Jeremiah 48:32

O vine of Sibmah. — Here again we have an echo of Isaiah 16:9. Sibmah appears in Joshua 13:19 as assigned to the Reubenites, in the region east of Jordan. After that date it does not appear again till we find it in these prophetic notices. Jerome (Comm. in Isa. Jeremiah 5) names it as a strong city about half a mile from Heshbon, but its site has not been identified by modern travellers. It would appear from these notices to have been famous for vineyards that extended to Jazer. The city so named, identified with the modern Es Szir, had belonged to the Amorites (Numbers 21:32, there spelt Jaazer), and lay between Heshbon and Bashan, about fifteen miles north of the former city. It passed afterwards into the possession of the Gadites (Joshua 13:25; 2 Samuel 24:5), and was evidently, when the two prophets wrote, in that of the Moabites. The phrase “weeping of Jazer” implies that it was to share in the desolation of Sibmah. The “sea of Jazer” (if the text is right, the LXX. giving “city”) must have been some inland lake or pond, which has not since been identified. The “sea” of the parallel passage of Isaiah 16:8 is commonly interpreted of the Dead Sea. The “summer fruits” were the figs and pomegranates which were commonly cultivated together with the vine.