Jeremiah 48:1

. 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, Jer 48:8, Jer 48:9. 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, Jer 48:10. 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, Jer 48:11; but this prosperity is declared to be nearly at an end; the destroyer is already commissioned against Moab, and his neighbors called to sing the usual lamentation at his funeral, Jer 48:13-18. 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, Jer 48:19-24, and of the total annihilation of its political existence, Jer 48:25. 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, Jer 48:26, Jer 48:27. 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, vv. 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, Jer 48:47. Verse 1 Against Moab - This was delivered some time after the destruction of Jerusalem. The Moabites were in the neighborhood 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. Verse 2 No more praise of Moab - "The glory of Moab, that it had never been conquered," (Dahler), is now at an end. Dr. Blayney translates: - "Moab shall have no more glorying in Heshbon; They have devised evil against her (saying.)" And this most certainly is the best translation of the original. He has marked also a double paronomasia in this and the next verse, a figure in which the prophets delight; בחשבון חשבו becheshbon chashebu "in Cheshbon they have devised," and מדמן תדמי madmen tiddommi, "Madmena, thou shalt be dumb." Verse 3 Horonaim - Another city of Moab, near to Luhith. At this latter place the hill country of Moab commenced. "It is a place," says Dahler, "situated upon a height between Areopolis and Zoar." Verse 6 Flee, save your lives - The enemy is in full pursuit of you. Be like the heath - כערוער caaroer, "like Aroer;" which some take for a city, others for a blasted or withered tree. It is supposed that a place of this name lay towards the north, in the land of the Ammonites, on a branch of the river Jabbok; surrounded by deserts. Save yourselves by getting into the wilderness, where the pursuing foe will scarcely think it worth his while to follow you, as the wilderness itself must soon destroy you. Verse 7 Chemosh shall go forth into captivity - The grand national idol of the Moabites, Num 21:29; Jdg 11:24. Ancient idolaters used to take their gods with them to the field of battle. This was probably in imitation of the Israelites, who took the ark with them in such cases. Verse 9 Give wings unto Moab - There is no hope in resistance, and to escape requires the speediest flight. I cannot conceive how Dahler came to translate thus: Tirez Moab par les chevaux, "Drag Moab away by the hair of the head." Verse 10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully - Moab is doomed to destruction, and the Lord pronounces a curse on their enemies if they do not proceed to utter extirpation. God is the Author of life, and has a sovereign right to dispose of it as he pleases; and these had forfeited theirs long ago by their idolatry and other crimes. Verse 11 Moab hath been at ease - The metaphor here is taken from the mode of preserving wines. They let them rest upon their lees for a considerable time, as this improves them both in strength and flavour; and when this is sufficiently done, they rack, or pour them off into other vessels. Moab had been very little molested by war since he was a nation; he had never gone out of his own land. Though some had been carried away by Shalmaneser forty years before this, he has had neither wars nor captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him - Still carrying on the allusion to the curing of wines; by resting long upon the lees, the taste and smell are both improved. See the note on Isa 25:6. Verse 12 I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander - Dr. Blayney renders צעים tsaim, tilters; those who elevate one end of the wine cask when nearly run out that the remains of the liquor may be the more effectually drawn off at the cock. And this seems to be well supported by the following words, - And shall empty his vessels - I will send such as will carry the whole nation into captivity. Verse 13 Beth-el their confidence - Alluding to the golden calves which Jeroboam had there set up, and commanded all the Israelites to worship. Verse 17 How is the strong staff broken - The scepter. The sovereignty of Moab is destroyed. Verse 18 That dost inhabit Dibon - This was anciently a city of the Reubenites, afterwards inhabited by the Moabites, about two leagues north of the river Arnon, and about six to the east of the Dead Sea. - Dahler. Verse 19 O inhabitant of Aroer - See the note on Jer 48:6 (note). This place, being at a greater distance, is counselled to watch for its own safety, and inquire of every passenger, What is done? that it may know when to pack up and be gone. Verse 20 Tell ye it in Arnon - Apprize the inhabitants there that the territories of Moab are invaded, and the country about to be destroyed, that they may provide for their own safety. Verse 21 Upon Holon, etc. - All these were cities of the Moabites, but several of them are mentioned in no other place. Verse 25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken - His political and physical powers are no more. Verse 27 Was not Israel a derision unto thee? - Didst thou not mock my people, and say their God was no better than the gods of other nations? See Eze 25:8. Was he found among thieves? - Did the Israelites come to rob and plunder you? Why then mock them, and rejoice at their desolation, when their enemies prevailed over them? This the Lord particularly resents. Verse 28 Dwell in the rock - Go to the most inaccessible places in the mountains. The hole's mouth - And into the most secret eaves and holes of the earth. Verse 29 The pride of Moab - See on Isa 16:1 (note). Verse 32 O vine of Sibmah - See on Isa 16:8 (note). Verse 34 As a heifer of three years old - Which runs lowing from place to place in search of her calf, which is lost or taken from her. Verse 37 For every head shall be bald - These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation. Verse 40 He shall fly as an eagle - The enemy will pounce upon him, carry him off, and tear him to pieces. Verse 42 Moab shall be destroyed from being a people - They shall not have a king or civil governor: and I doubt whether there be any evidence that they were ever reinstated in their national character. They were captivated by the Chaldeans; and probably many returned with the Jews on the edict of Cyrus: but as to their being an independent nation after this, where is the positive proof? Verse 43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare - See the note on Isa 24:17, Isa 24:18. Verse 45 They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon - Heshbon being a fortified place, they who were worsted in the fight fled to it, and rallied under its walls; but, instead of safety, they found themselves disappointed, betrayed, and ruined. See Jer 48:2 (note), and the note there. But a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon - Jeremiah has borrowed this part of his discourse from an ancient poet quoted by Moses, Num 21:28 (note); where see the notes. The crown of the head - The choicest persons of the whole nation. Verse 46 The people of Chemosh - The Moabites, who worshipped Chemosh as their supreme god. Verse 47 Will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days - I have already expressed doubts (see Jer 48:42 ) whether the Moabites were ever restored to their national distinction. The expressions in this chapter, relative to their total destruction as a people, are so strong and so frequent, that they leave little room for a limited interpretation. That many of them returned on the edict of Cyrus by virtue of which the Jews were restored, I doubt not; but neither the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, nor even the Jews themselves were ever restored to their national consequence. Perhaps the restoration spoken of here which was to take place in the latter days, may mean the conversion of these people, in their existing remnants, to the faith of the Gospel. Several judicious interpreters are of this opinion. The Moabites were partially restored; but never, as far as I have been able to learn, to their national consequence. Their conversion to the Christian faith must be the main end designed by this prophecy. Introduction This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighborhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, Jer 49:1-5. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, Jer 49:6. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people), who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, vv. 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus,

The Judgment of Moab. ( b. c. 605.) 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. 2 There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee. 3 A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction. 4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. 5 For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction. 6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness. 7 For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together. 8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken. 9 Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away: for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein. 10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. 11 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. 12 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. 13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence. 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 ( v. 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 ( Deut. ii. 9 ), therefore the destruction of Moab is called the work of the Lord ( v. 10 ), for it is he that pleads for Israel; and his work will exactly agree with his word, v. 8 . II. The instruments of it: Spoilers shall come ( v. 8 ), shall come with a sword, a sword that shall pursue them, v. 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 ( v. 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 ( v. 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. i. 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 ( v. 1 ) and cut down ( v. 2 ); they shall be desolate ( v. 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, v. 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, v. 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 ( v. 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 ( v. 3 ) and the cry is nothing but spoiling and great destruction. Alas! alas! Moab is destroyed, v. 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 ( v. 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, Matt. xxiv. 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 ( v. 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, v. 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, Ps. lii. 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, v. 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 ( Ps. cxxix. 1, 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, Ps. lxxxiii. 3 , 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, Ps. lv. 19 .