Jeremiah 48:20

Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled, MOAB IS CONFOUNDED - answer of the flying Moabites to the Ammonite inquirers (; ). He enumerates the Moabite cities at length, as it seemed so incredible that all should be so utterly ruined. Many of them were assigned to the Levites, while Israel stood. TELL YE IT IN ARNON - the northern boundary between Moab and Ammon (; )....

We have stated why the Prophet describes so fully the ruin of the Moabites, and dwells so long on a subject in no way obscure; it was not indeed enough merely to teach and to show what was useful to be known, but it was also necessary to add goads, that the Jews might attend to these prophecies; nay, it was necessary to drive as it were with a hammer into their minds what would have been otherwise incredible; for they deemed it a fable that the Moabites could thus be broken, laid waste, and reduced to nothing. The Prophet then would have labored in vain, or spoken ineffectually, had he described in simple and plain words what we here read. But he added vehemence to his words, as though he would drive in his words with a hammer and fasten them in the minds of the people. He then says, that _Moab was ashamed, because he was smitten _And then he turns again to address their neighbors, _Howl...

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....

Verse Jeremiah 48:20. _TELL YE IT IN ARNON_] Apprize the inhabitants there that the territories of Moab are invaded, and the country about to be destroyed, that they may provide for their own safety....

Or, “Moab is ashamed, because she (Dibon) is broken” by her fortifications being battered down....

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;...

MOAB IS CONFOUNDED, FOR IT IS BROKEN DOWN,.... This is the answer returned, by those that had escaped and were fleeing, to those who inquired of them; who report that the whole country of Moab was in the utmost confusion and consternation; not being able to stand before the enemy, who broke down and destroyed all that was in his way: and therefore calls upon them to HOWL AND CRY; because of the general ruin at the nation, and who must expect themselves to share the same fate; and therefore should prepare themselves and their neighbours for it, as follows: TELL YE IT IN ARNON, THAT MOAB IS SPOILED; the country of Arnon, so called from a river of that name, on the banks of which Aroer was situated; the inhabitants of which are desired to spread it all over that part of the country, that Moab was utterly ruined by the Chaldean army; the particulars of which follow:...

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

Enumeration of the cities which are to suffer (Jeremiah 48:20). The strength of Moab is destroyed, and Moab is become drunken (with the cup of Yahweh, Jeremiah 25:15), an object of present derision, as Israel formerly was to Moab, when Israel was treated as a detected thief (Jeremiah 2:26). Let the Moabites seek refuge like the dove in the inaccessible crannies of some ravine. Jeremiah 48:20 ff. Several of these sites are unknown; Bozrah is not the Edomite city of Jeremiah 49:13....

ARNON. Now _Wady Mojib,_ on the east side of the Dead Sea....