Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says Yahweh.
Parallel Translations
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Terror, the pit, and the snare are on you, inhabitant of Moab,” says Yahweh.
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Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
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Terror, and the pit, and the trap, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 48:43 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 24:17-18 Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the middle of the pit will be taken in the snare; for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.
- Lamentations 3:47 Terror and the pit have come on us, devastation and destruction.”
- Deuteronomy 32:23-25 “I will heap evils on them. I will spend my arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will send the teeth of animals on them, with the venom of vipers that glide in the dust. Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
- Psalms 11:6 On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain By these words the Prophet skews, that though the…
By these words the Prophet skews, that though the Moabites should adopt many means of escape, yet they should be taken, for God’s hand would everywhere entrap them. He mentions terror first, then the pit, and thirdly, the snare, that is, “Thou wilt be so frightened that terror will compel thee to flee; but when thou fleest, pits will be in the way into which thou wilt fall: but if thou wilt rise from the pit, snares will surround thee, and thou wilt be taken.” We then see that by these similitudes nothing else is meant but God’s judgment, which impended over the Moabites, so that it could by no means be averted by them; for no ways could be found out by which they could escape, because fear would force them to flee, and would, as it is usually the case, deprive them of mind and thought, and thus they would be driven here and there, and could not move from any place without meeting with a pit, and, as it has been said, after the pit there would be the snare.
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 He that escapeth one danger shall be taken of…
He that escapeth one danger shall be taken of another, Isa. 24:17.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 48:43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare,…
Jer 48:43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, [shall be] upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
Ver. 43. Fear and the pit.] See Isa 24:17.
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 These three words,
These three words,
fear, pit, snare, signify no more than a variety of dangers that should be on all sides of them, so as if any escaped one danger, he should presently meet with another, for this was the time when the Lord was resolved to punish all the inhabitants of the land of Moab.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain He that fleeth from the fear,.... From terrible enemies…
He that fleeth from the fear,.... From terrible enemies he is afraid of, and dares not face them, but flees, in order to escape them:
shall fall into the pit; into some misfortune or another:
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and he that getteth out of the pit shall be taken in the snare; laid by the enemy for him, and so shall fall into his hands. Sanctius very ingeniously observes that the allusion is to the hunting of deer, and such like creatures; when first a line of feathers of various colours is placed to frighten them; and if they get over that, then there is a pit dug for them, to catch them in; and if they get out of that, a snare is laid to take them; so that they rarely escape: and thus it would be with the Moabites, if they got rid of a first and second danger, a third would involve them; their destruction was certain, as follows; see Isa 24:18;
for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord; in a way of wrath and punishment; for which there was a time fixed, and was now at hand, and would quickly take place, according to the will and word of the Lord, of which Moab might be assured; who is expressed by name, for the sake of explanation, and that it might be manifest who was intended.
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 Fear - A variety of dangers upon all sides.
Fear - A variety of dangers upon all sides.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 43. Fear, and the pit, and the snare]…
Verse 43. Fear, and the pit, and the snare] See the note on Isa 24:17-18.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Fear. It was customary to hand feathers near a…
Fear. It was customary to hand feathers near a wood, to frighten the prey into pits or nets, Isaias xxiv. 17. (Sanctius)
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (See on Isa 24:17; Isa 24:18).
(See on Isa 24:17; Isa 24:18).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 43, 44. Cp. Isa_24:17 f. and probably a proverb…
43, 44. Cp. Isa_24:17 f. and probably a proverb in frequent use. We cannot reproduce in English the assonance paḥad vâpaḥath vâpâḥ. See on Lam_3:47.
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 (43)Fear, and the pit, and the snare.—The words are…
(43)Fear, and the pit, and the snare.—The words are a reproduction of Isa_24:17, which had probably passed into something like proverbial use. The sequence in each case shows that each word plays a distinct part in the imagery. First there is the terror of the animal pursued by huntsmen, then the pit dug in the earth that it may fall into it (Psa_7:15; Pro_26:27; Ecc_10:8); then, if it scrambles out of the pit, the snare or trap which finally secures it.
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 Vers. 43-47. Hence, as the final result, escape is…
Vers. 43-47. Hence, as the final result, escape is absolutely impossible, for one can get succeeds another in an endless series The last and greatest danger besots those who seek refuge behind the strong fortifications of Heshbon, It is from this very city that the hottest fire of the enemy breaks forth. Chemosh has not saved his people; and yet there is hope for Moab in the future.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare. An alliteration in the Hebrew, which occurs again in Isa_24:17. In German it can berepresented better than in Englishe.g. by Hitzig"s "grauen, graben, garn." All primitive poetry delights in such alliterations.
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Vers. 43, 44. No ultimate escape.
I THERE ARE TEMPORARY EVASIONS OF DOOM. As there are great varieties of wickedness, so there is also great variety in the consequences of it. Sometimes the visitation is sudden, quick, and terrible, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. But oftener men go on sinning with no bad consequences to themselves, so far as appearance goes. They do not lose health; they do not seem to lose reputation; there are no checks in their success; and perhaps they even furnish an example whereby worldly wisdom hangs its maxim that it is not well to be too particular. The frequent prosperity of the wicked is indeed a fact not at all concealed or qualified in the Scriptures. A man of the world takes his own worldly way to keep peril at a distance, and he seems to fall into no pit, no snare. Let all this be allowed. Nothing is gained by trying to make out that the wicked have no advantages. It was an old-world legend that some men sold themselves to the devil, and that his protection secured to them their wonderful immunities and prosperity.
II THERE IS NO WAY OF ESCAPE PROM DANGER SAVE GOD"S WAY. All that is gained is in the way of postponement. Wicked men travel in a narrowing path, and at last are shut up to face the judgments of God. The moment of what seems to them complete success is quickly followed by the moment of complete collapse. We have the crowning illustration of this in the death of Jesus. His enemies seemed to have succeeded. All their efforts to bring his death about had been wonderfully favoured. And what could they do but be jubilant when he was actually dead? The death of Jesus, however, was really a condition for the utter downfall of these enemies. The grave of Jesus, so to speak, was the snare in which spiritual evil was finally taken and overcome. It is one of the triumphs of faith to be well assured in our own hearts that there is no ultimate escape for wickedness. God has his own wise reasons in tolerating wicked men for a long time, and the evil they do to others is not so great in reality as it is in appearance. They cannot inflict more than outward suffering and inconvenience on God"s people. Indeed, the mischief they mean to do can be wonderfully transmuted to good. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 48:43-45 Between the terror (Hebrew pakhad), the traps (Hebrew…
48:43-45 Between the terror (Hebrew pakhad), the traps (Hebrew pakhath), and a snare (Hebrew pakh), there would be no escape for the people of Moab.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.