Jeremiah 48: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter is the LORD's message against Moab. Town after town is named as ruined, the god Chemosh goes into exile with his priests and officials, and Moab's pride and boasting against the LORD are given as the reason. Much of the chapter is spoken as mourning, especially over Moab's vineyards and wine harvest, and it closes with a promise that in the latter days the LORD will restore Moab.

Claim by Claim

1. 48:1
   • The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, speaks concerning Moab.
   • Woe is pronounced upon Nebo.
   • Nebo has been devastated.
   • Kiriathaim is put to shame.
   • Kiriathaim is captured.
   • The stronghold is put to shame; the term is ambiguous between the place-name Misgab and 'the high fortress'.
   • The stronghold is shattered.
2. 48:2
   • There is no longer any praise of Moab.
   • In Heshbon they devised evil against Moab.
   • They said: Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.
   • Madmen too will be silenced; the word is ambiguous between being silenced and being destroyed.
   • The sword will pursue Madmen.
3. 48:3
   • A voice of outcry comes from Horonaim.
   • The outcry announces devastation and great destruction.
4. 48:4
   • Moab is broken.
   • Her little ones make a cry heard.
5. 48:5
   • On the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping continually.
   • On the descent of Horonaim cries of destruction are heard; the Hebrew is ambiguous between enemies hearing the cry and the cries being cries of distress.
6. 48:6
   • A command is given: Flee.
   • A command is given: Save your lives.
   • Those who flee are to become like a shrub in the wilderness.
7. 48:7
   • Moab trusted in her works and in her treasures.
   • Because of that trust, Moab herself will be captured.
   • Chemosh will go out into exile.
   • His priests and his officials will go into exile with him.
8. 48:8
   • The destroyer will come against every city.
   • No city will escape.
   • The valley will perish.
   • The tableland will be destroyed.
   • The LORD has spoken this.
9. 48:9
   • A command is given to give Moab something for her going out; the Hebrew word is ambiguous between wings and salt.
   • Moab will surely go out.
   • Moab's cities will become a desolation.
   • No one will dwell in Moab's cities.
10. 48:10
    • Cursed is the one who does the work of the LORD slackly.
    • Cursed is the one who withholds his sword from blood.
11. 48:11
    • Moab has been at ease from his youth.
    • Moab has settled undisturbed on his dregs.
    • Moab has not been poured from vessel to vessel.
    • Moab has not gone into exile.
    • Therefore his taste has remained in him.
    • His scent has not changed.
12. 48:12
    • Days are coming, declares the LORD.
    • The LORD will send to Moab those who tip vessels.
    • They will tip Moab over and pour him out.
    • They will empty his vessels.
    • They will smash their jars.
13. 48:13
    • Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh.
    • The house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.
14. 48:14
    • A rhetorical question is asked: How can you say, We are mighty men?
    • The claim being questioned is: We are men of valor for war.
15. 48:15
    • Moab is devastated.
    • Her cities have gone up; the Hebrew is ambiguous between Moab going up out of her cities and an attacker going up against her cities.
    • The choicest of his young men have gone down to the slaughter.
    • The King declares this.
    • The King's name is the LORD of hosts.
16. 48:16
    • Moab's calamity is near to come.
    • Moab's affliction hastens exceedingly.
17. 48:17
    • All who are around Moab are told to grieve for him.
    • All who know his name are told to grieve for him.
    • They are told to say: How the strong staff is broken.
    • They are told to say: How the beautiful rod is broken.
18. 48:18
    • The daughter dwelling in Dibon is told to come down from glory.
    • She is told to sit in thirst.
    • The destroyer of Moab has come up against her.
    • He has ruined her fortresses.
19. 48:19
    • The inhabitant of Aroer is told to stand by the road and watch.
    • She is told to ask the man who flees and the woman who escapes.
    • She is told to say: What has happened?
20. 48:20
    • Moab is put to shame.
    • Moab is shattered.
    • A command is given to wail and cry out.
    • A command is given to declare at the Arnon that Moab is devastated.
21. 48:21
    • Judgment has come upon the land of the tableland.
    • Judgment has come upon Holon.
    • Judgment has come upon Jahzah.
    • Judgment has come upon Mephaath.
22. 48:22
    • Judgment has come upon Dibon.
    • Judgment has come upon Nebo.
    • Judgment has come upon Beth-diblathaim.
23. 48:23
    • Judgment has come upon Kiriathaim.
    • Judgment has come upon Beth-gamul.
    • Judgment has come upon Beth-meon.
24. 48:24
    • Judgment has come upon Kerioth.
    • Judgment has come upon Bozrah.
    • Judgment has come upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
25. 48:25
    • The horn of Moab is cut off.
    • The arm of Moab is broken.
    • The LORD declares this.
26. 48:26
    • A command is given: Make Moab drunk.
    • Moab magnified himself against the LORD.
    • Moab will wallow in his vomit.
    • Moab too will become an object of derision.
27. 48:27
    • A question is asked: Was not Israel an object of derision to you?
    • A question is asked: Was Israel found among thieves?
    • Whenever you spoke of Israel you shook your head at him.
28. 48:28
    • Inhabitants of Moab are told to abandon the cities.
    • They are told to dwell among the rocks.
    • They are told to be like a dove that nests at the sides of the mouth of a chasm.
29. 48:29
    • We have heard of the pride of Moab.
    • Moab is exceedingly proud.
    • Moab has loftiness.
    • Moab has arrogance.
    • Moab has pride.
    • Moab has haughtiness of heart.
30. 48:30
    • The LORD says: I know his insolence.
    • The LORD declares that his insolence is not right, or is futile.
    • His empty boasts have accomplished nothing; the Hebrew word is ambiguous between boastings and lies.
31. 48:31
    • Therefore the speaker will wail for Moab.
    • The speaker will cry out for all Moab.
    • There is mourning for the men of Kir-heres, and the King James assigns that mourning to the speaker's heart.
32. 48:32
    • The speaker will weep for the vine of Sibmah more than the weeping of Jazer.
    • The vine's branches passed over the sea.
    • The branches reached as far as the sea of Jazer.
    • A destroyer has fallen upon her summer fruit.
    • A destroyer has fallen upon her vintage.
33. 48:33
    • Joy and gladness have been taken away from the fruitful field.
    • Joy and gladness have been taken away from the land of Moab.
    • The LORD has made wine cease from the winepresses.
    • No one will tread the presses with a shout.
    • Their shouting will not be a shout of joy.
34. 48:34
    • There is a cry from Heshbon as far as Elealeh.
    • They have uttered their voice as far as Jahaz.
    • The cry extends from Zoar as far as Horonaim.
    • Eglath-shelishiyah is named; the King James renders it as a heifer of three years old.
    • The waters of Nimrim will also become desolations.
35. 48:35
    • The LORD will bring to an end in Moab the one who offers on the high place.
    • The LORD will bring to an end in Moab the one who burns incense to his gods.
    • The LORD declares this.
36. 48:36
    • Therefore the speaker's heart moans for Moab like flutes.
    • The speaker's heart moans like flutes for the men of Kir-heres.
    • The abundance that Moab gained has perished.
37. 48:37
    • Every head is shaved bald.
    • Every beard is cut off.
    • On all hands there are gashes.
    • On the loins there is sackcloth.
38. 48:38
    • On all the rooftops of Moab there is lamentation.
    • In Moab's public squares there is lamentation.
    • The lamentation is everywhere.
    • The LORD has broken Moab like a vessel no one wants.
    • The LORD declares this.
39. 48:39
    • An exclamation is made: How Moab is shattered.
    • They wail.
    • An exclamation is made: How Moab has turned his back in shame.
    • Moab has become an object of derision to all those around him.
    • Moab has become an object of horror to all those around him.
40. 48:40
    • Thus says the LORD.
    • One will swoop down like an eagle.
    • He will spread his wings against Moab.
41. 48:41
    • Kerioth is captured; the Hebrew word is ambiguous between the place-name Kerioth and 'the towns'.
    • The strongholds are seized.
    • In that day the heart of Moab's mighty men will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42. 48:42
    • Moab will be destroyed from being a people.
    • The reason is that Moab magnified himself against the LORD.
43. 48:43
    • Terror, pit, and snare are upon the inhabitant of Moab.
    • The LORD declares this.
44. 48:44
    • The one who flees from the terror will fall into the pit.
    • The one who climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the snare.
    • The LORD will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment.
    • The LORD declares this.
45. 48:45
    • Those who fled stood in the shadow of Heshbon without strength.
    • A fire has gone out from Heshbon.
    • A flame has gone out from the midst of Sihon.
    • It devoured the corner of Moab.
    • It devoured the crown of the head of the sons of tumult.
46. 48:46
    • Woe is pronounced upon Moab.
    • The people of Chemosh have perished.
    • Moab's sons have been taken into captivity.
    • Moab's daughters have been taken into captivity.
47. 48:47
    • The LORD will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days.
    • The LORD declares this.
    • The judgment of Moab ends here.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

48:1

Moab was a small kingdom east of the Dead Sea, on the high plateau between the Arnon gorge and the Zered valley. Moabites spoke a language close to Hebrew and were counted as distant kin of Israel; the two peoples fought repeatedly over the disputed farmland north of the Arnon, and much of this chapter names towns in that contested strip. "The LORD" printed this way stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which Hebrew writes with four consonants and which readers traditionally do not pronounce. "LORD of hosts" means commander of armies, heavenly ones, earthly ones, or both. Nebo and Kiriathaim were Moabite towns north of the Arnon. "Misgab" in the King James is the Hebrew word for a high stronghold; it may be a place name or simply mean "the fortress," and translators divide on it.

48:2

Heshbon was a major town on Moab's northern frontier, at times held by others, so the plotting "in Heshbon" is an enemy planning Moab's end from Moab's own doorstep. The Hebrew plays on sound throughout: Heshbon (ḥeshbon) echoes the verb "devise" (ḥashab), and "Madmen" echoes the verb "be silenced" (damam). Madmen is a Moabite town name and has no connection with the English word "madmen."

48:3

Horonaim was a Moabite town whose name means roughly "the two hollows"; the roads to and from it are described in the next verses as a climb and a descent.

48:5

Luhith and Horonaim lay on the escarpment, so refugees fleeing the plateau went up one road and down the other. The picture is of a single stream of people weeping the whole way.

48:6

The Hebrew word rendered "heath" or "lonely bush" (ʿaroʿer) is uncertain: it may name a desert shrub, a juniper or scrub bush that survives in barren ground, or it may be the town Aroer, mentioned again in verse 19. Either way the point is bare survival with nothing around you.

48:7

Chemosh was the chief god of Moab, as Yahweh was the God of Israel; a Moabite king's own inscription, the Moabite Stone, credits Chemosh with his victories. A god "going into captivity" means the conquerors carrying off the statue from the temple, along with the temple staff, a standard ancient practice, and a public demonstration that the god could not defend his own people.

48:8

"The plain" is the mishor, the flat tableland north of the Arnon, Moab's best grain country. The valley and the tableland together cover the whole territory, lowland and highland.

48:9

The Hebrew here is obscure. The word may mean "wings" (so "give Moab wings to fly away") or "salt" (so "sow Moab with salt"), salting a ruined site being a symbolic act meaning nothing will grow here again. Translations split between the two.

48:10

"The work of the LORD" here is the military campaign against Moab, and "deceitfully" translates a word meaning slackly or negligently. The curse is aimed at a soldier who goes through the motions and spares his sword.

48:11

Wine was left to stand on its lees, the sediment of dead yeast and grape solids, for a while to deepen flavor, then poured off into a fresh jar. Wine left too long on the lees goes thick and spoiled. The image is of a nation never disturbed, never deported, never decanted, and therefore complacent rather than mature.

48:12

The wine image continues. "Wanderers" translates a word for men who tip jars, the same consonants can suggest both tilting and wandering, and the pun is deliberate. The "bottles" of the King James are clay storage jars, not glass; they were smashed once emptied.

48:13

Bethel was the site of the northern kingdom of Israel's chief royal shrine, with its golden calf; when Assyria destroyed that kingdom the shrine's protection proved worthless. Some scholars read "Bethel" here as the name of a god worshiped under that title rather than the town.

48:17

The staff and rod are the scepter, the carved rod a king held as the sign of his authority. Breaking it is the standard image for the end of a dynasty's rule.

48:18

Dibon was a Moabite royal city about four miles north of the Arnon, and the site where the Moabite Stone was found. "Daughter of Dibon" is a Hebrew idiom in which a city's population is addressed as a woman. Sitting on dry or parched ground (down from a throne, without water) is the posture of a captive and a mourner.

48:19

Aroer stood on the north rim of the Arnon gorge, on the main highway south; anyone escaping the collapse would pass its lookout. The wording carefully includes both a man and a woman fleeing, the whole population is running.

48:20

The Arnon is the deep river gorge that formed Moab's northern boundary; announcing news there broadcasts it along the main crossing point.

48:21

This list runs through the towns of the tableland one by one, the way a herald would read out a casualty roll. The names would have been as familiar to the first hearers as a list of county towns; the effect is that nowhere is left out.

48:24

Kerioth may be a specific Moabite city or, since the name means "the towns," a collective term. This Bozrah is a Moabite site, not the better-known Bozrah in Edom.

48:25

The horn is the horn of a bull or ram, the standard image for a nation's fighting power; "arm" likewise means strength to act. Cutting off the horn and breaking the arm is disarmament, not injury to a literal animal.

48:26

Being forced to drink until helpless is a recurring prophetic image for a nation staggering under judgment, the cup passed from one nation to the next. The vomit and the mockery press the image to its most humiliating end.

48:27

"Found among thieves" means caught in the act, like a thief taken with the goods, the question is whether Israel ever deserved the contempt Moab showed. The gesture in the last clause is uncertain in Hebrew: it describes a shaking or tossing motion, either shaking the head in scorn or shaking oneself with glee.

48:28

Moab's plateau is cut by deep ravines with cliff faces full of clefts. Rock doves nest on ledges inside those clefts, out of reach; the advice is to abandon walled towns for the caves, as people in the region did in wartime.

48:29

Verses 29 to 38 closely track an older poem against Moab found in Isaiah 15 and 16. Prophets reused and reworked earlier material, and the repetition of "pride" five times over in this verse is deliberate hammering, not clumsy writing.

48:31

Kirheres, also called Kir-hareseth, was Moab's principal fortified city in the south, the last place a population would fall back to.

48:32

Sibmah, near Heshbon, was famous for its vineyards. "The sea" is the Dead Sea, and the vine's shoots spreading that far is a picture of an export trade reaching well beyond Moab. The phrase "the sea of Jazer" is textually difficult, Jazer lay inland, and many hold that a copyist repeated the word for sea; others take it as a lake or reservoir near the town.

48:33

Grapes were trodden barefoot in a stone press, and the treaders kept time with a shouted work song that doubled as a harvest celebration. The Hebrew uses one word for both the vintage shout and a battle cry: there is still shouting in Moab, but it is the wrong kind.

48:34

Elealeh, Jahaz, Zoar and Horonaim mark the extent of the outcry from the north end of Moab to the south. The King James "heifer of three years old" translates Eglath-shelishiyah, which may be a place name or may describe a young cow at full strength bellowing, translators differ. Nimrim was a watered valley; its springs failing means the fertile ground fails too.

48:35

A "high place" was an open-air sanctuary, usually on a hilltop or raised platform, with an altar and standing stones, where offerings were burned. These were the ordinary local places of worship throughout the region, not exotic sites.

48:36

The pipe is a reed instrument with a thin, wavering tone, played at funerals; hired pipers accompanied professional mourners. The sound itself signaled a death to anyone who heard it.

48:37

Shaving the head, cropping the beard, gashing the hands or arms, and wearing sackcloth, coarse goat-hair cloth worn next to the skin, were the recognized public signs of grief across the region. Israelite law forbade the shaving and the gashing to its own people, but the prophet is describing Moabite mourning as it was actually performed.

48:38

Houses had flat roofs used for sleeping, drying produce, and household worship; a crowd of mourners on every roof means the grief is in plain public view across the whole town.

48:40

The bird is the nesher, which covers both the eagle and the griffon vulture; the point is the wide wingspan and the sudden drop onto prey. It stands for the invading army.

48:41

"Kerioth" here again may be a city name or simply "the towns." Comparing soldiers to a woman in labor is a stock prophetic image for pain that seizes you without warning and cannot be resisted or postponed.

48:43

These three words alliterate in Hebrew (pachad, pachat, pach) and come from hunting: the beaters' noise drives the animal, a covered pit catches it, and a snare takes whatever climbs out. The sound effect is part of the threat.

48:44

"The year of their visitation" is an idiom for the appointed time when an account is finally settled; the underlying verb means to come and inspect, and can mean either to help or to punish depending on context.

48:45

Sihon was the Amorite king who ruled from Heshbon before Israel's arrival, so "the midst of Sihon" means the city that was his capital. This verse and the next quote and rework an older victory poem about Heshbon preserved in Numbers 21. "The corner of Moab" translates a word for the temple or side of the forehead, the phrase, like "the crown of the head," comes from an old oracle about crushing Moab's skull, and "the tumultuous ones" are noisy boasters.

48:46

This line reproduces almost exactly the older poem quoted in Numbers 21:29. Calling Moabites "the people of Chemosh" is how a neighboring nation would naturally identify them, by their god.

48:47

"Bring again the captivity" is a Hebrew idiom meaning to reverse a reversal (to restore what was lost) and covers both the return of deported people and the recovery of a nation's fortunes generally. "The latter days" means simply the time to come, without fixing a date. The closing line is the editor's note marking the end of this collected oracle.