Jeremiah 48:16

The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast. THE CALAMITY OF MOAB IS NEAR - to the prophet's eye, though probably 23 years elapsed between the utterance of the prophecy, in the 4th year of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:1), and its fulfillment in the 5th year of Nebuchadnezzar....

Here the Prophet expresses something more, that the vengeance of which he spoke was near and hastening. It served to alleviate the sorrow of the faithful, when they understood that the Moabites would shortly be punished; for it was a grievous and bitter trial, when God severely chastened his own children, to see that the wicked were in the meantime spared. As, then, he deferred his judgments as to the wicked, that delay tended to drive the faithful to despair, at least they could not bear with sufficient patience the scourges of God. This is the reason why the Prophet now says, _Near is the destruction _of the Moabites, _and their calamity hastens _And though God did for some time yet bear with the Moabites, so that they remained in a quiet state, and reveled in their pleasures, yet this prophecy was true; for we are to bear in mind that truth, which ought ever to be remembered as to pro...

14-47. The destruction of Moab is further prophesied, to awaken them by national repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a personal repentance and reformation to prepare for it. In reading this long roll of threatenings, and mediating on the terror, it will be of more use to us to keep in view the power of God's anger and the terror of his judgments, and to have our hearts possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath, than to search into all the figures and expressions here used. Yet it is not perpetual destruction. The chapter ends with a promise of their return out of captivity in the latter days. Even with Moabites God will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. The Jews refer it to the days of the Messiah; then the captives of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin and Satan, shall be brought back by Divine grace, which shall make them free indeed....

NEAR TO COME - Twenty-three years elapsed between the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when this prophecy was spoken, and its accomplishment by the invasion of Moab five years after the capture of Jerusalem. So slowly does God’s justice move onward....

EXPOSITION This prophecy is so full of repetitions that the question has naturally arisen whether the most prominent of these may not be due to interpolation. For instance: 1.Jeremiah 48:29-24 recur in Isaiah 16:6; Isaiah 15:4, Isaiah 15:5, Isaiah 15:6; Isaiah 16:12, Isaiah 16:11;...

THE CALAMITY OF MOAB [IS] NEAR TO COME,.... As it did come within live years after the destruction of Jerusalem, as observed on Jeremiah 48:12; out of Josephus: AND HIS AFFLICTION HASTETH FAST: or, "his evil" z the evil of punishment for his sin; his utter destruction. z רעתו "malum ejus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Schmidt....

CHAPTER 48 Concerning Moab _ 1. The overthrow of Moab (Jeremiah 48:1) _ 2. The humiliation of Moab (Jeremiah 48:11) 3. Reaping what they sowed (Jeremiah 48:20) 4. Destroyed on account of its pride (Jeremiah 48:29) With these divisions the chapter may be studied in detail. Moab was of incestuous off spring Genesis 19:37. Israel is now exhorted to flee and save itself because Moab is to be destroyed. Moab's national deity was Chemosh, who was also worshipped by the sister nation, the

Moab, hitherto undisturbed, is compared with wine left standing on its sediment (Isaiah 25:6), and retaining its flavour and scent (_i.e._ being self-centred and undisciplined; _cf._ the pride of Jeremiah 48:29). But now she is roughly handled, and the jars (Jeremiah 48:12 _mg._ 2) broken. She shall be put to shame through (the helplessness of) Chemosh (so render in Jeremiah 48:13), as Israel was through her false trust in the worship at Bethel (Amos 5:5). In spite of her warriors, she is soon to be ravaged, and a dirge ...

HASTETH FAST. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 32:35). App-92....

See introd. summary to the ch....