Jeremiah 48

This is God’s long word of judgment on Moab, the nation descended from Lot, east of the Dead Sea. Moab’s pride, its trust in wealth and in its god Chemosh, and its contempt for Israel bring its cities and fields to ruin. Yet the Lord grieves over what He sends, and the chapter closes with a promise of restoration.

Jeremiah 48:1

The Lord names Moab’s towns one by one, beginning with Nebo and Kiriathaim. These were strong places, but strength cannot protect against the word of the Lord of Hosts. Moab’s fortresses will be broken and its name brought low.

BSA: fortress (“high refuge, strong tower”): The very place Moab ran to for safety is the place that will be torn down.

Hebrew: הוֹי (hoy, H1945) — “woe, alas.” It is a cry of sorrow, the kind sounded at a funeral. Even in announcing judgment, the Lord sounds as if He is already mourning.

See also: Genesis 19:37; Isaiah 15:1.

Jeremiah 48:2

Moab’s praise and fame will end. In Heshbon, enemies plot to wipe Moab out as a nation. Madmen, a town whose name sounds like the word for silence, will be silenced, and the sword will chase its people down.

Jeremiah 48:3-6

Cries of grief rise from Horonaim and from the road to Luhith. Even the little children cry out. People are told to flee for their lives and to be like a lone desert shrub: bare, exposed and barely surviving.

BSA: juniper (“heath, scrawny tamarisk tree”): The picture is of a thin, lonely bush in dry wasteland, with no shelter and no future.

Jeremiah 48:7

Moab leaned on what it had made and stored up. That is a shaky foundation. Even Chemosh, the national god, goes into exile with his priests and officials. A god who must be carried away cannot save anyone.

BSA: trust (“have confidence, rely”): Moab’s real security was placed in its own achievements and wealth rather than in the living God. Chemosh (“the Moabite God, national deity”): The god Moab counted on is shown to be powerless to protect his own people.

See also: Jeremiah 9:23-24; Isaiah 46:1-2.

Jeremiah 48:8-9

The destroyer comes against every city, and none escapes, from valley to high plain. Salt is a picture of ground made lifeless, and Moab’s cities will stand empty. All this happens because the Lord has spoken.

BSA: destroyer (“spoiler, one who ruins”): The invader is a plunderer who strips the land bare, sent under God’s word. salt (“to utterly destroy”): Salt was a sign of total, lasting desolation, leaving nothing to grow or live.

See also: Judges 9:45.

Jeremiah 48:10

This is a stern saying. Those sent to carry out God’s judgment must not do it halfway. Here God’s work is the fall of Moab, and a messenger who holds back is under a curse. The verse shows how seriously God takes obedience to what He has commanded.

BSA: remiss (“negligent, doing the work deceitfully”): Half-hearted service can slide into a kind of cheating, because it looks like obedience but is not.

Hebrew: רְמִיָּה (remiyyah, H7423) — “slackness, deceit.” The same word can mean a loose, slack bow and also a deceitful act. Careless service to the Lord is treated as a kind of falseness.

See also: 1 Samuel 15:9.

Jeremiah 48:11

Moab is pictured as wine left sitting undisturbed on its dregs. It has had a quiet history with no exile and no upheaval, so it has stayed unchanged. Ease without challenge has left Moab proud and set in its ways, and comfort can harden a heart.

BSA: at ease (“in a state of security, from his youth”): Moab has known security since its beginnings and has never learned humility. dregs (“lees, sediment”): Wine left on the lees grows thick and stale, a picture of a nation grown settled in its pride.

Hebrew: שְׁמָרָיו (shemarav, H8105) — “its dregs, its lees.” Winemakers poured wine from jar to jar to clear it. Wine left on its lees keeps its harsh taste. Moab had never been poured out, so nothing in it had changed.

See also: Zephaniah 1:12.

Jeremiah 48:12

The Lord will now do the pouring. He sends men who tip Moab out like wine and smash the jars. The ease Moab trusted will be turned upside down, and what looked like permanence will break.

BSA: wanderers (“those who march or tip over, invaders”): The Hebrew word can mean those who tilt a jar, so the invaders are pictured as pourers of wine as well as armies.

Jeremiah 48:13

Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as Israel was ashamed of Bethel. Israel once trusted a golden calf there, and it failed them. Misplaced trust always ends in disappointment, whoever it is placed in.

BSA: ashamed (“feel guilty, disappointed”): The shame is the pain of seeing that what you relied on has let you down.

Hebrew: בּוֹשׁ (bosh, H954) — “to be ashamed, disappointed.” It describes the shame of being let down by something you expected to hold. It is the opposite of trust that is not put to shame.

See also: 1 Kings 12:28-29.

Jeremiah 48:14-17

Moab boasts that its men are mighty warriors, yet its best young men have already fallen. The King, the Lord of Hosts, says disaster is racing toward them. Nations around, who once knew Moab’s fame, are called to mourn the broken staff of its strength.

BSA: mighty men (“strong, valiant”): Moab’s proud claim of strength sounds hollow beside the facts. scepter (“staff, rod of authority”): The broken staff stands for the loss of Moab’s rule and honor.

See also: Psalm 33:16-17.

Jeremiah 48:18-20

Dibon is told to come down from her glory and sit on dry ground, a sign of humbling. Aroer, on the road, watches refugees stream past and asks what has happened. The answer is that Moab is shattered, and the news is to be shouted by the Arnon River, Moab’s border.

BSA: glory (“great honor, splendor”): Dibon is told to step down from its proud place of honor. Aroer (“ruins, a place of desolation”): The name itself hints at the ruin that is coming.

Jeremiah 48:21-24

The Lord lists towns across the high plain and beyond, from Holon to Kerioth and Bozrah, near and far. The list shows that judgment is thorough, with no corner of the land left out.

BSA: Judgment (“punishment, justice”): This is justice carried out by a righteous God, not random violence.

Jeremiah 48:25

The horn, a picture of an animal’s strength, is cut off, and the arm is broken. Moab’s power to attack and defend is gone. The Lord states it with His own name.

BSA: arm (“the arm as stretched out; strength, might, power”): The arm stands for the strength Moab used to reach out and fight.

Hebrew: קֶרֶן (qeren, H7161) — “horn.” A horn was an animal’s weapon and its pride. In Hebrew, to lift up the horn means to be strong and confident, and to cut it off means to be left defenseless.

Jeremiah 48:26-27

Moab is made to stagger like a drunk, lying in its own vomit. The reason is that it lifted itself up against the Lord. Moab also mocked Israel, shaking its head as if Israel were a thief caught red-handed, and now the mockery is turned on Moab.

BSA: magnified (“exalted, lifted up”): Moab made itself bigger than it was, even against God. ridicule (“a derision, an object of scorn”): Moab’s scorn for God’s people comes back on its own head.

See also: Proverbs 16:18; Zephaniah 2:8-10.

Jeremiah 48:28

The people are told to leave their towns and live in the rocks like doves in cliff clefts. Doves are small, timid birds, and they hide where they can. It is a picture of a proud nation reduced to hiding.

BSA: dove (“a dove or pigeon”): A defenseless bird that survives by hiding sums up Moab’s new place in the world.

Jeremiah 48:29-30

Pride is piled up in five different words: pomposity, pride, conceit, arrogance, haughtiness. The Lord knows it all, and He says it comes to nothing. Boasting that is not backed by deeds is empty.

BSA: pride (“haughtiness, lofty attitude”): Pride is a lifted-up attitude, which is why it falls. insolence (“wrath, fury, or rage”): Moab’s arrogance spills out as anger and overflowing contempt.

Hebrew: גָּאוֹן (ga’on, H1347) — “pride, swelling, majesty.” The word can mean something swelled up and grand. Used of people, it describes a puffed-up pride that God opposes.

See also: Isaiah 16:6.

Jeremiah 48:31-33

God himself weeps for Moab. The vine of Sibmah once spread to the sea, and the vineyards gave joy at harvest. Now the destroyer has fallen on the fruit, and the winepresses are silent. Judgment here comes with real sorrow from the Lord.

BSA: wail (“to howl, mourn loudly”): God does not stand aloof from the judgment He sends but laments it aloud. joy (“gladness, rejoicing”): The happy shouts of harvest are gone, replaced by cries of loss.

See also: Isaiah 16:8-10.

Jeremiah 48:34

Cries of mourning go from town to town, from Heshbon to Zoar. Even the waters of Nimrim have dried up. The whole land is in lament, and what once gave life is gone.

BSA: waters (“source of refreshment”): Dry streams in the land match the dryness of the people’s hope.

Jeremiah 48:35

The Lord will end those who offer sacrifices and burn incense at the high places to their gods. Their worship has not been neutral. It has been turned away from the true God.

BSA: high places (“cultic platforms, elevations”): These were hilltop shrines where false gods were worshiped.

Jeremiah 48:36

The Lord’s heart laments like a flute for Moab. Flutes played at funerals. Judgment does not please Him. Moab’s earned wealth has perished, and the grief of the Lord is real.

BSA: heart (“the seat of emotions, intellect, and will”): God’s whole inner self is moved with sorrow over Moab’s ruin. flute (“a musical instrument, a pipe”): The flute’s sad sound at funerals shows how deeply God feels.

Hebrew: חָלִיל (chalil, H2485) — “flute, pipe.” This pipe was played both at celebrations and at funerals. Here its mournful side is heard in God’s own voice.

Jeremiah 48:37-39

Signs of mourning are everywhere: shaved heads, clipped beards, cut hands, sackcloth. Rooftops and squares are full of weeping. The Lord has broken Moab like a jar nobody wants, and its neighbors look on with horror.

BSA: sackcloth (“coarse cloth”): Rough clothing was worn at times of deep sorrow and loss. unwanted (“unpleasant, useless”): A jar thrown away has lost all its value, and so has Moab’s honor.

See also: Hosea 8:8; Isaiah 15:2-3.

Jeremiah 48:40-41

An eagle swoops down with spread wings. Towns are captured, and strongholds are seized. Moab’s brave soldiers lose heart and become as frightened as a woman in labor pains.

BSA: eagle (“a large bird of prey”): The eagle shows how fast and how total the attack will be.

Hebrew: נֶשֶׁר (nesher, H5404) — “eagle, large bird of prey.” Hebrew uses this word for a bird that circles high and then falls fast. The same picture appears in other warnings of attack.

See also: Jeremiah 49:22.

Jeremiah 48:42-44

Moab will be wiped out as a nation because it lifted itself against the Lord. Terror, pit, and snare wait on every side. Whoever escapes one danger falls into the next, because the year of God’s visit has come.

BSA: vaunted (“magnified, lifted up”): The root cause is pride that sets itself above the Lord. punishment (“visitation, official oversight”): God comes in person to inspect and judge, and nothing slips past Him.

Hebrew: פְּקֻדָּה (pequddah, H6486) — “visitation, reckoning.” The word means a time when God comes to take account. Depending on the context, it can bring blessing or judgment.

See also: Isaiah 24:17-18.

Jeremiah 48:45-46

Refugees stand helpless at Heshbon. Fire once spread from Heshbon in Sihon’s days, and now it burns Moab. Its proud, noisy people perish, and the people of Chemosh go into exile. This echoes an old song about Moab’s own conquests.

BSA: tumult (“uproar, noisy boastfulness”): Moab is called the sons of noise, a people known for loud boasting. captivity (“a state of being held prisoner, bondage”): Sons and daughters are carried off, which is the deepest family sorrow.

Hebrew: שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, H7588) — “uproar, roar, din.” It is the sound of a crowd or of crashing waves. Moab’s noisy confidence ends in the noise of its own downfall.

See also: Numbers 21:28-29.

Jeremiah 48:47

The chapter ends with hope. In the latter days the Lord will restore Moab from captivity. God’s anger is real, but His last word to the nations is mercy, and judgment is not the end of the story.

BSA: restore (“bring back, reverse the captivity of”): God promises to turn Moab’s captivity around and bring it back. latter days (“in the future, at the end of time”): The promise looks beyond present ruin to a future time God has chosen.

Hebrew: שְׁבוּת (shevuth, H7622) — “captivity, fortunes.” The phrase ’turn the shevuth’ can mean to bring captives home and to restore what was lost. It is the same promise given to Israel.

See also: Jeremiah 49:6; Jeremiah 46:26.