Jeremiah 48:33

"And I have caused wine to cease from the wine-presses: none shall tread with shouting; the shouting shall be no shouting; from the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even unto Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate. Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith Jehovah, him that offereth in the high place, and him that burneth incense to his gods. Therefore my heart soundeth for Moab like pipes, and my heart soundeth like pipes for the men of Kirheres: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished. For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein none delighteth, saith Jehovah. How is it broken down! how do they wail! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to al] that are round about him."

"The shouting shall be no shouting ..." (Jeremiah 48:33b). The vast wine industry, upon which much of Moab's prosperity depended will be totally destroyed. The workers who treaded out the grapes in the wine-presses continually celebrated their activity by shoutings and songs.

The cry of the distressed population will reach all the way from Zoar, at the southwest corner of the Dead Sea to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah.

The last two place names here are not too positively identified, but Keil placed both of them in southern Moab. The general meaning is surely clear enough. Grief and distress are everywhere.

"My heart soundeth for Moab like pipes ..." (Jeremiah 48:36). This is a reference to the prophet's own grief for the terrible, distress prophesied against Moab. We have a little later in the chapter a dramatic description of how that grief affected all the people. This grief of Jeremiah is significant. He did not prophesy doom because he received any pleasure from it, but because it was his duty to warn the people.

"Every head bald ... every beard clipped ... sackcloth worn by all ... mourning on all the housetops ... mourning in all the streets ..." (Jeremiah 48:36-38). What a pitiful picture of what Nebuchadnezzar's brutal, licentious, devastating armies did to the peoples of the world. Here is the pride and ruthless ambition of men raging out of control.