Jeremiah 48:1-6

A. Advancing Devastation Jeremiah 48:1-6

TRANSLATION

(1) Concerning Moab: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, is captured; Misgab is put to shame and confounded. (2) The glory of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have plotted calamity against her. Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. Also, O Madmen, You shall be silent; the sword shall pursue you. (3) Hark! A cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction. (4) Moab is shattered; her little ones cause a cry to be heard. (5) For by the ascent of Luhith they shall go up with continual weeping; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction. (6) Flee! Run for your life! that you may be like the heath in the wilderness.

COMMENTS

The poem opens with a resounding woe. This word is derived from the Hebrew vocabulary of lamentation and expresses the idea how sad it is. Sometimes the word is used sarcastically; sometimes the prophets are sincere when they utter their woes. Here Jeremiah must feel genuine sympathy for the Moabites in the calamity they are about to experience at the hands of an unnamed northern army. The prophet sees in his mind's eye the enemy devastating the northern cities of Moab, those cities north of the Arnon river. Nebo is not the mountain but a near-by village named in honor of the Semitic deity Nabu. Misgab (the high fortress) and Kiriathaim (the double city) are in the vicinity of Nebo. The inhabitants of these cities are dismayed and stupefied in the face of the enemy onslaught (Jeremiah 48:1). In Heshbon, the main city north of the river Arnon, the destroyers from the north assemble for the final push into Moab proper.[383] Come, let us cut her off from being a nation! The villages of Madmen (Jeremiah 48:2) and Horonaim (Jeremiah 48:3) just south of the Arnon are sacked and destroyed by the enemy. Jeremiah can hear the wails of panic-stricken men and terrified women and children as they flee southward up the road that leads to Luhith and down the valley that leads to Horonaim. The locations of these two villages are unknown.

[383] Heshbon was a border town between Reuben and Gad and served as one of the forty-eight Levitical cities (Joshua 21:39). In Jeremiah's day the city seems to have been occupied by Ammonites (Jeremiah 49:3).