Jeremiahchapter 48
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Speaks with:Jeremiah 48×12Numbers 21×8Isaiah 16×8Isaiah 15×11Jeremiah 49×5Jeremiah 51×3
Summary
Chapter summary
The longest of the nation oracles, and the most grieved. Nebo, Kiriathaim, Heshbon, Dibon, Aroer: town after Moabite town named and emptied; Chemosh goes into captivity with his priests and princes. The image at its center explains everything: 'Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel': never decanted, never disturbed, so his taste remained in him. Pride, arrogancy, and loftiness of heart are the charge. Along the way stands a line that has convicted many a preacher: 'Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently.' Yet the sentence is not final: 'I will bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days.'
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–10 Moab Spoiled and Her Cities Taken
- B. 11–25 Settled on His Lees, Never Poured from Vessel to Vessel
- C. 26–39 Moab Made Drunken, Broken Like a Vessel No One Wants
- D. 40–47 An Eagle Spreading Wings — Yet Moab's Captivity Shall Turn
The outline
A.Moab Spoiled and Her Cities Takenvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.Settled on His Lees, Never Poured from Vessel to Vesselvv. 11 to 25
Read vv. 11 to 25 →C.Moab Made Drunken, Broken Like a Vessel No One Wantsvv. 26 to 39
Read vv. 26 to 39 →D.An Eagle Spreading Wings — Yet Moab's Captivity Shall Turnvv. 40 to 47
Read vv. 40 to 47 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 48The history
This is the longest of the foreign oracles and it is stuffed with place names off the high tableland east of the Dead Sea: Nebo, Kiriathaim, Heshbon, Dibon, Aroer, Kir-hareseth, Sibmah, Elealeh, Jazer. Many of the same towns appear on the Moabite Stone, an inscribed black basalt slab set up by King Mesha of Moab around 840 BC and found at Dhiban in 1868, which names Nebo, Dibon and Aroer and credits the god Chemosh with Moab's victories. The god that stone celebrates is the god this chapter says will go into exile with his priests.
Moab's wealth was wine and wool. The chapter names the terraced vineyards of Sibmah whose shoots reached the sea, the treaders in the presses, and the shouting at the vats — and says the shouting will stop.
The most memorable picture is a winemaker's. Moab has been at ease from his youth and settled on his dregs — meaning wine left standing on the sediment in one jar, never poured from vessel to vessel. That was how good wine was clarified, and the racking is a rough business for the wine. Moab has never been racked, and so, the chapter says, his taste has not changed. Comfort had preserved him and spoiled him.
Moab's national trait, named four times, is pride: loftiness, arrogance, and boasting against the LORD. And Moab's national security had been geography — a plateau ringed by deep gorges, hard to reach and easy to hold.
What it meant to them
First hearers knew Moab as the neighbour who mocked Judah's troubles. This chapter tells them Moab will be shamed by Chemosh just as Israel was shamed by trusting Bethel.
What would have startled them is the grief in it. God says my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and the chapter ends by promising to restore Moab's fortunes in the latter days. Judgment here is not celebration.
Sources cited
- The Moabite Stone (Mesha Inscription), in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 48. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.