Jeremiah 48:37

For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. EVERY HEAD SHALL BE BALD - (note, , "Baldness is come upon Gaza;" Isaiah 15:2). UPON ALL THE HANDS SHALL BE CUTTINGS - i:e., upon all the arms, in which such cuttings used to be made in token of grief (cf. Zech. 31:6 )....

The Prophet describes at large a very great mourning. They were wont in great sorrow to pull off their hair, to shave their beard, and to put on sackcloth, or to gird it round their loins, and also to cut their hands with a knife or with their nails. As these things were signs of grief; Jeremiah puts them all together, in order to show that the calamity of Moab would not be common, but what would cause to the whole people extreme lamentation. _They shall make bald_, he says, _their heads, their beard they shall pull off_, or shave; for the word, to diminish, may signify either. Then he adds, the _incisions in the hands_; they shall tear their faces and their hands with their nails, or as some say, with a knife or a razor. As to sackcloth, it was also a sign of mourning. It is indeed certain that it was formerly the practice for men, as though it was innate in human nature, in great calam...

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 48:37. _FOR EVERY HEAD_ SHALL BE _BALD_] These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation....

CUTTINGS - Compare Jeremiah 16:6, and marginal references....

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;...

FOR EVERY HEAD [SHALL BE] BALD, AND EVERY BEARD CLIPPED,.... Men, in times of mourning, used to pluck off the hairs of their head till they made them bald, and shaved their beards; which, as Kimchi says, were the glory of their faces; see Isaiah 15:2; UPON ALL THE HANDS SHALL BE CUTTINGS: it was usual with the Heathens to make incisions in the several parts of their bodies, particularly in their hands and arms, with their nails, or with knives, in token of mourning; which are forbidden the Israelites, Deuteronomy 14:1; AND UPON THE LOINS SACKCLOTH; this is a well known custom for mourners, to put off their clothes, and put on sackcloth; all these things are mentioned, to show how great was the mourning of Moab for the calamities of it....

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's pride is without foundation, doomed to a fall which the prophet laments; comparing the past glory with the far-reaching tendrils of a choice vine (Jeremiah 48:32). There is no longer the joy of the ingathering; the shout of battle replaces that of the vintage (Jeremiah 48:33). The beginning of Jeremiah 48:34 is corrupt and yields no sense, but the general meaning is that there shall be widespread ruin. The _worship of the land is brought_ to an end (Jeremiah 48:35). Hence the prophet's sorrow for Moab, a land filled with mourning (Je

EVERY HEAD. Some codices, with four early printed editions (one margin), read "For upon every head". BALD. baldness. The symbol of mourning. Compare Jeremiah 47:5. UPON THE LOINS. Some codices, with three early printed editions, Septuagint, and Vulgate, read "and upon all loins"....