentioned what is made empty there must be another object to יָרִיקיּ and as נֵבֶל, (originally a leathern bottle, and then cadus, urceus; comp. Jer_13:12; Lam_4:2; Isa_30:14) offered itself as a paronomasia [alliteration] to נִכִּץ, it is given as the third object, though really the object remains the same. In order to render the alliteration we have translated, after Luther, [Blayney, Noyes, Wordsworth] “tilters” and “tilted;” [Cowles: emptyers; and the former after Meier, render “dash” and “dishes.”—S. R. A.]
4. THE VANITY OF HUMAN GLORY
Jer_48:14-17
14 How can ye say, we are heroes
And strong men for the war?
15 Desolated is Moab and his cities go up,14
And his best young men go down to the slaughter,
Saith the King, Jehovah Zebaoth is his name.
16 Moab’s destruction is near approaching,
And his calamity hastens on apace.15
17 Bemoan him, all his neighbors,
All ye, who know his name,
Say, how is the mighty stem broken,
The splendid rod!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
All human glory is turned to shame, whether one glorify himself, as, according to Jer_48:14, Moab had done, to which the destruction of all his warlike power stands in strong contrast (Jer_48:15), or good friends and neighbors praise us. These may soon and easily find occasion (Jer_48:16) to turn their song of praise into a lamentation.
Jer_48:14-15. How can … his name. In opposition to Moab’s boastful glorying in his warlike strength, desolation is announced in general and destruction according to a just Nemesis of the main objects of his glorying: the fortified cities, which seemed to rest immovably on their foundations, must fly away in smoke; the strong youths, who aimed high, must go down to slaughter.—Go down, etc. Comp. Isa_34:6-7; Jer_50:27; Jer_51:40.—Saith, etc. Comp. Jer_46:18; Jer_51:57.
Jer_48:16-17. Moab’s destruction … splendid rod. So near and certain is the destruction of Moab that his neighbors and friends are called upon to bemoan the overthrow of this power so highly extolled hitherto by themselves.—Bemoan him. Comp. Jer_15:6; Jer_16:5; Jer_22:10.—Neighbors (comp. Jer_46:14; Jer_48:39; Jer_49:5), literally those round about him, therefore most intimately acquainted with him, ye who know his name, being the more distant acquaintances. (Comp. the related expressions in Psa_87:4; Job_19:13; Job_42:11; Ps. 56:14; psa 88:9, 19).—The mighty stem. Comp. Psa_110:2; Eze_19:12; Eze_19:14.
Footnotes:
[14]Jer_48:15.—The singular עָלָה is certainly surprising, but the alteration of the text to שֹׁדֵד (the spoiler of Moab and his cities goes up) [as J. D. Mich., Ewald, Graf, Blayney], seems to me unnecessary. I believe that Jeremiah had in view the passage in Jdg_20:40 (וְהִנֵּה עָלָה כְלִיל־הָעִיר הַשָּׁמַיְמָה), and that thus the sing. masc. is explained, which moreover in the principle of the ideal number (the entirety of the cities regarded as a unit. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 105, 4 a) has a grammatical support.
[15]Jer_48:16—Comp. Isa_13:22; Isa_54:1; Naegelsb. Gr., § 95, 3 b.
6. MESSAGE TO THE FUGITIVES ON THE ARNON
Jer_48:18-25
18 Come down from thy glory and seat thyself in the thirsty,16
Thou inhabitant daughter of Dibon!17
For the spoiler of Moab is advancing against thee,
He destroyeth thy strongholds.
19 Place thyself by the wayside and look out,
Thou inhabitress of Aroer;
Ask of the fugitive and her who is escaped!18
Say, What hath been done?19
20 “Moab is confounded, for she is broken down.20
Howl and cry!21
Proclaim it on the Arnon, that Moab is destroyed;
21 And judgment has come on the land of the plain,
On Holon and on Jahazah, and on Mephaath,
22 And on Dibon, Nebo and Beth-diblathaim,
23 And on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul and Beth-meon,
24 And on Kerioth and Bozrah,
And on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
25 The horn of Moab is broken off,
And his arm is shattered”—saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
An animated picture! First some concrete forms of cities are directly addressed: Dibon is to go down, Aroer to question the fugitives (Jer_48:18-19). The answer of the latter is sad enough. Arrived on the Arnon, where Aroer is situated, and thus on the borders of the mishor, they proclaim that it is at an end with Moab, for all the cities of the northern half of the country are taken (Jer_48:20-24). From this it follows as the total result, that the power of Moab is broken (Jer_48:25).
Jer_48:18. Come down … thy strongholds. Isa_47:1 was here in the prophet’s mind, “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon.”—On Dibon, which, as we conclude from thy strongholds, was a fortified city and was situate a league north of the Arnon, comp. Num_32:3; Num_32:34; Jos_13:9; Jos_13:17; Isa_5:2; Raumer, Pal. S. 261.
Jer_48:19. Place thyself … done. To the inhabitants of Aroer, the southern boundary city of the מִישׁוֹר (comp. rems. on Jer_48:8) the sad summons is addressed to go out into the street, to spy out (comp. Nah_2:2) and then to make inquiries from the approaching train of the fugitives.
Jer_48:20-25. Moab … saith Jehovah. These verses contain the answer of the escaped.—Judgment. The choice of the expression is occasioned by the mishor, plain, which signifies not merely plain, but æquitas, justitia. Comp. Psa_29:11; Psa_45:7; Psa_67:5. Judgment is thus to come upon the land, whose name also signifies “land of righteousness.” The cities mentioned afterwards are all in the Mishor. Holon (different from another in Judah, Jos_15:51) is mentioned here only. Jahaza (Comp. Isa_15:4; Num_21:23; Jos_13:18; Jdg_11:20) lay, according to Eusebius and Jerome, in the vicinity of Medaba. Comp. Raumer, S. 263.—Mephaath is elsewhere called מֵיפַעַת (Jos_13:18) or מֵיפַעַת (Jos_21:37; 1Ch_6:64). According to the passages cited from the book of Joshua it belongs to the tribe of Reuben and to the Mishor.—Dibon. Comp. rems on Jer_48:18.—Nebo. Comp. rems. on Jer_48:1.—Beth-diblathaim is not mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. Its position is clear from the statement of Jerome, that Jahaza was situated between Medaba and Diblathaim. (Vid. Onomasticon s. v. Jaffa).—Kiriathaim. Comp. rems. on Jer_48:1.—Beth-gamul occurs here only. If Porter is correct in recognizing Bozrah, Kerioth and Beth-gamul in the present ruined cities of the Hauran, Bosra, Kureiyeh and El Jemal, we have here three cities not in Moab, but separated from it by the entire territory of the Ammonites. Comp. Raumer, Pal. S. 251, 2. This hypothesis is, however, improbable, since real Moabitish cities can be shown for Bozrah and Kerioth. See below.—Beth-meon was named in full Beth-baal-meon (Jos_13:17); elsewhere Baal-meon (Num_32:38), and is designated among the other places as belonging to the Mishor and to the tribe of Reuben. Comp. Raumer, S. 259 and 264.—Kerioth. Comp. Jer_48:41 and Amo_2:2. Seetzen found a place on Mt. Attarus (comp. עֲטָרֹתNum_32:34-35) called El-Karriât, which he decidedly regards as Kerioth not Kiriathaim. Comp. Raumer, S. 251, 2.—Bozrah. There is a Bozrah mentioned as in Edom (comp. rems. on Jer_49:13) and one as in the Hauran, but the latter not in the Bible. It was the Bostra of the Romans, the birthplace of Philippus Arabs. Immense ruins still testify to the importance of the city. Comp. Raumer, S. 244. Since, however, a place בֶּצֶר in the Mishor is expressly mentioned (Deu_4:43; Jos_20:8; Jos_21:36), and since the LXX. always render this name by Bόσορ, we do not hesitate to recognize בָּצְרָה in this בֶּצֶר.—And on all the cities, etc. From the context it can only be the cities to the north of Aroer which are meant, for according to Jer_48:19 sqq., the fugitives announce to the people of Aroer that both the cities further to the north, and also those more to the south in the vicinity of Aroer were already taken. From this it follows that the whole northern half of the country was in the hands of the enemy, and consequently Moab’s horn and arm (the biblical types of dominion and strength, comp. Ps. 75:5, 11, 1Sa_2:31; Psa_10:15) are broken.
[On the Moabitic stone recently discovered, which confirms many of the names here mentioned, see Bibliotheca Sacra, Oct. 1870. Andover.—S. R. A.]
II. The Reasons of the Punitive Judgment (Jer_48:26-42.)
1. Moab’s Pride and his Punishment in General
Jer_48:26-30
26 Make ye him drunken, for against Jehovah hath he magnified himself!
And Moab may wallow22 in his vomit,
And he also may become a derision!
27 Or23 was not Israel a derision24 unto thee,
When he was found25 among the thieves?
Yea, for at each of thy words concerning him thou shookest thyself.
28 Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, ye inhabitants of Moab,
And be as the dove that maketh her nest on the walls of the yawning ravine.
29 We have heard the arrogance of Moab, the very arrogant,26
His loftiness, and his arrogance and his pride and the haughtiness of his heart
30 I know, saith Jehovah, his insolence
And the nothingness of his boastings; nothing have they effected.27
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
To Jer_48:42 the prophet describes specially the judgment of God on the criminal arrogance of Moab, which he manifested particularly towards Israel and Israel’s God. First, generally, (Jer_48:26-30) the disgraceful fate of a drunken man, who falls into his own vomit (Jer_48:26), is announced as a just punishment for the scorn, with which they always treated Israel when chastised by his God (Jer_48:27), and further, the fate of the dove driven into the fearful clefts of the rock (Jer_48:28) as a punishment for his insolent and false arrogance (Jer_48:29-30).
Jer_48:26-27. Make ye him … shookest thyself. A man, who is beastly intoxicated, falls into his own vomit, and how does he provoke to its full extent the derisive laughter of the beholder! So shall it be to Moab for his boasting against Jehovah. This making drunk reminds us of the figure of the cup of wrath (Jer_15:15 coll. Jer_13:13). As there, those who make drunk are those whom the Lord has appointed His agents in executing the punishment.—Magnified himself Comp. Jer_48:42. The expression seems to be taken from Zep_2:8; Zep_2:10, an older prophecy against Moab. Comp. also Joe_2:20.—The objection on the part of Moab that this is too severe a punishment is met with the intimation that Moab had done the same to the Israelites.—When he was found, etc. This is usually also taken as a question. But was not Israel really often caught in thievery and punished for it? Jeremiah expressly affirms this in Jer_2:26. What reason would Moab otherwise have had for scorning Israel? I therefore regard אִם as a particle of time=when, as often as (Num_21:9; Gen_38:9). It is then thus admitted that Israel had been more than once caught in criminal conduct and punished, but observe that it is said among thieves. In this there is an allusion to the fact that Israel was only seduced by others, and that the principal thieves, to which Moab belonged, were his heathen neighbors.—Yea, for, etc. This is the answer to the question. We supply Yea.—מִדֵּי=pro sufficientia, pro ratione (Isa_66:23; Zec_14:16), comp. Jer_31:20. From the latter passage we see also that (בּוֹ) him is to be referred to thy words.—Shookest thyself. This may be shaking of the head (comp. Jer_18:16) or shrugging of the shoulders, but equally in either case is it an expression of scorn.
Jer_48:28. Leave … yawning ravine. The preceding figure was adapted to humble Moab’s national pride, the present relates to his warlike pride. They boasted greatly of their valor in war (Jer_48:14), and doubtless also of their excellent fortifications (comp. Jer_48:18). They are now told that they will be driven from their bulwarks and into the rocky mountains, there like a wild pigeon to pass a troubled, ever threatened existence.—On the walls. The word is found besides only in Isa_7:20, where it undoubtedly signifies beyond. עֵבֶר, however, signifies not merely the side beyond, but the side generally. (Comp. Jer_49:32; 1Ki_5:4; Exo_32:15). On the doves in Palestine comp. Herzog, Real-Enc., XV. S. 425.
Jer_48:29-30. We have heard … effected. These two verses are no more than a reproduction, extended by a few additions, of Isa_16:6 in accord with Zep_2:10. In this quotation the prophet expresses the thought, which is expected as a foundation to Jer_48:26-28, viz., an answer to the question, whence comes on the one band Moab’s scorn towards Jehovah and His people, on the other, the particularly severe punishment of the same? Answer: to the pride of Moab corresponds both his scorn against Israel and the chastisement, which he receives on the part of Jehovah. Hence the prophet labors by an accumulation of terms to describe the arrogance of the Moabites as surpassing all bounds.
Footnotes:
[16]Jer_48:18.—Judging from the parallel passage (Isa_47:1) we must read with the Keri וּשֻׁבִי. צָמָא everywhere else signifies thirst. “To seat one’s self in the thirst,” however, sounds very strange. We must then either punctuate צָמַא, or regard צָמָא as a collateral form of צָמֵא (comp. לָבֵן with לָבֶן, Gen_49:12; חָלֵב with חָלָב, Exo_23:19). In Latin also sitientia is used for regiones aridæ. Comp. Plin. Hist., N. X. 73; XII. 28; XXV. 11.
[17]Jer_48:18.—ישׁבת בת־דיבון. This form of expression is found besides here only in Jer_46:19. The construction is as in בְתוּלַת בַּת צִיּוֹן, Isa_37:22. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 64, 4.
[18]Jer_48:19.—נס ונמלטהֹ. The different gender is to express the variety. On the irregular accentuation of נִמְלָטָה comp. Olsh., S. 253 and 363.
[19]Jer_48:19.—On נִהְיָֽתָה and its difference from the masc. (the idea of multiplicity involved in the feminine) comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 60, 6 b.
[20]Jer_48:20.—The fem. חַתָּה can only be referred to Moab, in spite of the immediately preceding הֹבִישׁ. It is the same change in gender as in Jer_48:9, Jer_48:11, Jer_48:15 (שֻׁדַּד מ׳ וּעָיֶיהָ, and then again בַּחוּרָיו), Jer_48:38-39. Observe besides that הֹבִישׁ precedes as שֶׁדַּד does.
[21]Jer_48:20.—The alteration of the Keri (to accord with the following הַגִּידוּ) is unnecessary, since the fem. form of the imperf. evidently attaches itself to the preceding עִמְדִי, etc. Accordingly it is Aroer, which is addressed, not Moab.
2. MOAB UTTERLY DESTROYED
Jer_48:31-35
31 Therefore I howl over Moab,
And over Moab, the whole of it, I cry.
Over the men of Kir-heres there is sighing.28
32 My tears over Jazer flow even to thee, thou vine of Sibmah:
Thy shoots are gone over the sea,
Even to the sea of Jazer they did reach.
On thy fruit harvest and thy vintage is the spoiler fallen;
33 And joy and gladness is taken from the fruit fields and the land of Moab;
And I cause the wine to fail from the wine presses;
They will not tread with shouting,—
With a shouting that is no shouting.
34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh,
Unto Jahaz they raise their voice:
From Zoar to Horonaim, the three year old heifer,29
For even the waters of Nimrim shall be desolations.30
35 And I destroy Moab, saith Jehovah,
Him who ascends31 the high places and burns incense to his gods.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
After the reason and manner of the judgment on Moab have been set forth in general, the latter is now described more in particular. This is done by the prophet’s first expressing (Jer_48:31 a) what feeling he has in consequence of his knowledge of the destruction threatening all Moab (i.e., no longer merely the northern half as in Jer_48:18-25), and then turns to single places of the whole land, with special emphasis on the destruction which is impending on the vine and fruit culture of Moab (Jer_48:32-33), as well as the worship of the idols connected therewith (Jer_48:35).
Jer_48:31. Therefore … there is sighing. This verse begins with a free rendering of Isa_16:7. While there the third person is used, here Jeremiah speaks in the first person, being evidently himself shocked by the fearful import of the message which he has to deliver. Comp. Isa_15:5; Isa_16:9; Isa_16:11; Isa_21:3 and Drechslerad loc.—In the words, the whole of it, he declares that here he has not merely the northern half of the country, the Mishor, but the whole country in view, mentioning a series of cities from the north to the extreme south (Jer_48:34).—Over the men, etc. In the original passage it reads “over the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth will ye sigh, deeply troubled.” There is no need of seeking aid from indistinctly written MSS., it being quite in Jeremiah’s manner to substitute for a marked and strange expression, one softer and more usual. He has evidently omitted the concluding words and substituted אֲנְשֵׁי (men) for אֲשִׁישׁי (grapes, raisin-cakes). The second person plural would be in too strong a contrast to the first person in the hemistich, and therefore the third person singular masculine is chosen, which is to be taken in its impersonal sense.
Jer_48:32-33. My tears … no shouting. In Isa_16:9 it reads “Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer.” If we take מִבְּכִי of the text in the sense of a comparison the connection in meaning with the original would disappear, and then no good ground for the comparative is apparent. Jaazer, according to the Onomast. (s. v. Azer and Jazer), was 15 m. p., Sibmah only live hundred paces from Heshbon. They were, therefore, neighboring towns in a fertile district abounding in fruit and wine. Since then they were thus, as it were, sisters, the centres of agriculture closely connected by solidarity of interest, and the blow which strikes one affects the other also, one is not to be bewailed alone, but both at the same time. This is essentially the meaning of בִבְכַי (in the weeping over Jaazer is contained also that over Sibmah) and of מִבְִכִי (Sibmah participates in the tears which flow over Jaazer).—The district of Salt, in the vicinity of which Jaazer must have been situated (comp. Raumer, S. 262, 3) is still very rich in vines. Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc., XVII. S 611.
The elements of the two following sentences also are found in Isa_16:8, “branches” only instead of “shoots” and “sea,” being wanting before Jazer. The sea of Jazer may denote only a pond or great basin. That the term may be so used is shown by the “sea” in the temple (1Ki_7:23). “The sea of Jazer was probably some celebrated large pond, like the ponds of Heshbon, in which the water of the Wady (Nahr) Sir, which springs near by, was collected. Seetzen found some ponds there still.” Delitzsch, Jes., S. 211 [Eng. Tr., p. 384]. Raumer, Pal., S. 263, Anm. The hypothesis that the repetition of the word sea is based on a scriptural error is therefore unnecessary. The widely extended (even according to Isa_16:7-8, over the Dead Sea) wine-culture of Moab is poetically represented under the figure of a single vine. Comp. Drechsler [and Alexander] on Isa_16:8.—On thy fruit-harvest, etc. Comp. Jer_40:10; Jer_40:12. Instead of vintage, which suits the connection better, we find in Isa_16:9 “harvest,” and instead of spoiler the more forcible but less distinct “shouting.”—And joy, etc., from Isa_16:10. Comp. Joel 2:20; 4:15. Carmel (fruit-fields) cannot possibly be a proper noun here. For what occasion had the prophet to make such a spring? In Isa_16:10, also stands מִן הַכַּרְמֶל, but there without the following and the land of Moab, and hence evidently in an appellative significance. The prophet would say: joy and gladness having vanished from the vineyards they have departed from the whole country.—And I cause, etc. These words are altered from Isa_16:10 b, in a peculiar manner. Instead of they will not tread with shouting, we read in Isaiah “the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses.” The following words contain the justification of the rendering given. It is emphasized that the trending will be altogether without shouting. A shouting will indeed be heard, not, however, such as pertains to the treading of grapes (Jer_25:30), but another, a warlike shouting. The word is elsewhere only applied to war-cries. Jer_51:14
Jer_48:34. From the cry … be desolations. These words to their voice are taken, with modifications from Isa_15:4. The cry of Heshbon, as it is called in Jeremiah, represents at the same time a place, and consequently serves as a terminus a quo. On Heshbon comp. rems. on Jer_48:2. Elealeh (now El AI) lies only half an hour from Heshbon. Comp. Num_32:37; Isa. 16:19; Raumer, S. 261. Jahaz (identical with Jahza, Jer_48:21) must, according to Num_21:23 have lain to the south east, towards the desert. Zoar (comp. Jer_48:4) and Horonaim (Jer_48:3) represent the south country of the Moabites. We distinctly meet here the idea of the whole of Moab (Jer_48:31 in contrast to the limitation, in which Moab is spoken of in Jer_48:18-25. The individual elements are taken from Isa_15:5. There Eglath-shalishiyah appears to stand in apposition to Zoar. In the present passage it is as formally co-ordinated with the name Horonaim. Both are possible only if Eglath, etc., is either a place near both the cities in question, or a predicate equally applicable to both. The latter view is favored by the grammatical structure, for in the former case we should expect עַדunto or יְעַד (comp. on Jahaz, Jer_48:21, etc.) In what sense, however, are these cities called Eglath-shalishiyah? Köster (Stud. u. Krit., 1862, I., S. 113 ff.) perceives herein a topographical definition. Egla was a Tripolis, and “Egla of the third part” is equivalent to the third part of Egla. Egla is the principal name, Zoar and Horonaim the names of the two other parts. It is however surprising that of this group of cities, which must certainly have been of some importance, we find no trace elsewhere. We should also expect the reverse order. Shalishah-Eglath, and if Egla, Zoar and Horonaim form one city, what is the cry from Zoar to Horonaim to mean? Delitzsch (on Isa. S. 206) [Eng. Tr., p. 336] attaches himself to Gesenius and his predecessors (Vulg., Targ.) taking the words to signify “juvenca tertii, i.e., anni” = indomita, jugoque non assueta. Yet he does not refer the predicate to Moab (which can be done in Isaiah only with great harshness, and in Jeremiah not at all) but to Zoar “the beautiful, fortified, hitherto unconquered city.” Although the reason why Zoar should be so called is not very transparent, the language compels us to give this exegesis the preference. Whether Horonaim deserved the predicate in the same degree as Zoar is a question of minor importance, for the transference to Horonaim, which is mentioned only one line after in Isa_15:5, can be only accidental.—For even, etc. Comp. Isa_15:6. If by מֵי נִמְרִים we are to understand Beth-Nimrah, we shall thus be carried into the extreme north-west of the country, not inappropriately to the purport of the strophe. (Comp. the whole, Jer_48:31). The name and character of Beth-Nimrah favor the identity, for this place at the mouth of the Wady Shaib or Shoêb in the plain of the Jordan is still celebrated for its wealth of springs. Comp. Winer, R.-W.-B., s. v. Bethnimra. Yet it must be confessed, that according to the connection, a place in the South, as the ruined Numêre with the spring Moyet Numêre (Delitzsch, S. 207) [Eng. Tr., p. 327], might be meant.
Jer_48:35. And I destroy … to his gods. The prophet has Isa_15:2; Isa_16:12 in mind. What he means by the words מַֽעֲלֵה בָמָה is not perfectly clear. They may mean, who erects the high places, throws them up (Hitzig) or, who offers on the height (literally: offerers of the height), or who ascends to the height; or, finally, the ascending to the height. Each of these renderings has its light and its shadow. In Isa_16:12, however, the idea of going up to the sanctuary is expressed. Hence I give those explanations the preference which take מַֽעֲלֵה in the sense of ascending.
3. THE LAMENTATION FOR THE DEAD
Jer_48:36-38
36 Therefore my heart sighs over Moab like flutes,
And my heart sighs like flutes over the men of Kir-heres;
Because the remnant32 of what was gained has perished.
37 For every head is bald, and every beard cut short,
Upon all hands cuttings, and on the loins sackcloth!
38 On all the roofs of Moab and in his streets all is lamentation:33
For I have broken Moab like a vessel
Wherein there is no more pleasure, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophet Feels his heart to be, as it were, a mourning flute in view of the great loss of Moab (Jer_48:36) and this all the more that he perceives in Moab itself on every hand lamentation for the dead (Jer_48:37-38 a). This is also warranted, for the Lord has broken Moab like a vessel which has become worthless (Jer_48:38 b.)
Jer_48:36. Therefore … perished. This verse is parallel to Jer_48:31. For 1, both begin with therefore; 2, in both the object of the utterance of feeling is designated as Moab (hardly Ar Moab Jer_48:4, on account of “whole,” Jer_48:31—and why should Jeremiah have constantly omitted the עַר?) and Kir-heres; in both eases an analogous thought is introduced by the particle "therefore:" there the expression of howling and crying, here the sighing of the heart compared with the tone of a funeral flute. “Therefore" in Jer_48:36 then refers not to the special calamities enumerated immediately before, but to that general description, which we have read in Jer_48:25-30. Moreover here also the single elements of the discourse are taken primarily from Isaiah 15. This employment of foreign property explains much of the unevenness in the arrangement of the sentences. Isa_16:11; Isa_15:5 are in the prophet’s mind, but he changes the harp, spoken of in Isa_21:11 into the flute, as is correctly remarked, because the flute is the instrument used in mourning, and thus conformity is obtained with the funeral customs afterwards described. On the use of the flute in mournings for the dead comp. Mat_9:23. Joseph.Bell. Jud. III., 9, 5; OvidFast. VI., 656; Herzog, R.-Enc, 16. 5. 364—Because, etc. The words are from Isa_15:7, but there they are the object of the following verb (יִשָּאוּם) instead of which we here find perished. The words remnant, etc., must therefore be the subject of the verb, since אָבַד never means “to lose” but only “to be lost, to perish.” The plural of the predicate is explained by the collective meaning of the subject.—[עַל־בֵּן is also here taken from Isa_15:7, but it cannot possibly signify “therefore” as it does there. So unless we assume an error there is nothing left but to take it as equivalent to עַל־בֵּן אֲשֶׁר, a meaning which is certainly not proved, since this very passage is adduced as the strongest evidence (comp. Gesen., Thes. pag. 669). A double reason is then given for the mourning of the prophet in Jer_48:36 : 1. a mediate, Jer_48:36 b; 2. an immediate, Jer_48:37-38 a. Whence dost thou know that all is lost ? From the fact that all mourns.
Jer_48:37-38. For every head . . Jehovah. Isa_15:2-3 is the original passage. On Bald comp.7. 29; Jer_16:6. Instead of cut short (נְרֻעָה) Isaiah has “cut off” (נְדוּעָהcæssa). In the latter passage however the editions vary. Comp. Delitzsch, S. 205 [Eng. Tr., p. 325].—Cuttings. Comp. Jer_16:6; Jer_41:5—Sackcloth. Comp. Jer_4:8; Jer_6:26; Joe_1:8.—Roofs. Comp. Isa_22:1; Herzog, R.-Enc. 16 , 5. 863.—All is lamentation. In Isaiah “everything wails, melting into tears.”—For I have broken,etc. The ground of the facts which cause the lamentation is, that (not chance, or any human or demoniac power, but) Jehovah has broken Moab. In like a vessel, etc., Jeremiah quotes himself, 22. 28.
Footnotes:
[22]Jer_48:26.—סָפַק an onomatopoëtic word, denotes originally “to spank, to clap.” Comp. סָפַקְתִּי עַל יָרֵךְ, Jer_31:19. Then it is frequently used of striking hands: Num_24:10; Job_34:37; Lam_2:15.—שָׂפַק is used in part for סָפַק (Job_27:23), and in part as an independent root with meaning sufficere. In the latter signification it occurs, however, in the Hebrew of the Old Testament only in the imperfect יִשְׂפֹק (1Ki_20:10), and (perhaps) in the Hiphil (Isa_2:6), and besides (perhaps) the substantive שֶׂפֶק (Job_36:18). Yet in consequence of the interchange of the related radical סֵפֶק occurs in Job_20:22, as also in the Aramaic סְפַק and סֻפְקָנָא in the sense of sufficiency and superfluity. Here it is evident that the rendering “that Moab had superfluity in his vomit” (Meier) is feeble, and moreover unsafe, since the prefix בְּ is striking, and it is not proved that the meanings of sufficiency (of the things) and of having a superfluity (of the persons) are united in the verb. The common radical meaning of ספק to strike, to clap, gives a perfectly satisfactory sense. Comp. Isa_19:14.
[23]Jer_48:27.—וְאִם=or ? Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 107, 4. In the second clause of the disjunctive question הֲ (with a following Dag. forte. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 53, 3 Anm.) is repeated as in Gen_17:17; Psa_94:9.
[24]Jer_48:27.—שְׂהק=object of derision as in Job_12:4.
[25]Jer_48:27.—The fem. נִמְצְאָה is unjustly suspected by the Masoretes. Comp. rems. on חַתָּה, Jer_48:20.
[26]Jer_48:29.—גֵאֶה is an adjective (Comp. Isa_2:12; Psa_94:2), and to be referred to Moab.
[27]Jer_48:30.—Isa_16:6 concludes with לֹא־כֵן בַּרָּיו. Here the words לֹא כֵן עָשׂוּ, also are added. And the Masoretes punctuate so as to connect בַּרָּיו with עַשׂוּ as its subject. We cannot, however, doubt that כַּרָּיו, in accordance with the fundamental passage, belongs to לֹא־כֵן. It would then be “the nothingness (comp. 2Ki_17:9; Pro_15:7) of his boastings (Isa_44:25; Job_11:3),” while the words לֹא־כֵן עַשׂוּ seem to declare the nothingness of his deeds.
[28]Jer_48:31.—The correction אֶהְגֶּה, which Meier allows himself, is unnecessary and not sufficiently authorized by the examples adduced by him (Mic_6:10, אִשׁ for יֵשׁ, Jer_48:11, אִזְכֶּה for יִזְכֶּה, דּוֹאֵד for דּוֹיֵג).
[29]Jer_48:34.—עֶגְלָת is used of nations is Jer_46:20; Jer_50:11; Hos_4:16; Hos_10:11. The genitive עֶגְלַת is explained by analogies like בִּשְׁנַת הָרְבעִית, anno quarti, i.e., numeri (Jer_46:2; Jer_51:59; 2Ki_17:6), מִשְּׁפַט אֶחָד (Lev_24:22), אֶחָדאֲרוֹן (2Ki_12:10).
[30]Jer_48:34.—We have adopted the translation of Meier [German]—Nimrim nimmer rinnen [Nimrim will never run, which expresses the alliteration of the Hebrew, but is rather a free rendering]. The כִּי at the beginning of the verse is transferred from Isaiah, where it is fully in place. In the present passage it can only introduce a single point in corroboration of the main proposition (Jer_48:31).
[31]Jer_48:35.—Is מַֽעֲלֵה a participle or a substantive? Grammatically the latter is the easier (comp. Jer_48:5), but the discrepancy with מַקְטִיר is disturbing. We may take it then in the direct causative meaning (ascensum faciens. Comp. on Jer_48:5; Jer_48:2), and observe the remark of Graf that correspondence with this word occasioned the choice of the Hiphil participle.
4. Pride comes before a Fall
Jer_48:39-42
39 How is she broken! How do they howl!
How has Moab turned the back shamefully!
And Moab shall become a derision
And a horror to all his neighbors.
40 For thus saith Jehovah: Behold like an eagle he flies,
And spreads his wings over Moab.
41 Taken are the cities,34
And the fortresses captured,35
And the heart of the heroes of Moab in that day
Shall be like the heart of a parturient woman.36
42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a nation,
For against Jehovah hath he magnified himself.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
With Jer_48:38 the quotations from Isa. 15. and 16. cease; the beginning of Jer_48:39 reminds us of the beginning of Jer_48:31; Jer_48:26; Jer_48:39; Jer_48:41 are evidently closely related, reproducing, as it were, the fundamental thought of Jer_48:26-27 that Moab is to become a derision, because he has magnified himself against the Lord. I therefore take Jer_48:39-41 as one strophe. This begins with an exclamation; how is Moab broken, given up to shameful flight, and thus become an object of ridicule and horror (Jer_48:39)! This effect corresponds exactly to the cause, for a powerful enemy, comparable to a powerful eagle, is to come upon Moab (Jer_48:40). In consequence the fortified places are taken, the courage of all the warriors broken (Jer_48:41), and Moab stricken from the roll of nations. This is his punishment for having magnified himself against Jehovah.
Jer_48:39. How is she … his neighbors. Moab is here again conceived of as feminine. Comp. rems. on Jer_48:20. Since this passage was generally in the prophet’s mind, הַתַּה also must be taken in the meaning which it has there, viz., of being broken. (Comp. Isa_7:8). The first result of this being broken is howling. We however take הֵילילוּ as 3d pers. perf., since the imperative here, as afterwards in בּוֹשׁ, does not suit the connection. The further consequence is shameful flight (בּוֹשׁ to be regarded as in the accusative. Comp. Mic_1:11). From all this it follows lastly that Moab is become two things, a derision (Jer_48:26-27) and a terror (Jer_17:17) to all his neighbors.
Jer_48:40. For thus saith … over Moab.—For is argumentative. The effect corresponds to the cause. The choice of figures is founded on Deu_28:49, where the people of Israel are assured in case of apostasy of severe judgment, to be executed by a nation coming from afar. Lam_4:13 also there was an echo of this passage. It is possible that Isa_46:11 was in the mind of the prophet, even as this present passage lay before the prophet. Ezekiel, when in Jer_17:3 he used the same figure of Nebuchadnezzar. Who the eagle is here the prophet does not say. If what we have said in the introduction concerning the date of composition of this and the contemporary prophecies against the Nations is correct, the present passage is in so far dissimilar to Jer_46:18 in that there Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned just before (Jer_48:13). Here the non-mention is due to the circumstance that the prophet did not yet know who was the chosen instrument for the execution of the judgment.—And spreads, etc. Here also a passage from Deuteronomy (Jer_32:11) seems to have hovered before the prophet’s mind. This however applies only to the expression, for here the spreading of wings is intended in an exactly opposite sense. Comp. also Job_39:26. A repetition of this passage and of the following verse is found in Jer_49:22.
Jer_48:41-42. Taken … magnified himself. The prophet here passes into the literal style of discourse.—From being, etc. Comp Jer_48:2 and Isa_7:8—For against Jehovah, etc. This points back to Jer_48:26, and here as there is to be regarded as a reminiscence from Zep_2:8; Zep_2:10. The prophet here brings to a close that part of his prophecy, which has the pride of Moab especially for its object.
Footnotes:
[32]Jer_48:36.—On the construct state of יִתְרַ עָשָׂה comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 65, 2, 3.
[33]Jer_48:38.—In regard to the construction, the abstract stands for the concrete. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 59, 1.
[34]Jer_48:41.—קְרִיּות cannot here as in Jer_48:14, be a proper name on account of the following מְעָדוֹת. The plural קְרִיּוֹת does not indeed occur in an appellative sense elsewhere, but this form no objection, since the prophet may have chosen this form with reference to the names to the name of Moabitish cities. Comp. olsh § 146 d ; 152 a
[35]Jer_48:41.—On the singular נִתְפָֽשָׂה comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 105, 4, b ; Ewald, § 3 1 7 , a
[36]Jer_48:41.—The expression אִשָּׁה מְצֵרָה (mulier uterum comprimens) occurs here and in Jer_49:22 only. On the subject matter comp. Jer_4:31.
III. Two Appendices with a Concluding Word (Jer_48:43-47)
1. Application to Moab of a passage from Isaiah
Jer_48:43-44
43 Terror37 and ditch [pit] and trap38 on thee,
Thou inhabitant of Moab,39 saith Jehovah.
44 He that fleeth40 from the terror shall fall into the ditch,
And he that riseth from the ditch shall be taken in the trap;
For I bring upon them, upon Moab,41
The year of their punishment, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Application of a passage from Isaiah (Isa_24:17-18). That Jeremiah is the original here, and at most took the remote analogy of Amo_5:19 for his model, appears to me an entirely unwarranted assertion. This pithy drastic play upon words corresponds as much more to the Old Testament master of such word-play, Isaiah, as it is contrary to the softer and more fluent style of our prophet. In addition it is inconceivable that at the close of his discourse, where he has evidently already exhausted himself and has for some time been speaking only in quotations, he should suddenly make such a pithy original utterance. Comp. Delitzsch in Drechsler’sComm. zu Jes. III., S. 405, 6, and in his own Comm. on Isaiah, S. 271 [Eng. Tr., pp. 431, 2].
Footnotes:
[37]Jer_48:43.—כַּחַד fear, terror, is found besides in Jeremiah only in Jer_30:5 and Jer_49:5.
[38]Jer_48:43.—כַּחַת pit, only In Jer_48:28. כּח snare, only in the plural, Jer_18:22. [The rendering ditch for pit and trap for snare is given to express the alliteration of the original pa’hadh, pa’hath, pa’h.—S. R. A.]
[39]Jer_48:43.—יִושׁב מואב. This expression is entirely contrary to the usage of Jeremiah, as he never uses the singular in this connection. Isaiah however uses the singular in a similar connection.
[40]Jer_48:44.—The Chethibh הַנִּים (comp. Fuerst, Concord, S. 691, 1365) is a form which does not occur elsewhere, so the Keri would read הַנָם after Isaiah. Ac echo of this passage is found in Lam_3:47.
[41]Jer_48:44.—אליה אל־מואב. Comp. Jer_9:14; Jer_11:15; Jer_27:8, etc. Naegelsb. Gr., § 77, 2. [“אליה is anticipative of אל־מואכ as the pronominal suffixes frequently are in the Aramaic dialects.” Henderson.—S. R. A.
2. THE TESTIMONY OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS CONCERNING MOAB, AND CONCLUDING WORD
Jer_48:45-47
45 In the shade of Heshbon the fugitives stand powerless;42
For fire43 goes forth from Heshbon,
And came from the midst of Sihon,
And it devoured the side of Moab
And the crown (of the head) of the sons of tumult.44
46 Woe unto thee, Moab!
Destroyed is the people of Chemosh,
For thy sons are led away into prison,
And thy daughters into captivity.45
47 And I turn the captivity of Moab at the end of days, saith Jehovah.
—Thus far the judgment on Moab.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
With the exception of Jer_48:45 a, the verses are a free reproduction of Num_21:28-29; Num_24:17. The prophet who already in the previous context has brought into use old prophecies against Moab, does the same here with some passages of the book of Numbers. It is only natural that Jeremiah should not leave unemployed those ancient utterances occasioned by the first conflict between Israel and Moab. This use is evidently the main intention, and no emphasis is therefore to be laid on the less strict connection of the words with the previous context, and with each other. Graf has, therefore, rightly rejected the hypothesis of Movers and Hitzig, that these verses are a later gloss.
Jer_48:45-46. In the shade … captivity. As the passage to be used speaks of a going forth of the fire from Heshbon upon the Moabites (Num_21:28), the Moabites must be represented as having come into the district of Heshbon. This is done by assuming a flight of the Moabites in that direction (doubtless also with a reference to “he that fleeth,” Jer_48:44). It has indeed been correctly remarked that as the enemy is approaching from the north, the flight could not be towards Heshbon (comp. rems. on Jer_48:19 sqq.), but all that concerns the prophet is to show that the ancient sentence will be verified anew in this judgment on Moab. It is assuredly not his meaning that this will take place literally in the form chosen by him (for which Isa_30:2-3, also was, perhaps, in his mind). Jer_48:45 a is thus a mere connecting clause, of which the expressions are not to be emphasized.—Powerless declares that the fugitives, who for protection had betaken themselves to the shade of Heshbon, receive from thence no strength but the contrary. The following בִּי which is also taken from Num_21:28, need not then be taken in an adversative sense (but).—From the midst of Sihon. In Num_21:28 it reads, “from the city of Sihon.” Heshbon is called in Num_21:26 the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites. Owing to the omission of city here, I would neither alter the text with J. D. Michaelis, Ewald and Meier (בבית for בבין) so as to read, from the house of Sihon, nor with Graf, conceive an ideal presence of Sihon (with reference to Gen_49:10), but as in Jer_48:4, and more frequently according to Graf, Moab stands for Ar-Moab, and elsewhere usually Shechem for city of Shechem (Gen_33:18), so here also the name of Lord of the city stands for the city itself. The sense of from the midst, is that fire breaks forth from between the openings of the city (i.e., the gates of the walls and towers).—The side of Moab. Num_24:17, “and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the borders of Moab.” As here the subject is a staff which smites, the borders can mean only the sides of the body. Accordingly in this passage also it is more natural to think of the side (Meier) as burnt or roasted by the fire, than the end of the beard [Henderson; corner of the beard], which would inflict no material injury.—And the crown, etc.Num_24:17, “and destroy all the children of Sheth,” Sheth has also the meaning of tumult. The children of tumult are homines tumultuosi. The designation corresponds on the one hand to the arrogant character of the Moabites mentioned in vers, 26–30, and on the other hand there seems to be an allusion to Amo_2:2, where it reads “and Moab shall die with tumult.”—Woe unto thee, etc., from Num_21:29. Moab is called the people of Chemosh (comp. Jer_48:7) as Israel the people of Jehovah (Num_11:29; Num_17:6 Jdg_5:11).—For thy sons, etc., Num_21:29 : he gives his sons up as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity. It is apparent that the original is softened down. Comp. Gen_12:15.
Jer_48:47. And I turn … on Moab.—Close of the chapter. Comp. Jer_46:26; Jer_49:6; Jer_49:39.—I turn. Comp. Jer_30:3; Jer_30:18; Jer_33:7; Jer_33:11.—At the end of days. Comp. rems. on Jer_23:20. The expression points to that final period in which the heathen also will be converted to the God of Israel. Comp. Jer_3:17; Isa_24:13-16; Isa_25:6; Hag_2:7.—Thus far the judgment. Comp. Jer_48:21; Jer_51:64. With the exception of the latter passage (on which comp. the exeg. rems.) this formula is not found in Jeremiah. It appears to be a later addition.
Footnotes:
[42]Jer_48:45.—On the privative מִן in מִכֹּהַ comp. Naegelsb. Gr.; § 112, 5, d; Jer_10:14.
[43]Jer_48:45.—אֵש is used in Numbers as feminine, as it usually is, but here as masculine, as in Psa_104:4. (In Job_20:26 נִכַּח regarded as neuter is in apposition. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 60, 4 coll. Jer_20:9).
[44]Jer_48:45.—קַרְקַר Num_24:17, not being appropriate to the present passages (it signifies suffodit, radicitus evertit from קוּר fodit) we cannot say that קָדְקֹד is the original reading, although it seems to suit the passage in Numbers better, and is really the rending of Cod. Samarit. Jeremiah, dealing very freely after his manner with the text of his sources, may have substituted a word of similar form, שׁאוֹן is of like meaning with שֵׁת, as the latter stands for שֵׂאת, Lam_3:47 (as שֵׂת Job_41:16 for שֵׂאת, שְׂאֵת Jer_13:11) and this for שֶׁאֶת. Comp. Olsh., § 153.
[45]Jer_48:46.—The form שִׁבְיָה is found in Jeremiah here only. Since he uses שְׁבִית (שְׁבוּת) only in the connection of שׁוּבּ שׁ׳ he was obliged, in order to have a corresponding word to שְׁבִי, to choose either שִׁבְיָה or שִׁבִיָּה, which latter occurs more rarely than the former, since it is found only in Isa_52:2.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. “Because the destruction of the Moabites is of no service to us except for penitence, we must note well what particular sins are specified, of which they were guilty, and for which such heavy punishments were heaped upon them, viz.; 1. Disdain, in that they gave no one a good word, were unfriendly and only blustered and boasted with every one, Psa_52:3 (1). 2. Confidence in their fortifications, in their power, money and riches, 2Ch_32:8; Isa_40:6. 3. Security, all being prosperous and peaceful, which was the sin of their sister Sodom, Eze_16:49; Zep_2:9. 4. Talking great things, and thrasonic self-praise. But although Goliath was such a mighty fellow he had yet to bite the grass, 1Sa_17:50. 5. Pride and Arrogance. These never do well, but act with violence and injustice. By violence, injustice and avarice, however, a kingdom passes from one people to another, Sirach 10, 8.” Cramer.
2. On Jer_48:10. “His verb is duo peccata severissime prohibentur. 1. negligentia in operibus vocationis, cui oppositum cap. 39 Sirach 2. misericordia intempestiva (2Ti_4:2).” Förster.
3. On Jer_48:10, Est ex ore Dei maledictus et impius est hic Qui Domini curat corde dolosus opus.
(MS. marginal note in my copy of the Cramer Bible).
4. On Jer_48:10. God glorifies Himself in such judgments over the malignant and proud powers of the world. He who knows Him is also made strong, so as to see the world perish and yet be able to sing praises to God thereat.” Diedrich.
5. On Jer_48:11. “Moab retained its old character; being far from the traffic of the great world it was well pleased to keep to itself. Yet things cannot continue thus in this world forever, every family and every nation is at some time rudely terrified from its rest, for what is peculiar, natural or national is not in itself the good. This comes here only through conflict and tribulation, and by God’s word among men. One’s own way is full of idolatry, and all idols will in like manner come to shame: the golden calf of the Israelites certainly first, but afterwards Kamosh.” Diedrich.
6. On Jer_48:11. “Hic notetur, quod hac allegoria Jeremiæ nefarie et fanatice abusus circa annum Christi 1664 quidam Martinus Steinbach, vector vinarius sive doliarius Selecestadiensis, qui se esse dictitavit spiritum sanctum incarnatum uti Christus filius incarnatus est, hæreseos suæ fundamentum statuens hoc præsens Jeremiæ dictum. Cumque sibi asseclas fecisset circiter viginti ex plebe, obiit et se post mortem appariturum splendors luminis affirmavit. Vide Theatr. Zwingeri Vol. V., L. 4, F. 1328” Förster.
7. On Jer_48:26-27. Proud men rejoice with malicious pleasure when they can treat one, whom they do not like, as a caught thief. But it may happen to them that notwithstanding their age, rank and high dignity, they may yet fall in a truly beastly manner into that which they have themselves vomited, and thus become a laughing stock to the street gamins.
8. On Jer_48:39. “It also comes about that the natural man hangs his head, and at this time believers commonly look up and raise their heads, because their redemption draweth nigh.” Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. “How many are still like the Moabites? For how many are there of those who depend on their power and violence, their fortified cities and buildings, riches, money and property, and set all their hope and confidence thereupon! How many are there of those who, when they have been some time at peace, become secure and think there is no more trouble from the rising to the setting of the sun! How many of those who rely on their own strength and say, let the enemy come, they area match for him! How many who, when they surpass others in bodily and mental gifts or in perishable goods, become proud and despise, ridicule and treat badly their inferiors, as if they had found such among thieves, as God the Lord here says! Not to mention that even the dear God is not exempted. For although all good and perfect gifts come only from above, from the Father of light (Jam_1:17), yet many will not acknowledge this, but ascribe them to their own wisdom and skill, do not thank God for them, and thus make themselves and the outward means, by which they obtain one and another thing, the idol which they serve.” Bibl. Summarien, Halle, 1848.
2. On Jer_48:10. Remissness in the work of the Lord. 1. Wherein it consists (in not doing or doing ill that which is commanded. Comp. Saul in 1 Samuel 15, and doing that which is forbidden). 2. Its causes (Selfishness, Pride, Unbelief, Cowardice, Indolence, worldly interests). 3. Its punishment (to be cursed).
[Jeremy Taylor: 1. He that serves God with the body, without the soul, serves God deceitfully. 2. He that serves God with the soul, without the body, when both can be conjoined, doth the work of the Lord deceitfully. 3. They are deceitful in the Lord’s work that reserve one faculty for sin, or one sin for themselves, or one action to please their appetite and many for religion. 4. And they who think God sufficiently served with abstaining from evil, and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion.—S. R. A.]
3. On Jer_48:42. The world’s boldness towards God. 1. Whereon it is supported (on the one hand on the real [material] powers apparently standing at its behest alone; on the other hand, on the apparent powerlessness of God’s servants, who have only truth and right on their side). 2. What its end will be (Destruction, or termination of national existence). [Cowles: “If all the historians who record the ultimate extinction of nations were inspired of God to give the true reasons of their fall, we should often meet this testimony, ‘Perished of national pride, producing contempt of God and of fundamental morality.’ ”—S. R. A.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 no more praise-- (Isa 16:14).
no more praise-- (Isa 16:14).
in Heshbon--The foe having taken Heshbon, the chief city of Moab (Jer 48:45), 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 (Num 21:26). 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.
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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 (Isa 15:1). Thou shalt not dare to utter a sound.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 45 CALAMITIES IN MOAB, Jer_48:1-8.
CALAMITIES IN MOAB, Jer_48:1-8.
1. Against Moab — Rather, concerning “Moab.” In Isaiah (chaps. 15 and 16) and Amos (Amo_2:1-3) are prophecies against Moab. This one is, to a great extent, on the basis of that in Isaiah, which it amplifies and changes. It also contains two verses (43 and 44) from Isaiah, (Isa_24:17-18.)
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Nebo — Not the mountain, but the city of the same name in the vicinity. Kiriathaim is also a city in the same general region.
Misgab — The high-fortress; probably the chief fortress of the country.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47 1. Moab] Its territory was the high tableland E.…
1. Moab] Its territory was the high tableland E. of the Dead Sea. See further on Jer_48:2.
Nebo] not the mountain (Deu_32:49; Deu_34:1), but the city (Num_32:38). It was taken by Mesha king of Moab (c. 895 b.c.) according to the records of the “Moabite stone.” See transl. of lines 14–18 in HDB. III. 406. Kiriathaim, Kerioth, Jahzah, Dibon, Aroer, Bozrah (Bezer), Beth-diblathaim, Baal-meon (see on Jer_48:23), and Horonaim are also mentioned on that stone.
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Kiriathaim] probably Kureyat, ten miles N. of the Dead Sea.
Misgab] better, as mg. the high fort. Cp. Isa_25:12.
broken down] better than (mg.) dismayed. So in Jer_48:20; Jer_48:39.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 47 (1) Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts…
XLVIII.
(1) Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts . . .—Better, with a different punctuation, Concerning Moab (this being the title of the section), Thus saith the Lord of hosts. In the long prophecy that follows Jeremiah in part follows in the wake of “the burden of Moab” in Isaiah 15, 16, entering even more fully into geographical details. (See Notes there.) The relations between Moab and Israel had for a long period been more or less uneasy. The former had been tributary to the latter under Ahab, but on his death Mesha revolted, and a war ensued, which ended in the defeat of the Moabites by the allied forces of Israel, Judah, and Edom (2 Kings 3). They repeated their attack, however (2Ki_13:20), and appear to have occupied the territory of the Trans-jordanic tribes on their deportation by Tiglath-pileser. Of the three places named, Nebo, memorable as the summit of Pisgah, from which Moses looked upon the land of promise, and forming part of the range of the mountains of Abarim (Deu_32:49; Deu_34:1), has been identified conjecturally with Djebel-el-Attarus, or Djebel-el-Jel’ad. Hitzig derives the name from the Sanscrit Nabho (= the cloud-heaven). Kiriathaim (= the double city) is named in Gen_14:5 and Num_32:37, in the latter passage in conjunction with Elealeh, Heshbon, and Nebo. Jerome places it at a distance of ten miles west of Medaba, as one of the cities rebuilt by the Reubenites, but it has not been identified. Misgab, the “high fort” or “citadel” of Isa_25:12, has shared the same fate, but has been referred by some writers to Kir-Moab, or Kir-heres, as the chief fortified city of the country (see Jer_48:31; Jer_48:36; Isa_15:1; Isa_16:7). The article which is prefixed to it in the Hebrew has led Fürst (Lexicon) to take it in a wider sense, as meaning the plateau or highland country of Moab generally.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47 This prophecy is so full of repetitions that the…
This prophecy is so full of repetitions that the question has naturally arisen whether the most prominent of these may not be due to interpolation. For instance:
1. Vers. 29-38 recur in Isa_16:6-10 Isa_15:4, Isa_15:5, 6 16:12, 11 15:2, 3; not, indeed, without many peculiarities, and those peculiarities are so striking, and so little in harmony with Jeremiah"s usual mode of using his predecessor"s writings, that some have held that vers. 29-38 were inserted by one of Jeremiah"s readers.
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2. Vers. 43, 44 so closely resemble Isa_24:17, Isa_24:18, and cohere so loosely with the context, that interpolation is a not unreasonable hypothesis.
3. Vers. 45, 46, which are omitted in the Septuagint, are evidently based on Num_21:28, Num_21:29.
4. Vers. 40, 41 closely resemble Jer_49:22; the portion corresponding to that passage is omitted in the Septuagint.
Vers. 1-8. The prophet foresees the calamity of Moab, and the attendant confusion and dismay. Yes; flee, save your lives, if ye can; for your confidences have proved untrustworthy; there is no hope left.
Against Moab; rather, concerning Moab. nebo! Not, of course, the mountain range referred to in Deu_32:49 and De 34. I as that from which Moses viewed the land destined for Israel, but a town in the neighbourhood, deriving its name, not from the mountain, but from the same old Semitic (and not merely Babylonian) deity. Kiriathaim. "The double city." A place of uncertain situation, but probably in the same district as Nebo; mentioned in Gen_14:5, as the abode of the "terrible" aboriginal tribe called the Emim. Is confounded; rather, is brought to shame. (as Jer_46:24) Misgab; rather, the fortress. The connection shows that some definite fortress is intended, but it is difficult to say which. Graf thinks of Kir-heres (vers. 31, 36) or Kirhareseth, (another form of the same name; comp. Isa_16:7 2Ki_3:25) generally identified with Kir-Moab, the chief fortified town of the Moabites.
Vers. 1-47. The judgment of Moab.
As the prophet"s "eye in a fine frenzy rolling" sees the flood of the Chaldean invasion sweeping over one after another of the nations, his words flash out in pictures full of energy and fire. If this world"s calamities are thus terrible, how shall the awful realities of eternity be contemplated? Why should some of us be so shocked at the strong language of preachers? Strange and fanatical as it may appear, the fury of a Knox is more consonant with much of life and revelation than the complacent mildness of an Addison. Visions of judgment are no topics for graceful moral essays. Nevertheless, however hot the language may be, it must not descend to mere wild, whirling words; it must be characteristic and truthful. The succession of pictures of approaching judgment which Jeremiah draws are not monotonous repetitions of the same description. They are definite and distinctively applicable to the respective subjects of them. Let us observe the special features of the judgment of Moab.
I THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. The grounds of the judgment are given in the revelation of the sins of Moab. The head and front of her offence is pride (e.g. ver. 29). Other characteristics are closely related, viz.:
(1) trust in wealth and material resources (ver. 7);
(2) self-indulgent ease (ver. 11);
(3) boastfulness (ver. 14);
(4) scorn (ver. 27);
(5) defiance of Heaven (ver. 26).
Such a catalogue of offences is peculiarly hateful to God. Sins of appetite and passion are partly the result of weakness. The culpability of them is less than that of the intellectual and spiritual sins by all the weight of temptations which arise out of the natural constitution of man. For such sins as those of Moab there is no excuse. They are nearest to the most diabolical wickedness. Adam fell by a sin of appetite; Satan by a sin of spiritual pride.
II THE NATURE OF THEIR DOOM.
1. Destruction. (Ver. 4) The general doom of all the nations. This is the leading form of the evil fruits of sin.
2. Shame and humiliation. (Ver. 13) "Moab also shall wallow in his vomit" (ver. 26). What a terrible anticlimax from the pride and haughtiness which are the chief characteristics of this people!
3. Derision. Moab had mocked at Israel, now "he also shall be in derision" (ver. 26). Thus scorn is rebuked with scorn, and the mocker is mocked.
4. Gloom and grief. (Ver, 33) The ease and self-complacency which had characterized Moab are exchanged for their opposites.
5. Poverty. "The riches that he hath gotten are perished" (ver. 36). Moab had trusted in wealth. His punishment will consist in part in the loss of this. Finally, to Moab, as to other nations, there is promised an ultimate restoration. "Yet will I restore the prosperity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord" (ver. 47). Most beautifully does this one verse close the terrible vision of judgment, like one ray of light breaking through the dense black thunderclouds and promising the dawn of a new day of life and gladness. Even to a heathen people the promise is made, and by the mouth of a Hebrew prophet. Who, then, shall dare to set limits to the future restoring power of the grace of God?
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv6, 10, 11, 17, 25, 28, 36 Flee, save your lives.
Jer_48:6
Flee, save your lives.
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The Christians flight
Such was the warning addressed to Moab by the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. The Chaldeans were about to lay waste the land of the Moabites--a punishment which they justly deserved for their iniquities and for their long-continued opposition to the people of God But even in wrath the Lord remembers mercy; or, to use the beautiful language of the prophet, He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind. Though Moab shall be punished, her cities overturned, and the country laid waste and desolate, her princes, people, and priests carried into captivity, yet an opportunity is afforded for at least a remnant to escape. Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
I. From what are we to flee? In a word, from everything that would wean his heart from God and endanger the safety of his soul, the Christian is to flee--from all evil and mischief, from sin, from the world, the flesh, and the works of the devil, from hardness of heart and contempt of Gods Word and commandment.
II. For what are we to flee? The life of your soul is concerned; and unless you flee from what stands in your way to God, and blocks up your return to Him, the wrath of God will assuredly overtake you, and you will become a prey to your enemies, to those who seek your life. It is for glory, and honour, and immortality we should flee--blessings of infinite value, prizes beyond all price--nay, far beyond the power of human tongue to tell of their inestimable preciousness; we should flee for the favour of God, the forgiveness of our sins, the worth of our souls, the love and glory of Christ, and the beauty and happiness of holiness. And we should hasten our flight, for the time is short, and death advancing.
III. Where should we flee? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, &c. Such was Simon Peters declaration. Such is the confession of Gods people still. To the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, must the sinner flee. He must go as he is, and he like the heath in the wilderness, destitute of fruit or value, fit only for fuel, and seek to be engrafted in the living Vine. For Moab, we may observe, was commanded merely to flee. Whatever would oppose their progress should be put away. (C. A. Maginn, M. A.)
Flee for your life
I. Whence you are to flee.
II. where you are to flee.
III. How you are to flee.
IV. When you are to flee
V. Why you are to flee. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah 48
CHAPTER XIX
MOAB
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Jeremiah 48
"Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against Jehovah."- Jer_48:42
"Chemosh said to me, Go, take Nebo against Israeland I took itand I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh."-MOABITE STONE.
"Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days."- Jer_48:47
THE prophets show a very keen interest in Moab. With the exception of the very short Book of Joel, all the prophets who deal in detail with foreign nations devote sections to Moab. The unusual length of such sections in Isaiah and Jeremiah is not the only resemblance between the utterances of these two prophets concerning Moab. There are many parallels of idea and expression, which probably indicate the influence of the elder prophet upon his successor; unless indeed both of them adapted some popular poem which was early current in Judah.
It is easy to understand why the Jewish Scriptures should have much to say about Moab, just as the sole surviving fragment of Moabite literature is chiefly occupied with Israel. These two Terahite tribes-the children of Jacob and the children of Lot-had dwelt side by side for centuries, like the Scotch and English borderers before the accession of James I. They had experienced many alternations of enmity and friendship, and had shared complex interests, common and conflicting, after the manner of neighbours who are also kinsmen. Each in its turn had oppressed the other; and Moab had been the tributary of the Israelite monarchy till the victorious arms of Mesha had achieved independence for his people and firmly established their dominion over the debatable frontier lands. There are traces, too, of more kindly relations: the House of David reckoned Ruth the Moabitess amongst its ancestors, and Jesse, like Elimelech and Naomi, had taken refuge in Moab.
Accordingly this prophecy concerning Moab, in both its editions, frequently strikes a note of sympathetic lamentation and almost becomes a dirge.
"Therefore will I howl for Moab;
Yea, for all Moab will I cry out.
For the men of Kirheres shall they mourn.
With more than the weeping of Jazer
Will I weep for thee, O vine of Sibmah.
Therefore mine heart soundeth like pipes for Moab,
Mine heart soundeth like pipes for the men of Kirheres."
But this pity could not avail to avert the doom of Moab; it only enabled the Jewish prophet to fully appreciate its terrors. The picture of coming ruin is drawn with the colouring and outlines familiar to us in the utterances of Jeremiah-spoiling and destruction, fire and sword and captivity, dismay and wild abandonment of wailing.
"Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
Every head is bald, and every beard clipped;
Upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
On all the housetops and in all the streets of Moab there is everywhere lamentation;
For I have broken Moab like a useless vessel-it is the utterance of Jehovah.
How is it broken down! Howl ye! Be thou ashamed!
How hath Moab turned the back!
All the neighbours shall laugh and shudder at Moab.
The heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day
Shall be like the heart of a woman in her pangs."
This section of Jeremiah illustrates the dramatic versatility of the prophets method. He identifies himself now with the blood thirsty invader, now with his wretched victims, and now with the terror-stricken spectators; and sets forth the emotions of each in turn with vivid realism. Hence at one moment we have the pathos and pity of such verses as we have just quoted, and at another such stern and savage words as these:-
"Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently,
Cursed be he that stinteth his sword of blood."
These lines might have served as a motto for Cromwell at the massacre of Drogheda, for Tillys army at the sack of Magdeburg, or for Danton and Robespierre during the Reign of Terror. Jeremiahs words were the more terrible because they were uttered with the full consciousness that in the dread Chaldean king a servant of Jehovah was at hand who would be careful not to incur any curse for stinting his sword of blood. We shrink from what seems to us the prophets brutal assertion that relentless and indiscriminate slaughter is sometimes the service which man is called upon to render to God. Such sentiment is for the most part worthless and unreal; it does not save us from epidemics of war fever, and is at once ignored under the stress of horrors like the Indian Mutiny. There is no true comfort in trying to persuade ourselves that the most awful events of history lie outside of the Divine purpose, or in forgetting that the human scourges of their kind do the work that God has assigned to them.
In this inventory, as it were, of the ruin of Moab our attention is arrested by the constant and detailed references to the cities. This feature is partly borrowed from Isaiah. Ezekiel too speaks of the Moabite cities which are the glory of the country; {Eze_25:9} but Jeremiahs prophecy is a veritable Domesday Book of Moab. With his epic fondness for lists of sonorous names-after the manner of Homers catalogue of the ships-he enumerates Nebo, Kiriathaim, Heshbon, and Horonaim, city after city, till he completes a tale of no fewer than twenty-six, and then summarises the rest as "all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near." Eight of these cities are mentioned in Joshua {Jos_13:15-28} as part of the inheritance of Reuben and Gad. Another, Bozrah, is usually spoken of as a city of Edom. {Jer_49:13, possibly this is not the Edomite Bozrah.}
The Moabite Stone explains the occurrence of Reubenite cities in these lists. It tells us how Mesha took Nebo, Jahaz, and Horonaim from Israel. Possibly in this period of conquest Bozrah became tributary to Moab, without ceasing to be an Edomite city. This extension of territory and multiplication of towns points to an era of power and prosperity, of which there are other indications in this chapter. "We are mighty and valiant for war," said the Moabites. When Moab fell "there was broken a mighty sceptre and a glorious staff." Other verses imply the fertility of the land and the abundance of its vintage.
Moab in fact had profited by the misfortunes of its more powerful and ambitious neighbours. The pressure of Damascus, Assyria, and Chaldea prevented Israel and Judah from maintaining their dominion over their ancient tributary. Moab lay less directly in the track of the invaders; it was too insignificant to attract their special attention, perhaps too prudent to provoke a contest with the lords of the East. Hence, while Judah was declining, Moab had enlarged her borders and grown in wealth and power.
And even as Jeshurun kicked, when he was waxen fat, {Deu_32:15} so Moab in its prosperity was puffed up with unholy pride. Even in Isaiahs time this was the besetting sin of Moab; he says in an indictment which Jeremiah repeats almost word for word:-
"We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud,
Even of his arrogancy and his pride and his wrath." {Isa_16:6}
This verse is a striking example of the Hebrew method of gaining emphasis by accumulating derivatives of the same and similar roots. The verse in Jeremiah runs thus: "We have heard of the pride (GeON) of Moab, that he is very proud (GEEH): his loftiness (GABHeHO), and his pride (GeONO), and his proudfulness (GAaWATHO)."
Jeremiah dwells upon this theme:-
"Moab shall be destroyed from being a people,
Because he hath magnified himself against Jehovah."
Zephaniah bears like testimony:-{Zep_2:10}
"This shall they have for their pride,
Because they have been insolent, and have magnified themselves
Against the people of Jehovah Sabaoth."
Here again the Moabite Stone bears abundant testimony to the justice of the prophets accusations: for there Mesha tells how in the name and by the grace of Chemosh he conquered the cities of Israel; and how, anticipating Belshazzars sacrilege, he took the sacred vessels of Jehovah from His temple at Nebo and consecrated them to Chemosh. Truly Moab had "magnified himself against Jehovah."
Prosperity had produced other baleful effects beside a haughty spirit, and pride was not the only cause of the ruin of Moab. Jeremiah applies to nations the dictum of Polonius-
"Home-keeping youths have ever homely wits,"
and apparently suggests that ruin and captivity were necessary elements in the national discipline of Moab:-
"Moab hath been undisturbed from his youth;
He hath settled on his lees"
He hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel;
He hath not gone into captivity:
"Therefore his taste remaineth in him,
His scent is not changed.
Wherefore, behold, the days come-it is the utterance of Jehovah-
That I will send men unto him that shall tilt him up;
They shall empty his vessels and break his bottles."
As the chapter, in its present form, concludes with a note-
"I will bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days-it is the utterance of Jehovah"-
we gather that even this rough handling was disciplinary; at any rate, the former lack of such vicissitudes had been to the serious detriment of Moab. It is strange that Jeremiah did not apply this principle to Judah. For, indeed, the religion of Israel and of mankind owes an incalculable debt to the captivity of Judah, a debt which later writers are not slow to recognise. "Behold," says the prophet of the Exile, -
"I have refined thee, but not as silver;
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." {Isa_48:10}
History constantly illustrates how when Christians were undisturbed and prosperous the wine of truth settled on the lees and came to taste of the cask; and-to change the figure-how affliction and persecution proved most effectual tonics for a debilitated Church. Continental critics of modern England speak severely of the ill-effects which our prolonged freedom from invasion and civil war, and the unbroken continuity of our social life have had on our national character and manners. In their eyes England is a perfect Moab, concerning which they are ever ready to prophesy after the manner of Jeremiah. The Hebrew Chronicler blamed Josiah because he would not listen to the advice and criticism of Pharaoh Necho. There may be warnings which we should do well to heed, even in the acrimony of foreign journalists.
But any such suggestion raises wider and more difficult issues; for ordinary individuals and nations the discipline of calamity seems necessary. What degree of moral development exempts from such discipline, and how may it be attained? Christians cannot seek to compound for such discipline by self-inflicted loss or pain, like Polycrates casting away his ring or Brownings Caliban, who in his hour of terror,
"Lo! Lieth flat and loveth Setebos!
Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip.
Will let those quails fly, will not eat this month
One little mess of whelks, so he may scape."
But though it is easy to counsel resignation and the recognition of a wise, loving Providence in national as in personal suffering, yet mankind longs for an end to the period of pupilage and chastisement and would fain know how it may be hastened.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter.—Naegelsbach suggests,…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter.—Naegelsbach suggests, with ample justification, that “this prophecy certainly belongs to the time of Jehoiakim, and before the fourth year, the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar not being mentioned;” and adds: “The form of the superscription favours its contemporaneousness with the first prophecy against Egypt (Jer_46:1-2).” Cf. notes on chap. 25.
2. Contemporary Scriptures.—Cf. on chap. 25. Here it is appropriate to point out that this chapter is, to a remarkable degree, a compilation of extracts from other prophets, mainly from Isaiah. Gesenius “depreciates this prophecy as a tasteless piece of patchwork” [Dr. Payne Smith] from Isaiah; and adverse critics have challenged the wisdom and good taste of Jeremiah’s work in thus putting together such a fragmentary collection of older inspired utterances “against Moab.” But Naegelsbach well states the case: “Jeremiah’s object in this prophecy was evidently to reanimate, as it were, the former declarations of similar purport, and comprise them together for the sake of a powerful total effect. From Jer_48:29 onwards there is a constant, more or less free, use of older utterances.” Quotations taken from Isaiah 15, 16 are numerous. Thus comp. Isa_15:2-7 with Jer_48:37-38; Jer_48:34; Jer_48:5; Jer_48:36; Isa_16:6-12, with Jer_48:29-33; Jer_48:36; Jer_48:35; and Isaiah 24 with Jer_48:43-44. So, also, words and phrases, in Jer_48:45; Jer_48:24; Jer_48:41, seem to be appropriated from Amo_2:2; and in Jer_48:26; Jer_48:42 from Zep_2:8-10; and Jer_48:15; Jer_48:46 from Num_21:28-29; Num_24:17. It should be noted that Isaiah prophesies the devastation of Moab by the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser; Jeremiah refers to its overthrow by the Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar.
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3. National Affairs.—The historic record of 2Ki_24:2, shows that Moab had at that time joined the Chaldeans in hostility to Judah.
4. Contemporaneous History.—Moab’s overthrow was effected by Nebuchadnezzar five years after his destruction of Jerusalem, at the time when he also attacked Egypt (cf. notes on chap. 43, specially Jer_48:8-13) and Ammon (cf. chap. Jer_49:1-6). In Josephus, Antiq., x. 9, § 7, we have the record.
5. Geographical References.—Jer_48:1. “Nebo,” a mountain and town of Moab. “Keria-thaim,” a place of great antiquity, originally possessed by the Enim (Gen_14:5), and afterwards by the Moabites; placed by Eusebius ten miles west of Medcba. “Misgab,” i.e. citadel, not a proper name at all.
Jer_48:2. “Heshbon,” the chief city of Moab, situate midway between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok; it was an ancient and royal city. “Madmen,” a town of which no information exists.
Jer_48:3. “Horonaim:” the same as the city Avara mentioned by Ptolemy. See Neh_2:10; Isa_15:5. It lay in a plain.
Jer_48:5. “Luhith” lay on a height; locality unknown.
Jer_48:18. “Dibon,” situate on the south bank of the Arnon. The remains of the fortifications of Dibon are still visible (Burckhardt’s Travels).
Jer_48:19. “Aroer.” On the north bank of the Arnon, a city of Ammon.
Jer_48:20. “Arnon. This river was the north boundary between Moab and Ammon. See Num_21:13.
Jer_48:21. “Holon.” Cf. Jos_15:51. “Jahazah.” Cf. Num_21:23. “Mephaath.” Cf. Jos_13:18; Jos_21:37. Of these and following cities enumerated little or nothing is known.
Jer_48:32. “Sea of Jazar.” Jazar lies in an upland valley, about fifteen miles north of Heshbon. “Sea” is very doubtful here; probably a transcriber’s error.
6. Personal Allusion.—Jer_48:7. “Chemosh,” the national god of Moab (Num_21:29). His being led into captivity represents the total ruin of the nation he protected. The literal name here is “Chemish,” and this is doubtless correct, as in the word “Carchemish,” i.e. the fortress of Chemish.
7. Natural History.—Jer_48:28. “The dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth;” lit. “that resteth in the passages of the sides of the abyss.” Tristram says, “The wild pigeon invariably selects … deep ravines for its nesting and roosting places.” Henderson quotes the following classics:—
Φύγεν ὥστε πέλεια
Ἣ ῥά θʼ ὑπʼ ἵρηκος κοίλην εἰσέπτατο πέτρην.—Iliad, xxi. 493.
“Qualis spelunca subito commota columba
Cui domus, et dulces latebroso in pumice nidi.”—Æneid, 48:213.
8. Literary Criticisms.—Jer_48:2. “In Heshbon they have devised:” a play upon words. הָשְׁבוּ—הֶשְׁבּוֹן, “Heshbon” means a place of devising or counsel. “Thou shalt be cut down (margin, brought to silence), O Madmen:” another play on words; “Madmen” means silence.
Jer_48:7. “Thy works,” i.e. fortifications. Moab was renowned for them.
Jer_48:45. “Because of the force,” rather without force. A better translation is: “The fugitives stand powerless under the shadow of Heshbon.” “The crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.” “Crown of the head” is here poetical for the loftiest elevation of Moab; and the Moabites, in reference to the roar and fury with which they give battle, are called “sons of tumult.”
SUBJECT OF CHAPTER 48
MOAB’S DOOM
Jer_48:1. Theme: SIN THE PRECURSOR OF DOOM. “Because the destruction of the Moabites is of no service to us except for penitence, we must note well what particular sins are specified, of which they were guilty, and for which such heavy punishments were heaped upon them, viz.:—
I. Disdain, in that they gave no one a good word, were unfriendly, and only blustered and boasted with every one (Psa_52:3).
II. Confidence in their fortifications, power, money, and riches (2Ch_32:8; Isa_40:6).
III. Security, as if all were prosperous and peaceful, which was the sin of their sister Sodom (Eze_16:49; Zep_2:9).
IV. Talking great things, and indulging self-praise. But although Goliath was so mighty a fellow, he had yet to bite the grass (1Sa_17:50).
V. Pride and arrogance. These never do well, but act with violence and injustice. By violence, injustice, and avarice, however, a kingdom passes from one people to another.”—Cramer.
Theme: SINNERS ALIKE IN ALL AGES. “How many are still like the Moabites; for how many are there who—
I. Depend on their power and violence, their fortified cities and buildings, their riches, money, and property, and set all their hope and confidence thereon! How many are there who, when they have been some time at peace,
II. Become secure, and anticipate no further evil, thinking there is no more trouble from the rising to the setting of the sun! How many are there who—
III. Rely on their own strength, and say, Let the enemy come, we are a match for him! How many there are who, when they surpass others in bodily strength, or in mental gifts, or in perishable goods,
IV. Become proud and abusive; ridicule, despise, and treat badly their inferiors, as if they had “found such among thieves,” as God the Lord here says (Jer_48:27)! And, although all good and perfect gifts come from the Father of lights, yet many will not acknowledge this, but
V. Ascribe their advantages to their own wisdom and skill, do not thank God for them, and thus make themselves the idol they serve.”—Bibl. Summarien, Halle, 1848. From Lange.
Jer_48:2. Theme: PRAISE TO MAN SILENCED. “There shall be no more praise of Moab.”
I. Human praise is of short duration. Be it offered to nations or men, it is like the trumpet strain, which swells in loudness and then dies into silence; like the fragrance of a flower, which, however sweet, soon passes away.
II. Praise to men can scarcely be given with justice. Why should praise be given to a nation for its greatness—of wealth, intelligence, territory—when that greatness is the result of the development of natural resources, or of administrative power, given to it of God? And why should praise be ascribed to a man of genius or benevolence, when his genius is a Divine endowment, and his benevolence a Divine implantation?
III. Praise is due only to God. Shall we praise the Alps that they reach unto the clouds, or the eagle that she bears her young upon her wings and covers them with her feathers? No! The mighty Alps are what they are by the creative power of God, and the noble eagle is what she is by the instinct God has given to her.
Mighty nations are but Alps of God’s creation, and great men are but eagles of God’s endowing; for “of Him and through Him are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever.”
IV. Heaven-taught men never fail to trace the favours their fellow-men confer up to their Divine Source. Does Joseph obtain favour of Pharaoh? It is acknowledged that “the Lord gave him favour” (Gen_39:21; Gen_41:52). Is Daniel a favourite in the court of Babylon? “God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love,” &c. (Dan_1:9). Is the Church at Corinth earnestly cared for by Titus? Paul thanks God for putting that “care into the heart” of Titus.
Every river has its source, the Avon or Thames, the Niger or Nile, and so has every blessing; and that source is God!
V. Praise to man shall be silenced that God may receive His due. Often, instead of all blessings being traced to God, they are in part traced to men; and sometimes so largely to man as if he were the greater benefactor of the two.
But silence eventually shall come upon all human praise.
VI. God’s praise is the Christian’s sweetest employ, and it shall be an endless employ. “There shall be no more praise of Moab;” but neither in time or eternity will God’s praise cease.
“Praise shall employ my noblest powers
While immortality endures!
Thy days of praise shall ne’er be past
While life or breath or being last.”
Death may silence the tongue, but it cannot the soul; and in heaven it will perpetuate God’s praises.
“When this poor lisping, stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save.”
As He loved us from everlasting, so shall our praise be to everlasting. His everlasting love will call forth our everlasting song.—Arranged from Pledge’s “Walks with Jeremiah.”
Jer_48:4. Theme: A CRY FROM LITTLE ONES. “Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.” Calamity comes upon all, young and old. However innocent, however “little,” none escape.
I. Children suffer. “Cry,” as if in distress! Yes, even “little ones” share in pain, grief, and calamity. (1.) Sad to think of suffering children; in hospitals, at home. (2.) Sad, also, to think of sorrowing children: little hearts broken with grief; orphans, ill-used children, hungry children. (3.) Most sad to think of sinning children. They suffer most,—in their consciences now; and, if they die in their sins, they suffer in doom! For—
II. Children perish. “Cry” as they fall under the destroyer’s hands. For “Moab is destroyed,” and in the destruction the children are included.
1. Cruel people will even injure and destroy “little ones.” Think of Herod’s soldiers slaying the infants of Bethlehem. There are evil men and women who would destroy the innocence, the purity, the affection, the truthfulness, the happiness of children. They do it with bad books, by teaching them to lie and deceive, by tempting them to break God’s day and His laws. And children are perishing around us! (See Mat_18:6.)
2. Satan delights in destroying the “little ones.” A “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”
III. Children pray. “Cry” as if in prayer. Doubtless these “little ones” in Moab would cry out to the destroyers, entreating them not to hurt or kill them.
1. Children can pray. “Cause a cry to be heard.”
2. Children may pray in a wrong direction: to their cruel destroyers, instead of to God, their mighty Deliverer.
3. Children should pray; for peril is near, and Jesus waits to save those who seek Him. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee.”
Jer_48:9. Theme: HASTENING TO ESCAPE. “Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away.”
I. Wherefore should a soul “make haste” in seeking salvation? Because—
1. The “spoiler” is alert (Jer_48:8).
2. None will be exempted (Jer_48:8).
3. No hiding-place will be secure (Jer_48:6).
4. Moments wasted give opportunity to the foe.
5. Lost opportunities never return.
II. From what should a soul so earnestly speed its flight?
1. From delights and possessions which it had hitherto cherished: “Thy works and thy treasures” (Jer_48:7). “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”
2. From every object of trust. “Thou hast trusted in,” &c. (Jer_48:7). They are insufficient; and to cling to them will work delusion and destruction.
3. From all false religious hopes. “Chemosh and his priests” (Jer_48:7), all shall fail Moab; as all religious hopes, but Christ, shall fail the soul.
III. How can a soul hasten its escape from pursuing perils? “Give wings to Moab, that it may flee and get away.” Comp. Psa_55:6.
1. Its own unaided powers will not suffice to save the soul.
2. The “wings” a soul needs are prayer, purpose, faith. For by these it speeds its way to Christ.
3. Such supernatural endowments must be “given;” the soul cannot assume them at will, nor create them for the emergency. God will give such “wings.” He gives the Holy Spirit; and the Spirit stirs the soul to prayer, to purpose, and to faith.
Blessed is that soul who “gets away” from snares and pursuing foes, safely hid in Christ! “Flee” to the cross; “flee” to the throne of grace; “flee” to your Bibles; “flee” to the open heart of Jesus.
Jer_48:10. Theme: DOING GOD’S WORK REMISSLY. This utter devastation of Moab was “the work of the Lord;” and the instruments He would use must do it thoroughly. Comp. Saul’s sin as to Amalek (1Sa_15:3; 1Sa_15:9), and Ahab’s as to Syria (1Ki_20:42).
Notes.—“The prophet pronounces ‘a curse’ upon ministers of the Divine justice if, being sent to destroy Moab, they are remiss in executing the sentence.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“The work of destroying Moab is here mainly meant. But the text taketh in all lawful employments: these are God’s works, and must be done vigorously, with all our might, in obedience to God, and for His greatest glory. Not soldiers only, that have a good cause, and in a good calling must likewise take a good courage, and do execution lustily; but magistrates also, who are keepers of both tables of the law, must do right to all without partiality. Ministers must look to the ministry which they have received from the Lord that they fulfil it. Every man, in his particular place and station, must be ‘not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.’ In God’s immediate service especially men must stir up themselves to take hold of Him, minding the work, and not doing it in a customary, formal way. A very heathen [Aristides] could say, ‘Ignavia in rebus divinis est nefaris’—Dulness in Divine things is abominable. And Numa, king of the Romans, made a law, that none should be careless or cursory in the service of God, and appointed an officer to cry oft to the people at such a time, ‘Hoc agite’—Mind what you do, and do it to your utmost. He that is ambitious of God’s curse, let him do otherwise.”—Trapp.
Theme: DECEITFULNESS IN GOD’S SERVICE. Jeremy Taylor suggests—
(i.) He that serves God with the body, without the soul, serves God deceitfully.
(ii.) He that serves God with the soul, without the body, when both can be conjoined, doth the work of God deceitfully.
(iii.) They are deceitful in the Lord’s work that reserve one faculty for sin, or one sin for themselves, or one action to please their appetite and many for religion.
(iv.) And they who think God sufficiently served with abstaining from evil, and converse not in the acquisition and pursuit of holy charity and religion.—Quoted in Lange.
Jer_48:10. War Theme: THE CURSE OF COWARDICE. The God of peace would have us “follow peace with all men;” and the Prince of peace has pronounced, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” But when the lusts of men are perpetually embroiling the world with wars and fightings; when avarice and ambition would rob us of our prosperity; when they would enslave the free-born mind by their usurpation and arbitrary power; when they would tear from our eager grasp Heaven’s highest blessing, our religion—what then is the will of God? Must peace be maintained with perfidious and cruel invaders, at the expense of property, life, and religion? No; in such a time the Providence of God calls, “To arms!” The sword is then consecrated, and the art of war becomes part of our religion.
The Moabites, against whom this prophecy was denounced, were a troublesome and restless nation in the neighbourhood of the Jews, who, though often subdued by them, struggled to recover their power, and renewed their hostilities; by this and other sins their guilt rendered them ripe for execution. The Babylonians were commissioned to this work of vengeance, and they were bound to execute the commission faithfully, under penalty of a curse.
The text is a declaration of the righteous “curse” of God against a dastardly refusal to engage in war when it is our duty, or a deceitful, negligent discharge of that duty after we have engaged in it. This denunciation is levelled, like the artillery of heaven, against the coward, and against the self-seeking, as distinguished from the patriotic soldier.
I. Present a brief view of the circumstances which call us to war.
Barbarities and depredations of Indian savages and French papists. Homes demolished, and families fleeing in consternation; the dead lie mangled with brutal wounds; others have been dragged away captives, made the slaves of imperious savages. Our frontiers have been drenched with the blood of our fellow-subjects. Our country bleeds at a thousand veins, and without our timely remedy the wound will prove mortal.
Is it not, therefore, our duty in the sight of God, a work to which He loudly calls us, to take up arms for the defence of our country? Certainly: and “Cursed is he who [without justifiable reasons] keepeth his sword from blood.”
The man that can desert the cause of his country in such an emergency, whose blessings he has shared in times of peace, and whose sympathy and aid he shares in the day of distress, that cowardly, ungrateful man deserves the curse of both God and his country.
What greater evidence of ingratitude can be given than a supine neglect of the blessings the land enjoys, and a stupidly tame resignation of them into rapacious hands? Love of country and of religion calls us to action.
II. Show what is that deceitful performance of the Lord’s work, or unreasonable keeping back the sword from blood, which exposes to His curse. If soldiers should unman themselves with debauchery instead of risking life for defence of country; if they shun instead of seeking out the enemy; if they consult what is safest and easiest for themselves and not for their country; when they prolong the war that they may the longer live and riot at the nation’s expense; when they do not conscientiously exert all their power to repel the enemy and protect the state; then they “do the work of the Lord deceitfully,” and His curse lights on them as their heavy doom. Let sobriety, public spirit, courage, fidelity, and good discipline be maintained among you.
But, besides soldiers, you are sinners, and candidates for eternity. We may never meet more. You are concerned to save your own souls as well as your country. Surely immorality and debauchery cannot better inspire soldiers with fortitude against the fear of death than prayer and a life of holiness. Such courage must be a brutal stupidity or ferocity, not the rational courage of a man or a Christian.
If free from these vices, negative goodness is not enough to prepare you for death. You must experience Divine grace; become humble penitents and true believers in Jesus Christ; must “live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world.” This is religion, which will inspire and befriend in conflict, and sustain you in death.
God grant you a safe return from the struggle, crowned with the laurels of victory.
But if the defence of our country, in which we can stay but a few years at most, be so important a duty, then how much more are we obliged to “seek a better country, even a heavenly,” and to carry on vigorous war against our spiritual enemies who would rob us of our heavenly inheritance! Therefore, in the Name of “the Captain of our salvation,” I invite you to enlist in the spiritual warfare. “Take to you the whole armour of God; quit you like men; be strong.” And for encouragement, remember, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things,” and enter a kingdom which cannot be shaken or assailed.—Preached to the Militia by President Davies, A.D. 1758.
Jer_48:10-11. Theme: CARNAL SECURITY. “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.”
For a considerable season Moab had been free from the inroads of war and the terrors of pestilence; had, therefore, become so conceitedly secure, that the Lord said, “We have heard the pride of Moab,” &c. (Jer_48:29). The people became vain, hectoring, and boastful, and mocked at their afflicted neighbours the Israelites, manifesting ungenerous joy in their sorrows (Jer_48:27). From this pride sprang luxury and all those other vices which find a convenient lair in the repose of unbroken prosperity. The warriors of Moab said, “We are mighty and strong men for the war;” as vainglorious sinners, they defied all law and power; trusting in Chemosh, they despised Jehovah, and magnified themselves against the Lord. The prophet compares that country to wine which has been allowed to stand unstirred and unmoved: it settles on its lees, grows strong, retains its aroma, and gathers daily fresh body and spirit. “But,” saith he, “the day shall come when God shall shake this undisturbed liquor, when He shall send wandering bands of Chaldeans that shall waste the country, so that the bottles shall be broken and the vessels shall be emptied, and the proud prosperity of Moab shall end in utter desolation.” The unusual repose of Moab had been the envy of the people of Israel, but they might well cease to envy when they understood how suddenly it should be overthrown.
That continued prosperity breeds carnal security is proved by the instance of Moab. In the first place, this is the common mischief of ungodly men; in the second place, this is the frequent danger of the most godly.
I. Carnal security is the common mischief of the unconverted, the godless, the prayerless, the Christless. Many have become like Moab. At ease from your youth, not “emptied from vessel to vessel,” but settled upon your lees, and therefore careless and heedless.
1. This is so common among the ungodly, that the whole world was in this condition immediately before the great Deluge which destroyed the ancient race. We read that “they married and were given in marriage.” They did eat and did drink, and were drunken even until the day when Noah entered into the ark, and the floods came and swept them all away. The preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years warned them that their sins were become intolerable to Heaven, and that vengeance would surely be taken upon their devices, but they laughed the prophet to scorn. The world is so little changed to-day, that if the Lord Jesus Christ should now come, as come He will, “in such an hour as ye think not,” He would find the mass of men still in the same condition. “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” This is the abiding state of the world which lieth in the wicked one: settled on its lees, it is not emptied from vessel to vessel, and therefore it dreams itself into presumptuous peace.
2. But from the world at large to come to particulars.
(1.) The bold offenders who are at ease in open sin. They began life with iniquity, and have made terrible progress in it. These men are not disturbed in their sins; their conscience has been seared as with a hot iron: things which others would tremble at are to them a jest; they make a mock at sin; they play with burning coals of lust and carry fire in their bosom, and boast that they are not burned. These are they of whom David said, “They are not in trouble as other men,” &c. (Psa_73:5). Read yonder handwriting on the wall, O despiser; and this is the interpretation thereof: “Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting; thy joy shall soon be taken from thee, and thy life also, and what shalt thou do in the day when the Lord requireth thy soul?”
(2.) Men who give themselves wholly up to the world’s business. Such men, for instance, as one whom Christ called “Fool.” You know the story: his fields brought forth plenteously, &c. He was a raiser of grain and a hoarder of gold, and nothing more. This is the end and object of the most of mankind. Gain is the world’s summum bonum, the chief of all mortal good, the main chance, the prime object, the barometer of success in life, the one thing needful, the heart’s delight. And yet, O worldlings, Jesus Christ calls you fools. “Thou fool,” said He; and why? Because the man’s soul would be required of him; and then whose would those things be which he had gathered together?
(3.) The man who forgets God and lives in slothful ease. He is like the man who deposited the napkin and the talent in the earth, and was perfectly at his ease—a fair picture, indeed, of many who ought to be serving God; but they think they have little ability, and therefore do not strive even to do what they can. They are not openly sinful; they are quiet, easy-going, good-tempered souls, but the talent, where is it? Buried! Alas! it will have a resurrection, and when it rises, all rusty from that rotting napkin, what a witness will it bear, and how will the Master say, “Thou wicked and slothful servant!” The charge of sloth was quite enough. His doom was swift and terrible. It is not enough to abstain from outward sin, and so to be negatively moral; unless you bring forth fruits unto righteousness, you have not the life of God in you; and however much you may be at ease, there shall come a rough awakening to your slumbers, and the shrill sound of the archangel’s trumpet shall be to you no other than the blast of the trumpet of condemnation, because ye took your ease when ye should have served your God.
(4.) There are many in the professing Christian Church who are in the same state as Moab. At the table of communion they sit with God’s people. Their profession is a very comely one, and their outward conduct exceedingly honourable, yet they lack the inward spiritual grace. They have the virgin’s lamp, but they have no oil in the vessel with their lamps; and yet so comfortable are these professors, that they slumber and sleep. Let not presumption hold you in its deadly embrace. Remember, you may think yourself a believer, and everybody else may think so too, and you may fail to find out your error until it is too late to rectify it. Be ye not, O ye professors, like Moab, that had settled upon his lees!
(5.) The mass of moral men who are destitute of faith in Jesus. They hear of the convictions and troubles of an awakened conscience, and they inwardly sneer at such fanaticism, and boast that they never stooped to such feelings. But those pangs, and throes, and tossings of a wounded conscience are signs of the dawn of spiritual life; it is by such things as these that we are led to put our trust in Jesus; and those who have never felt them may well lament before the Lord, and pray that they may experience them—that they may be brought soundly and safely out of their self-righteousness, and led to rest upon the finished work of the dear Redeemer. Better to suffer a present disturbance which will end in life, than enjoy the ease which is itself a protracted death. God give you to be saved through Jesus Christ!
II. Carnal security is the frequent danger of the most godly. A Christian may fall into a state of carnal security, in which he grows self-confident, insensible, careless, inactive, and worldly. The great disease of England is consumption, but I suppose it would be difficult to describe the causes and workings of consumption and decline. The same kind of disease is common among Christians. It is not that many Christians fall into outward sin, and so on, but throughout our Churches we have scores who are in a spiritual consumption—their powers are all feeble and decaying. They have an unusually bright eye—can see other people’s faults exceedingly well—and sometimes they have a flush on their cheeks which looks very like burning zeal and eminent spiritual life, but it is occasional and superficial. Vital energy is at a low ebb: they do not work for God like genuinely healthy workmen; the heart does not beat with a throb moving the entire man; they go slumbering on, in the right road it is true, out loitering in it.
1. The rapid results of this consumption are just these: A man in such a state soon gives up communion with God. His walk with God is broken and occasional. His prayers very soon suffer. By degrees his conversation ceases to be earnest for Christ. And now, strange to say, “The minister does not preach as he used to do;” at least the backslider says so. The reason is, that now there is little savour about the Word to him. Hymns which used to be delightful for their melody now pall upon his ears; while the prayers in which he used to join with so much fervency are very flat to him now. Very much of this sluggishness is brought on by long-continued respite from trouble.
“More the treacherous calm I dread
Than tempests rolling overhead.”
2. The great secret danger coming out of all this is, that when a man reaches the state of carnal security he is ready for any evil. If the history of great offenders could be traced, it would be very much like this: they began well, but they slackened by degrees, till at last they were ripe for foul sin. Who would think that David, the man after God’s own heart, should come to be the murderer of his friend Uriah, to rob him of his wife? O David! art thou so near to heaven and yet so near to hell? There is a David in every one of our hearts, and if we begin to backslide from God, we do not know to what extent we may slip.
3. God’s cure for this malady. His usual way is by pouring our settled wine from vessel to vessel. If we cannot bear prosperity, the Lord will not continue it to us. Have you never dreamed that you were trying to walk and could not? You felt as though you could not move a foot—some one was about to overtake you who would do you serious mischief, and you longed to run and could not stir an inch. That is the state of mind in which we get when we would but cannot pray, when we would but cannot repent, when we want to believe and cannot, when we would give a world for one single tear, would almost pawn our souls to obtain a quiver of spiritual feeling, but were insensible still:—
“If aught is felt, ’tis only pain
To find ‘I cannot feel.’ ”
Do you ever sink into that petrified condition? Can you be its victim and yet be happy? Betake yourself to earnest prayer. It will need God within us to keep us from such a tremendous peril.
See Addenda: TROUBLES REVIVE US.
4. What ought we to do if we are prospering? If God is prospering us, the way to prevent lethargy is—be very grateful for the prosperity which you are enjoying; do not pray for trouble—you will have it quickly enough without asking for it; be grateful for your prosperity, but make use of it. Do all you possibly can for God while He prospers you in business; try to live very closely to Him. Watch the very first symptoms of declining, and fly to Christ, the Great Physician. He will give you the balm of Gilead which will prevent the mischief, and you may bear the heats of prosperity as safely as the chill blasts of adversity.
But if you have fallen into such a state, the one cure is the Holy Spirit. Go to the cross of Christ again. Christian, if you have fallen from your first estate, go as you hope you went at first; go with your deadness, and sloth, and lethargy, and put your trust in the precious blood, and ask the Lord Jesus to fill you with the Spirit once again, that you may be renewed. Try to get a due estimate of your indebtedness to God’s grace; try to see the danger of your lethargy; think more of eternity and less of time. Rend yourself away a little from your worldly engagements, if possible; put away your fancied security, and by strong crying and tears turn again to your former state of nearness to the living God.
Owing Thee so much, O Jesus! may we love Thee much in return, and be found faithful when Thou shalt come to reward Thy people and to be glorified in Thy saints. Amen.—C. H. Spurgeon, A.D. 1867.
Jer_48:11. Theme: INDIFFERENCE TO ETERNAL REALITIES. “Moab hath been at ease from his youth.”
I. True of men in the prime of life or in the decay of old age. The high-born, cradled in luxury, &c. No concern as to things temporal or spiritual. “Soul, take thine ease,” &c.
Multitudes of men of business and toilers in all grades of social life have “been at ease from their youth” touching their eternal interests. Conscience seared; no heed of the momentous truths of revelation.
II. Deplorable to see men “at ease” in the condition in which sin has placed them and the Gospel finds them. That condition is one of guilt and condemnation. In this condition the Gospel comes with declaration of free remission of all their sins through faith in Jesus Christ; yet states that, rejecting Christ’s grace, the soul must die!
Guilt and condemnation are, therefore, increased when the Gospel is rejected; and yet men, despising salvation, are “at ease.”
III. Apathy so serious, so appalling, calls for explanation. For men to be easy under condemnation, surely it bespeaks Satan’s influence exerted on mind and heart (2Co_4:3-4).
The explanation therefore of this ease and indifference is supernatural “blindness.” Danger seen or apprehended destroys thoughtless ease and stoical apathy. No sooner is a soul enlightened to its state and peril than the distressed cry rises, “What must I do to be saved?”
IV. Peace can be found only in Jesus. It is a peace solid, substantial, and abiding—the fruit of faith. Far different from the stolidity of Moab. Yet this divinely-given peace is not mere quietude. For the soul is aroused, active, earnest.
V. Under the very sound of the Gospel souls “sit at ease.” The call is addressed, “Awake, thou that sleepest,” &c., but they remain in death-like torpor. The warning, “Flee from the wrath to come!” is given, but they treat it as a false alarm. The invitation is presented, “Come unto Me,” but they turn aside.
God regards such with special anger: “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” They slight not the word of man, but of God. “I have called, but ye refused,” &c. (Pro_1:24; Pro_1:26).
Careless souls, rouse from your torpor.
Why cry “Peace, peace! when there is no peace”?—Pledge’s “Walks with Jeremiah.”
Comments.—Jer_48:12. “I WILL SEND UNTO HIM WANDERERS,” &c., lit., “tilters, who shall tilt him up and empty his vessels,” i.e., the Chaldeans, who would remove Moab from his settlements. “His vessels” are the cities of Moab. The “broken bottles” or pitchers alludes to smaller receptacles as well as the larger vessels, and suggests the destruction of “everything that has contained the wine of her political life, both small and great.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer_48:13. “ISRAEL WAS ASHAMED OF BETHEL.” Israel had trusted in the calf-deity worshipped at Bethel (1Ki_12:27; 1Ki_12:29; Hos_10:15; Amo_3:14; Amo_5:5-6; Amo_7:13), but Shalmanezer’s conquest had put their trust to “shame.” Even so would Moab become “ashamed” of Chemosh, their hope in his protection being refuted.
Jer_48:15. “HIS CHOSEN YOUNG MEN ARE GONE DOWN TO THE SLAUGHTER.” A text suitable for sermon on occasion of CALAMITY BEFALLING YOUNG MEN, or upon the theme SIN’S DESTRUCTIVE ACTION UPON THE YOUNG.
I. How appalling are the ravages of calamity or sin! “Gone down to the slaughter.”
II. How unsuspecting is youth of perils and destruction! “Young men are gone down,” not dreaming of the dire issue of their course.
III. How pitiless is evil to the preciousness of youth! Slaughters even “chosen young men!” i.e., “the choice ones of his young men.”
IV. How urgently should the young regard the warnings of danger! It was impossible for these “young men” to escape “slaughter” in going down to face the invincible Chaldeans. “Young men” may deem themselves strong—may scorn the perils which others see for them, and of which they warn them—but the world is full of dangers to youth!
Observe that this admonition of coming doom to the reckless young men is spoken by “the KING whose name is the LORD of hosts.”
Jer_48:16. “CALAMITY IS NEAR TO COME, AND AFFLICTION HASTETH FAST.” “Near” to the prophet’s eye, although twenty-three years elapsed between the fourth year of Jehoiakim (when this prophecy was uttered) and the fifth year after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem (when this prophecy was fulfilled).
I. God’s warnings give time for preparation.
II. Justice, though slow, yet surely moves onward.
III. God’s hand lingers to deal the fatal blow so long as there is possibility of amendment.
Jer_48:17. Theme: BEMOANING THE SINNER’S DOOM. “All human glory is turned to shame, whether one glorify himself, as (according to Jer_48:14) Moab had done—to which the destruction of all his warlike power stands in strong contrast (Jer_48:15)—or good friends and neighbours praise us; for these may early and easily find occasion (Jer_48:16) to turn their song of praise into a lamentation.”—Naeg.
“Bemoan”—not that Moab deserved pity, but this mode of expression pictures more vividly the grievousness of Moab’s calamities.—Jamieson.
“Know his name”—peoples at a distance who had heard his name.
“Strong staff”—metaphorical of Moab’s power, other nations having been oppressed and terrified thereby (Isa_9:4; Isa_14:4-5).
“Beautiful rod”—the splendour of the Moabite kingdom (Psa_110:2; Isa_14:29; Eze_19:11-12; Eze_19:14).
I. Human greatness brought to ruin. Fame reversed. Dignity humiliated. Wealth lost. Influence forfeited. Virtue squandered. Noble powers prostituted. Fair promises of piety falsified. Precious character degraded. Immortal soul lost. Oh, the wrecks of human greatness! Oh, the irretrievable loss of human purity! Oh, the eternal doom of impenitent souls!
II. A sinner’s ruin helplessly bewailed.
1. Friends, near and afar, those “about him,” and those “who know his name,” intimate friends and more remote acquaintances, can do nothing but lament! Cannot help, yet can weep.
2. The ruin of a noble life is indeed cause for bemoaning. Who can tell the woe of the lost, the “weeping and gnashing of teeth”!
III. Outward glory utterly desolated.
1. Strength (“strong staff”) and beauty (“beautiful rod”) win men’s recognition and praise.
2. Outward virtues (physical and extrinsic) do not prove the possession of intrinsic worth of character and spirit.
3. External virtues are valueless to God without piety.
4. Men’s admiration and praise will not save a soul.
Jer_48:19. Theme: THE FATE OF OTHERS A WARNING TO US. “Stand by the way and espy; ask him that fleeth and her that escapeth, What is done?”
The pillar of salt on the plains of Sodom was a warning to individual sinners. Buried Nineveh is a monumental admonition to godless nations. Wretched homes around us show the woe consequent upon guilty indulgences. Embittered lives testify of the miseries of iniquity, the delusion of the world’s seductions, the falsity of sin’s pleasure, that “it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against God.”
I. Admonitions are offered by the careers others pursue.
II. An observant eye will discern the consequences of wrong.
III. Miseries befalling others warn us to shun the cause.
IV. God writes lessons upon the lives men live that we may be wise.
V. Attention to human history proves the woe of ungodliness.
VI. Men need salvation from themselves—from their sins, which work their ruin; from their self-glorying, which shuts away the gracious help of God and the saving power of Christ.
Stand in the “public way” and see what sermons the careers of men preach; “ask” individual sinners of the consequences of their indulgences and their impiety; then beware! See Psalms 1.
Jer_48:27. Theme: DERISION OF GOD’S PEOPLE AVENGED. Moab had exulted formerly over the calamity which befel the ten tribes (2Ki_17:6) under the Assyrian Shalmanezer (Isa_15:6); now Moab rejoices over the fall of Judah under the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar.
I. God takes up His people’s cause as His own. See Oba_1:10; Oba_1:13. He feels what they endure.
II. Wrong charges against the godly refuted by God Himself. Jehovah demands the justification of Moab’s derision. What had Israel done to deserve it? Was he detected in nefarious conduct? had he consorted with evil conspirators? “Was Israel found among thieves?” See Zec_3:2.
III. Retribution comes back to evildoers in kind. “Moab also shall be in derision” (Jer_48:26). He in his disaster shall be a derision to Israel. Oh, when sinners are overthrown in awful judgment at the end of the world, how will the saints of God have cause to chide and scorn them for their proud contempt of those whom God loved! See Moses’ song over the defeated host of Pharaoh, Exodus 15; also Israel’s exultation over Babel as “Lucifer,” Isa_14:4-17; also the Church’s rejoicing over Satan’s fall, Rev_12:9-12; and the true Church of Christ over the apostate Church of Rome, Rev_18:1-20.
Even so shall God have scorners in derision when calamity overtakes them. See Pro_1:26-30. “I will laugh at your calamity,” &c.
Jer_48:28. Theme: A ROCK FOR SAFE HIDING. “Dwell in the rock, and be like the dove.”
Text part of prophecy concerning the overthrow and desolation of Moab. Yet she is warned to escape the impending danger, and shelter herself in the mountain fastnesses where the sword could not reach them.
I. Admire the compassion God displays.
1. He warns before He smites.
2. He provides a shelter before the storm bursts.
3. He shows solicitude for those who disregard their own safety.
II. Accept the security God provides.
1. Distrust the safety which the world offers. “Leave the cities.”
2. Dream of no security away from Christ. “Dwell in the Rock.”
3. Hide in Him amid lowering storms. “Come, my people, hide thyself as it were for a little moment,” &c., Isa_26:20.
4. Fear no future crisis when safe in Him. Not death, nor the glorious return of Christ, &c.
III. Avoid the sins God condemns.
1. Apathy and heedlessness. “Moab at ease from his youth” (Jer_48:11). Light thoughts of sin. Careless of God’s warnings.
2. Self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. “Heard of the pride of Moab,” &c. (Jer_48:29).
3. Procrastination and delay. “Calamity is near” (Jer_48:16).
IV. Announce the tidings God declares.
1. To those terrified by apprehensions. Let them know there is a “Rock” for safe hiding.
2. To those beguiled by false securities. Urge them to “leave the cities” which they imagine safe.
3. To those loitering amid gathering perils. It is wise to seek Christ at once, and hide in Him.
4. To those unsteady in their religious habits. “Dwell in the Rock”—constantly, contentedly; and “be like the dove that maketh her nest”—“Rest in the Lord.”
Jer_48:28. Theme: FLEEING FOR REFUGE. “Oh, ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the Rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest by the side of the hole’s mouth.”
The uniformity of the principles of Divine government in providence and grace. It was an important part of the duty of the prophets to foretell the overthrow of those kingdoms which opposed the Church of God. It was a source of consolation that the empires that persecuted the Church should themselves be finally swept from earth, that the way might be made smooth for the coming of Christ—“the glory of His people Israel.”
This prophecy was fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar, and the destruction of the chief cities of Moab took place, as Josephus says, five years after the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. That conqueror not only burnt the Temple of God, but poured the tide of his desolation and conquests over the neighbour nations, and Moab among the number. But when pursuing his own gigantic and ambitious designs, he little thought that he was accomplishing prophecies of which he had never heard—just as Herod and Pilate, in the Crucifixion of Christ, only fulfilled what “God’s own hand and counsel before determined to be done.”
I. The parties addressed. Learn the compassion of God to the chief of sinners. The inhabitants of Moab, whose calamity is foretold with so much compassion and tenderness; which teaches us that God exercises a gracious solicitude not only for friends but for enemies. For Moab was not a neutral state, but a hostile one—always in enmity and arms against the Church of God. Their country closely bordered upon the Holy Land.
But though such near neighbours and closely allied in blood, the Moabites were bitter enemies to the people of God. When Israel came from Egypt, Moab met them with no provision, and refused them a passage through their country. They hired Balaam to curse; they fought bloody battles with them; they held Israel in bondage in time of the Judges eighteen years; they rebelled against Israel under Ahab; they warred against Judah under Jehoshaphat; and when the ten tribes were led into captivity by Sennacherib, they mocked their miseries and danced for joy. “For was not Israel a derision to thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him thou skippest for joy.” Yet Israel mourns their overthrow, and God here gives instruction and warning for their guidance—that they should escape the cities and enter the Rock.
1. Learn, then, that God warns before He strikes, and follows the wicked with warning upon warning and entreaty upon entreaty. Did He not forewarn the men of the old world one hundred and twenty years before the Deluge came on? Did He not wait till the iniquity of the Amorites was full before He swept them away? Did He not raise a long succession of prophets to foretell the destruction of Jerusalem? and is not Moab here warned of the approaching desolation? Was it not for rebellious sinners that God gave His own Son to die? Did not Jesus weep over Jerusalem? Is it not true that “God willeth not the death of a sinner”? Yet it is over these warnings and hindrances you pass on to destruction.
2. The loss of a single soul is an object of mourning to the Church of God, as the conversion of one sinner gives joy in heaven. What a harvest is burnt upon the ground! What a vintage is destroyed! “O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee” (Jer_48:32). Where are the tears fit to be wept?
II. The direction given. Heed the dangers of false security. “Leave the cities and dwell in the Rock.”
In like manner God provides the refuge we need in the Gospel. He guards us against the evils of a fancied security; and would have us forsake all false refuges and enter the true. “A man shall be a hiding-place from the wind.” “By two immutable things,” &c., “we have strong consolation who fled for refuge.”
This affords an argument for hope and security to the righteous. If He show so much care and sympathy for enemies, how much more will He guard and bless His friends? If He find food for the raven, a shelter for the wild dove, and the shadow of a great Rock for guilty Moab, will He neglect His own children in their calamities, and leave them forsaken and shelterless under the storms of life? Did He not provide succour for Naomi in Moab itself? Did not the angel supply Elijah with food at Horeb? Was not David preserved against the persecutions of Saul? Were not Hagar and Ishmael preserved for Abraham’s sake? Better to be God’s outcasts than the world’s favourites. A portion with God’s people is better than the best portion of the world. “Their rock is not as our Rock,” &c. (Deu_32:31).
The cities were of man’s building; the Rock was of God’s providing; and David wisely said, “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”
This accords with all analogy. God furnishes relief, and finds the means of protection and shelter to all beings. No creature but is furnished with means of security and defence. He wings the angel, guides the sparrow, directs the young lion to its prey, and hears the ravens when they cry.
The weakest creatures have often the strongest shelters. The vine stays on the elm; the ivy clings to the tower; the worm hides itself in the sure and firm-set earth; the dove flies to the rock; and man seeks and finds his refuge in God. In religion the extremes of being meet. Human weakness and Divine strength; human folly and Divine wisdom; human insufficiency, Divine all-sufficiency.
III. The faith and trust to be exercised. “Be like the dove.” The doves and wild pigeons in the East delight in cool and inaccessible places. They build their nests in cliffs and caverns overhanging fearful precipices, especially in clefts of the rock where the adventurous foot of man cannot tread. This is referred to by Homer, who tells us that, when frighted by the fowler, or by birds and beasts of prey, they are seen “flying on the wings of fear to their hiding-place in the rocks.” Voltaire says that Solomon makes him better acquainted with the customs of the East than Homer himself does. “Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs; let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice: for sweet is thy voice.”
We can scarcely have a more beautiful description of the simple exercise of faith and dependence than this image supplies. Flying to the rock and resting there. The poor dove has no weapons of defence. She does not stay to fight with the vulture or contend with the fowler, but, relying on the swiftness of her wings, hastens to the rock, assured that once there she shall be safe.
Faith is the eye that discerns Christ, the hand that grasps Christ, the wing that flies to Christ.
The constancy of our trust and dependence. “Dwell in the Rock.” It is not her place of shelter merely, but of permanent abode. “He that DWELLETH in the secret place.” “That Christ may DWELL.” “Arise, go to Bethel, and DWELL there.”
IV. The infatuation to be deplored.
1. Pride and self-sufficiency. “We have heard of the pride of Moab.” Everybody had—mentioned six times in this chapter. It is the distinction of impious men to have a hard heart under softening providences, and a proud heart under humbling ones.
2. Beware of idolatry and creature confidence (Jer_48:35).
3. Beware of procrastination and delay; of despairing of mercy.—Rev. S. Thodey (1856).
Jer_48:29. Theme: VAUNTINGS OF PRIDE. “We have heard of the pride of Moab (he is exceeding proud),” &c.
I. Pride is the trumpeter of its own fame. “We have heard,” &c. Proud people cannot rest unnoticed; they will “sound a trumpet before themselves”—as did the Pharisees—and make men know that they really do exist, and are of great consequence in the world.
“Pride is his own glass, his
own trumpet, his own chronicle.”—Shakespeare.
“What is pride? A whizzing rocket,
That would emulate a star.”—Wordsworth.
II. Pride has its grades of inflated grandeur. “He is exceeding proud.” There are higher heights of vanity, as there are lower depths of infamy.
“Whatever sort beside
You take in lieu, shun spiritual pride!
A pride there is of rank, a pride of birth,
A pride of learning, and a pride of purse;
A London pride—in short, there be on earth
A host of prides, some better and some worse;
But of all prides, since Lucifer attaint,
The proudest swells a self-elected saint.”
—Hood.
III. Pride manifests itself in numerous varieties of form. “Loftiness, arrogancy, pride, haughtiness.” In manner and bearing—conceited: “loftiness.” In imperious and unreasonable exactions of attention and homage—ostentatious: “arrogancy.” In habitual estimates of self as compared with others—inflated: “pride.” In feelings of indifference to and contempt for inferiors—cruel: “haughtiness.”
There is a pride of feeling, of speech, of action; a pride of possessions, and a subtler pride of profession [to be or to have what is false]; a pride of goodness, of greatness, and even of godliness.
IV. Pride has its seat in a haughty heart. “The haughtiness of his heart.” For “out of the heart proceedeth” every deformity. If a man’s own heart could settle the question of his personal importance, each one of us would be too big for the world.
When Severus, emperor of Rome, found his end approaching, he cried out, “I have been everything, and everything is nothing!” Then ordering the urn to be brought to him in which his ashes were to be enclosed, he said, “Little urn, thou shalt contain one for whom, the world was too little.”
But the “heart is deceitful;” and “whoso trusteth to his own heart is a fool.”
“Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.”
—Pope.
V. Pride provokes the scornful notice of God.
“I know his wrath” [or insolence], “saith the Lord.” And God hates pride and hot arrogance. Because of pride Nebuchadnezzar was thrust from men’s society, Saul was cast from his kingdom, Adam was driven from Paradise, Haman was expelled from court, and Lucifer hurled out of heaven.
VI. Pride meets at length its degradation and defeat
“But it shall not be so; his lies shall not effect it;” i.e., all his brawlings are emptiness and fallacies. God will bring to nought the plans of arrogant Moab, and lay his pride low in contempt.
“A proud heart and a lofty mountain are never fruitful.”—Gurnall.
“As the first step heavenward is humility, so the first step hellward is pride. Pride counts the Gospel foolish, but the Gospel always shows pride to be so.”—Mason.
“His heart is black with pride.
He for himself hell’s gate has opened wide,
For, weighed in God the All-Sufficient’s scale,
Not claims nor righteousness or men avail:
But these are costly in His sight indeed,—
Repentance, contrite shame, and sense of need.”
—Oriental, tr. by Trench.
Jeremiah adds to Isaiah’s words descriptive of Moab’s pride (comp. Isa_16:6) other terms, indicating that the chastisement inflicted on Moab for his former arrogance against Israel had not lessened his pride; he was even more “lofty and arrogant;” therefore now his sentence of doom is weighted with heavier penalties.
Comments.
Jer_48:32-33. “O vine of Sibmah,” &c.
“So great was the general joy inspired by the vintage, that its cessation was one of the punishments denounced against Moab.”—Topics for Teachers.
“Their shouting shall be no shouting:” for warriors shall tread down Moab in the battle-field, and change the joyous shoutings of vintners into the agonised cry of alarm.
Jer_48:40. “He shall fly as an eagle,” i.e., the Babylonian conqueror. Points of analogy:—i. The rapidity with which the eagle rushes on its prey. (See Hab_1:8; 2Sa_1:23; Lam_4:19.) ii. Its peculiar habit of expanding its wings (see chap. Jer_49:22), suggesting the spreading out of the Chaldean forces.
Jer_48:42. “Destroyed … because he hath magnified himself.”
i. SELF-EXALTATION often impresses beholders with its show of pomp, power, and permanence.
ii. SELF-EXALTATION AGAINST GOD provokes His swift indignation and ultimate overthrow.
iii. SELF-EXALTATION therefore is but ANOTHER FORM OF SELF-DESTRUCTION. They who “magnify themselves against the Lord” do thereby seal their sure doom, for they alienate God’s grace and invoke God’s justice. (See Addenda: SELF-ESTEEM.)
Jer_48:45. “A fire shall come forth out of Heshbon.” Not only will Ammon (of which Heshbon was the capital) refuse aid to Moab, but her ruin would start from thence. Historically it occurred that the Ammonites were conquered before the Moabites; and Nebuchadnezzar formed the plan of his campaign against Moab in Heshbon (Jer_48:2). Jeremiah here fitly appropriates and uses part of an old Mosaic triumphal poem (Num_21:27), made on Sihon’s conquests over Moab. For Nebuchadnezzar would issue “as a flame from the midst of Sihon,” just as formerly the Amorites had done.
Jer_48:47. “Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab.” Josephus records how the Moabites were afterwards restored to their country (Antiq., xiii. 13, §5, 14, § 2, &c.), though never to their former political importance.
Notes.—i. Moab is the SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THOSE ENEMIES OF
GOD’S CHURCH who are characterised by carnal strength, lustful passion, unholy haughtiness, sensual and cruel violence.—Wordsworth.
ii. Moab’s restoration typifies and predicts GOSPEL BLESSINGS, temporal and spiritual, FOR THE GENTILES “in the latter days.”
ADDENDA TO CHAP. 48: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_48:11. Troubles revive us. Staying for a while in the valley of Aosta, in Northern Italy, we found the air to be heavy, close, and humid with pestilential exhalations. We were oppressed and feverish—one’s life did not seem worth a pin. We could not breathe freely, our lungs had a sense of having a hundred atmospheres piled upon them. Presently, at midday, there came a thunder-clap, attended by big drops of rain and a stiff gale of wind, which grew into a perfect tornado, tearing down the trees; then followed what the poet calls “sonorous hail,” and then again the lightning flash, and the thunder peal on peal echoing along the Alps. But how delightful was the effect! How we all went out upon the verandah to look at the lightning and enjoy the music of the thunder! How cool the air and bracing! How delightful to walk out in the cool evening after the storm! Then you could breathe and feel a joy in life. Full often it is thus with the Christian after trouble. He has grown to be careless, lethargic, feverish, heavy, and ready to die, and just then he has been assailed by trouble, thundering threatenings have rolled from God’s mouth, flashes of lightning have darted from Providence: the property vanished, the wife died, the children were buried, trouble followed trouble, and then the man has turned to God, and though his face was wet with tears of repentance, yet he has felt his spirit to be remarkably restored. When he goes up to the house of God, it is far more sweet to hear the Word than aforetime. He could not pray before, but now he leans his head on Jesus’ bosom and pours out his soul in fellowship. Eternity now exerts its heavenly attractions, and the man is saved from himself.—Spurgeon.
Jer_48:42. Self-esteem.
“Beware of too sublime a sense
Of your own worth and consequence.
The man who deems himself so great,
And his importance of such weight,
That all around, in all that’s done,
Must work and act for him alone,
Will learn in school of tribulation,
The folly of his expectation.”
—Cowper
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The principle that underlies the text is this: that…
Jer 48:11
The principle that underlies the text is this: that we require to be unsettled in life by many changes and interruptions of adversity, in order to be most effectually loosened from our own wills, and prepared to do the will and work of God.
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Observe:—
I. How God manages, on a large scale, in the common matters of life, to keep us in a process of change, and prevent our lapsing into a state of security, such as we desire. Nature herself conspires to loosen all our calculations—meeting us with her frosts, her blastings, her droughts, her storms, her fevers; and forbidding us ever to be sure of that for which we labour. The very scheme of life appears to be itself a grand decanting process, where change follows change, and all are emptied from vessel to vessel.
II. The radical evil of human character, as being under sin, consists in a determination to have our own way; which determination must be somehow reduced and extirpated. Sin is but another name for self-direction. If we could stand on our lees, in continual peace and serenity—if success were made secure, subject to no change or surprise—what, on the other hand, should we do more certainly than stay by our evil mind, and take it as a matter of course that our will is to be done; the very thing above all others of which we most need to be cured?
III. Consider the fact that our evils are generally hidden from us till they are discovered to us by some kind of adversity. If God should let us be as Moab from our youth, then we should be as Moab in the loss of all valuable improvement.
IV. It is another point of advantage in the changes and surprises through which we are continually passing, that we are prepared, in this manner, for gracious and refining work of the Spirit in us.
V. Great quiet and security, long continued, are likely to allow the reaction or the recovered power of our old sins, and must not therefore be suffered. As the wine, standing on its dregs or lees contracts a taste from the lees, and must, therefore, be decanted or drawn off; so we, in like manner, need to be separated from everything appertaining to the former life, to be broken up in our expectations, and loosened from the affinities of our former habit.
H. Bushnell, The New Life, p. 392.
We may lay it down as a principle of universal application that a man needs to be frequently disturbed and displaced by the dispensations of God’s providence, if he would grow in all the elements of that greatness which consists in holiness. To remain "at ease," to "settle on the lees," is fatal to spiritual advancement.
I. Consider what there is in these "emptyings" that fits them to promote our spiritual advancement. (1) It is obvious that such dispensations have in them an influence which is well calculated to reveal us to ourselves. It was a shrewd remark of Andrew Fuller, that "a man has only as much religion as he can command in the day of trial;" and if he have no religion at all, his trouble will make that manifest to him. (2) The frequent unsettlements which come upon us in God’s providence have a tendency to shake us out of ourselves. The essence of sin is self-preference. We will take our own way rather than God’s. We will make our own plans, as if only ourselves were to be consulted. Now, what a corrective to this idolatry of self is administered by these providential dispensations, which, coming as all such things do, unexpectedly, unsettle all our engagements, disarrange all our plans, and disappoint all our calculations. By many bitter failures we are made to acknowledge that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," and then by the Spirit of God we are led up to confidence in Jehovah. (3) These frequent unsettlements have a tendency to keep us from being wedded to the world, or from thinking of rooting ourselves permanently here.
II. Notice the particular qualities of character which providential unsettlements are most calculated to foster. (1) Purity of motive and conduct. (2) Strength either for endurance or action. (3) Sympathy and charity.
W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, p. 358.
References: Jer 48:11, Jer 48:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 761. Jer 48:28.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 75. Jer 49:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1085. Jer 49:23.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 253; J. B. Heard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 241.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Against Moab
Against Moab
Moab, in recompense for its pride and security, and for its triumphing over Israel in the day of her calamity, shall itself be laid waste and taken captive: cp. the 'burden of Moab 'in Isaiah 15, 16.
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1. Nebo] not the mountain, but the Reubenite town (Num_32:38), which had been annexed by Mesha, king of Moab (about 895 b.c.), according to the 'Moabite Stone 'records. Several places mentioned in this chapter have not been certainly identified.
2. Heshbon] an Ammonite town on the border of Moab, where the Chaldean invaders would lay their final plans. Madmen] a place unknown.
5. RV 'For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up.'
6. The heath] see on Jer_17:6.
7. Chemosh] the god of Moab's national worship.
8. The valley] of Jordan, bounding part of Moab on the W.
10. Deceitfully] RV 'negligently.'Moab's foe must not be slack in executing God's command.
11. Settled on his lees] i.e. like wine which has remained undisturbed and not lost its flavour. Lees means sediment. Moab had retained its strength, but it was not to last.
12. Wanderers, that shall cause him to wander] RV 'them that pour off, and they shall pour him off.'The figure of jars of wine is continued. They are emptied by being tilted on one side, an operation that was performed slowly and carefully, that the jars might be safe and the wine run off clear, while the sediment was left. This work, however, in the case of Moab, shall be done roughly.
13. Bethel] the southern seat of the idolatrous worship introduced by Jeroboam (1Ki_12:29).
15. And gone up out of her cities] RM 'and her cities are gone up in smoke?
18. Come down] Dibon stands on two hills.
25. Horn] symbol of strength and pride.
27. Was he found among thieves] that he merited such treatment. Since] RV 'as often as.'
30. But, etc.] RV 'that it is nought; his boastings have wrought nothing.'
32. Cp. Isa_16:8, Isa_16:9. with] RV 'with more than.' Plants] RV 'branches.'Sibmah seems to have been famous for its vineyards. Over the sea] as far as the W. shore of the Dead Sea. Jazer] N. of Heshbon. Near its ruins are two large ponds.
33. Their shouting, etc.] The vintage shout shall be changed to the cry of panic.
36. Pipes] They were used at funerals, so that the word is appropriate to express mourning.
37. All shall have the usual emblems of mourning: cp. Jer_47:5.
38. Vessel] see on Jer_22:28.
40. He shall fly] i.e. the Chaldean power.
45. They that fled.. force] RV 'They that fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon.'While the fugitives of Moab wait in hope of aid under the walls of the Ammonite city, there bursts forth from it a flame kindled by the Chaldean foe like that which in old days was kindled at the same place by Sihon, the Amorite conqueror (Num_21:28).
Tumultuous ones] the fugitives.
47. For the note of comfort at the end of the prophecy cp. Jer_46:26; Jer_49:6-39.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v7 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trusted
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Concerning Moab
CHAPTER 48
Concerning Moab
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1. The overthrow of Moab (Jer 48:1-10)
2. The humiliation of Moab (Jer 48:11-19)
3. Reaping what they sowed (Jer 48:20-28)
4. Destroyed on account of its pride (Jer 48:29-47)
With these divisions the chapter may be studied in detail. Moab was of incestuous off spring Gen 19:37. Israel is now exhorted to flee and save itself because Moab is to be destroyed. Moab’s national deity was Chemosh, who was also worshipped by the sister nation, the Ammonites. Chemosh was probably the same as Molech. He is now to go forth into captivity with his priests and princes. On Jer 48:10 critics say: “This bloodthirsty verse is surely not Jeremiah’s.” But they forget that the whole prophecy is introduced with, “Thus saith the LORD,” and the critic’s knife, which cuts out certain verses from this chapter, mutilates the Word of God. There is no valid reason to brand this and other verses as the work of some supplementer.
The chief places of Moab are mentioned. “The horn of Moab (horn the emblem of power) is cut off and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.” And why this judgment? “For he has magnified himself against the LORD.” They were filled with pride, yea, they were exceedingly proud. The Lord speaks of it thus: “His loftiness and his arrogancy and his pride and his haughtiness of heart.” How God detests pride! In both Testaments it is marked out as the great abomination in the sight of God. Filled with pride and haughtiness, they derided Israel, God’s people; whenever Israel was mentioned “they skipped for joy” (verse 27). Of Jer 48:28 and Jer 48:29, critics declare that they are mostly derived from Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14. These two chapters contain a similar prophecy about Moab, but these utterances by Jeremiah are not copied from Isaiah, but are a divine repetition of the coming judgment of that people. “Woe be unto thee Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth! for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captive.” This is the final word in this predicted judgment of Moab. And thus Moab was broken.
The last verse speaks of a territorial restoration of Moab, not of a restitution of that wicked generation, as some teach. We do not know where a remnant of Moab is today, to possess in millennial times their former land; nor do we know how the Lord is going to accomplish it. But we know He will fulfill His own Word and we do not need to invent some scheme of how it will be done.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 16, 36 The Coming Devastation of Moab Described
The Coming Devastation of Moab Described
v. 1. Against Moab. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Woe unto Nebo! an important city in Southwestern Moabitis. For it is spoiled, laid waste by the enemies; Kiriathaim, another ancient city of the country, is confounded and taken; Misgab, literally, "the citadel," probably Kir-Moab, the strongest fort of the Moabites, or a general expression denoting the overthrow of Moab’s power, is confounded and dismayed.
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v. 2. There shall be no more praise of Moab, literally, "Not is there any more boasting of Moab," that is, Moab no longer has cause for praising herself; in Heshbon they have devised evil against it, this ancient capital of the Amorites, almost directly opposite Jericho, being in the hands of the invaders, who were there making plans for further humiliating Moab, Come and let us cut it off from being a nation! Moab, although repeatedly tributary to the kingdom of Israel, especially under David and Solomon, nevertheless retained its national organization and finally regained its independence, even to the extent of joining in an attack on Judah. But this glory would now be definitely ended. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen, another city of Moab; the sword shall pursue thee, to bring slaughter and destruction to its inhabitants.
v. 3. A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, a village east of the Dead Sea, spoiling and great destruction, the town sinking into ruins.
v. 4. Moab, that is, Ar-Moab, the ancient capital of the land, is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard, her citizens giving voice to the distress which they felt.
v. 5. For in the going up of Luhith, a town in the hilly section south of the Arnon, continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim, which lay in the plain, the enemies have heard a cry of destruction. As the enemy advances from the north, the inhabitants of Moab, weeping bitterly over the devastation of their cities, flee over the heights of Luhith and down the long incline toward Horonaim to save their lives if possible.
v. 6. Flee! so the cry goes forth to them, save your lives and be like the heath in the wilderness, like forsaken ones, like those stripped of everything out in the desert, that being Moab’s eventual lot.
v. 7. For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, in her successful undertakings and the wealth which she had thereby amassed, thou shalt also be taken, the land subdued and its inhabitants led away into captivity; and Chemosh, the chief idol of the Moabites, worshiped chiefly as the god of war, shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together, both the spiritual and the temporal rulers of the country included in the judgment of Jehovah.
v. 8. And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape, all of them being doomed to ruin and their inhabitants to slaughter and captivity; the valley also shall perish, that is, the inhabitants of the lowlands near the Jordan, and the plain shall be destroyed, the plateau which extended from the Arnon toward the north and northeast beyond what had been Rabbath-Ammon, as the Lord hath spoken.
v. 9. Give wings unto Moab that it may flee and get away, on account of the suddenness of the calamity which was threatening; for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein.
v. 10. Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, being negligent in carrying out the judgment of God upon Moab, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood, the invader charged with the slaughter of Moab.
v. 11. Moab hath been at ease from his youth, never really having suffered the reverses which fell to the lot of some other nations, and he hath settled on his lees, like poor wine which turns to vinegar after long standing, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity. Because the people of Moab had not suffered the calamities which befell some other nations because they had not been tried out by repeated exiles, their character had become harsh and supercilious. Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed, his bearing toward other nations, and particularly against the children of Israel, had remained the same throughout the centuries.
v. 12. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto him wanderers, literally, "pourers-out," the Hebrew word being used of men who handled wine-kegs and skins, especially in transferring or transfusing wine from one vessel to another and thereby separating it from the lees, that shall cause him to wander, tilting him up and pouring him out, and shall empty his vessels and break their bottles, dash his dishes in pieces. The conquerors would not only lead the Moabites away into exile, but would also destroy their national organization.
v. 13. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, getting evidence of the powerlessness and utter vanity of their chief idol, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence, finding out to their sorrow that the golden calf was a vain idol.
v. 14. How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war? Moab would no longer boast of its courage and strength, because terror would possess every heart.
v. 15. Moab, as a result of this attitude, is spoiled and gone up out of her cities, or, "men go up," that is, they take her cities, and his chosen young men, the soldiers of the country, are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, the one supreme Ruler of the whole world. Before Him all nations must finally bow, either in meek submission, which accepts His rule, or in the subjection of terror, which fawns before the Victor.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18, 21, 26, 28, 30, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 45, 46 General Information:
General Information:
Jeremiah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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To Moab
Here "Moab" represents the people. AT: "To the people of Moab" (See: Metonymy)
Yahweh of hosts ... says this
Jeremiah often uses these words to introduce an important message from Yahweh. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 6:6.
Woe to Nebo, for it has been devastated
Here "Nebo" represents the people. AT: "How terrible it is for the people of Nebo, for their city is devastated" (See: Metonymy)
Nebo
This is the name of a city near Mount Nebo in Moab. (See: How to Translate Names)
Kiriathaim has been humiliated
Here "Kiriathaim has been humiliated" represents the people being humiliated. This can be stated in active form. AT: "The enemy has captured the city of Kiriathaim and humiliated the people who live there" (See: Metonymyand Active or Passive)
Kiriathaim
This is the name of a city in Moab. (See: How to Translate Names)
Her fortress has been disgraced
Here "fortress has been disgraced" represents the people being disgraced. This can be stated in active form. AT: "The enemy has destroyed the fortress in Kiriathaim and disgraced its people" (See: Metonymyand Active or Passive)
The honor of Moab is no more
"People no longer honor Moab" or "People no longer praise Moab"
Heshbon
This is the name of a city. (See: How to Translate Names)
Madmen will also perish
"Madmen" here is a town in Moab. The name of the city has nothing to do with the English word "madmen." AT: "Their enemies will destroy the city of Madmen" (See: How to Translate Names)
a sword will go after you
Here "sword" represents the enemy army carrying weapons. AT: "your enemies will chase after you and kill you" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Moab
Yahweh of hosts
God
Israel
woe
devastate
stronghold
honor
adversary
nation
perish
sword
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 18, 20, 21, 26, 31, 32, 34, 35, 39, 40, 43, 45, 47 48:1–49:6 The Lord decreed the destruction and future restoration…
48:1–49:6 The Lord decreed the destruction and future restoration of Moab and Ammon, the two nations descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew (Gen 19:36-38).
48:1-47 Moab, one of two nations descended from Abraham’s nephew Lot (Gen 19:36-38), was the next nation brought to trial in the Lord’s courtroom (cp. Isa 15–16). Moab’s territory lay between the Arnon River and the Zered Brook east of the Dead Sea. At the time, the Moabites felt self-assured because they were relatively free from the military reach of the Babylonians. However, the Lord found the Moabites to be greedy and cruel, and their worship was vicious and sensuous.
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48:1 The powerful Judge, the God of Israel (see study note on 2:2), introduced the indictments and decrees against Moab. • The city of Nebo was on the side of Mount Nebo (Num 32:3, 38), several miles east of the north end of the Dead Sea. • The city of Kiriathaim was built by the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:19) in the highlands east of the Dead Sea.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.