Jeremiah 48:1

JEREMIAH 48

THE PROPHECY AGAINST MOAB

There are three remarkable differences in this prophecy, as compared with others, as cited by Green. "These are (1) its unusual length, (2) its use of material from other prophets, and (3) the large number of place names in it."[1]

A number of other prophets also received messages from God regarding the eventual judgment of Moab; and, "These include: Isaiah 15-16; 25:10; Ezekiel 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; and Zephaniah 2:8-11."[2] Also, this is not the first prophecy regarding Moab that came through Jeremiah. See Jeremiah 9:26; Jeremiah 25:21; and Jeremiah 27:3.

We have already commented upon all of these passages except the one in Ezekiel; and there are not many new things to cover in this chapter. See my commentaries on Amos, Zephaniah and Isaiah.

The reason for God's judgment against Moab is not far to seek. From the days of the false prophet Balaam and afterward, Moab rebelled against the true God, adopted the horrible worship of Chemosh, and reveled in the licentious worship of the Canaanite Baalim. The Moabite women, under the suggestion of Balaam, had pulled off a wholesale seduction of the Israelites at Baal-Peor (Numbers 25:1ff), in which a thousand of the princes and judges of Israel fell, leading all Israel into paganism from which the Israelites never totally recovered.

The origin of the Moabites, of course, will be remembered as beginning in the incestuous union of Lot and his daughters, the same event from which the Ammonites also sprang (Genesis 19). The Moabites always hated Israel, and "They had actually taken part with the Chaldeans against Judaea (2 Kings 24:2)."[3]

Actually, there are no critical problems worth bothering with here; but some writers still insist on repeating some of the old shibboleths of the radical critics, prattling about "which is the original," with regard to similar passages to the writings of other prophets to which Jeremiah referred in this chapter. All the passages are "original." This we shall continue to believe until some critic convinces us that Almighty God could not possibly have given the same words, or similar words, to more than one prophet! Besides, as regards this chapter, the Dean of Canterbury noted the following.

"The passages borrowed from other authors by Jeremiah are so interwoven with Jeremiah's own words that we cannot omit them as interpolations without destroying the whole. Also passages most certainly belonging to Jeremiah, and in many of the alterations of the borrowed passages, one recognizes so strongly Jeremiah's mode of expression, that one has no resource except to acknowledge the whole to be Jeremiah's."[4]

Jeremiah 48:1-4

JEHOVAH vs. CHEMOSH; THE DOWNFALL OF MOAB (Jeremiah 48:1-10)

"Of Moab, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down. The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. Thou also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue thee. The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction. Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard."

"Nebo ..." (Jeremiah 48:1). "This is not the mountain from which Moses viewed the Promised Land, but the city of Numbers 32:3,38, built by the Reubenites."[5]

"Kiriathaim ..." (Jeremiah 48:1). "A city six miles south of Dibon."[6] Dibon was where the Moabite Stone was found.

"Heshbon ..." (Jeremiah 48:1). This was an important city, belonging originally to Moab; but then captured by Sihon and made his capital (Numbers 21:26); after its conquest by Israel under Moses, it was given to the Reubenites (Numbers 21:21-24; 32:37). By the times of Jeremiah, the city was at the zenith of its prosperity and had been retaken by Moab.[7]

But in the times of a certain Alexander, Heshbon again became a Jewish city.[8] Moab eventually was lost as a nation, except for the hope expressed in Jeremiah 48:47 (below).

"In Heshbon they have devised evil against her ..." (Jeremiah 48:2). It is believed that this is a prophecy that the Babylonians would plan their subjugation of Moab at Heshbon. There is a play on the word. "Heshbon" means "to plan"; and the words "plan evil" are similar in the Hebrew.

"Misgab ..." (Jeremiah 48:1) and "Madmen ..." (Jeremiah 48:2). Nothing is known of either of these towns; and the dictionaries available to us have no notes on them whatever.

"Horonaim ..." (Jeremiah 48:3). "This is the same as the city of Avara, mentioned by Ptolemy; the name means `the double caves' (Nehemiah 2:10; Isaiah 15:5).[9]

"Her little ones have caused a cry to be raised ..." (Jeremiah 48:4). The "little ones" referred to here were in all probability the infant sacrifices offered to the savage old god Molech, or Chemosh. That horrible rebellion against God in offering such sacrifices was certainly one of the reasons that brought the wrath of God upon Moab. See more about that pagan god under Jeremiah 48:7.