Jeremiah48chapter 48

Jeremiah 48:1-10

The Moab oracle opens with a gazetteer of falling towns, Nebo, Kiriathaim, Heshbon, Horonaim, the weeping going up the ascent of Luhith, and the ground of it is stated at verse 7: because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures. Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests, the national god deported with his staff, which is the ancient Near East's own language for a theology defeated, as the bench notes from the monuments. Verse 10's curse on doing the Lord's work deceitfully, or keeping the sword from blood, is stated as what it is in place, the executioner charged not to soften an appointed judgment; the commentators note how often it is quoted out of this grim setting.

Jeremiah 48:11-17

The oracle's most famous figure is from the wine country it addresses: Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel. Wine left on its sediment keeps its raw taste, and Moab, never exiled, never poured out, kept his: undisturbed prosperity as a preservative of corruption, which the bench treats as one of Scripture's sharpest sayings about comfort. The emptiers are coming, the vessels will be broken, and Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh as Israel was ashamed of Beth-el, the northern calf sanctuary named as the parallel confidence that failed; the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod ends the unit as a formal lament.

Jeremiah 48:18-28

Dibon is told to come down from glory and sit in thirst, Aroer to stand by the road and ask the fugitives what is done, and then the catalogue runs the plain country town by town, Holon, Jahazah, Mephaath, Dibon, Nebo, and the rest, judgment given as an itinerary. The horn cut off and the arm broken state the end in the body's own emblems of strength. The ground returns at verse 26, he magnified himself against the Lord, with verse 27's question, was not Israel a derision unto thee?, the mockery of the exiles' calamity now answered in kind, and the counsel to dwell in the rock like the dove nesting at the hole's mouth is the oracle's one mercy in this stretch.

Jeremiah 48:29-39

The indictment is piled in synonyms, his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart, and much of this section speaks in Isaiah 15 and 16's own words, two prophets carrying one burden a century apart, which the commentators set side by side. The strange thing is who weeps: therefore will I howl for Moab, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer, mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, the judge mourning inside his own sentence, and the bench pauses here, because the oracle's compassion is the Lord's own. The vintage fails with none to tread with shouting, every head bald and every beard clipped, and Moab is broken like a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

Jeremiah 48:40-47

The end comes as an eagle spreading his wings over Moab, and the escape routes are closed in a chain the prophets share: fear, and the pit, and the snare, he that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit, the same triple net Isaiah 24:17-18 casts over the whole earth. The fire out of Heshbon and the flame from the midst of Sihon takes up the old taunt-song of Num 21:28 almost word for word, Moab's ancient ballad returned on it, which the bench marks as deliberate quotation. Then the last verse turns without warning: yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord, the restoration formula given even to Chemosh's people, and the oracle closes itself like a file, thus far is the judgment of Moab.