John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 48

This prophecy is against the Moabites, who, though they derived their origin from Lot and were of the same blood with the Israelites, had nevertheless been hostile to them. This prophecy would be uninteresting if we did not remember the history on which its application and understanding depend.

We have said that the Moabites, since the father of their nation was Lot, were connected by blood with the Israelites. They therefore should have retained the memory of their brotherhood and treated them kindly, for God had spared them when the people of Israel entered the land of Canaan.

The Israelites, we know, passed through the borders of Moab without doing them any harm, because it was God’s purpose, out of regard for Lot, to preserve them for a time. But this people never ceased to devise all kinds of plots against God’s people. As we will later see, when the situation of God’s people became difficult, the Moabites cruelly exulted over them and became more insolent than open enemies.

For this reason, God prophesied against them, so that the Israelites might know (as we reminded you yesterday) that their miserable condition was not overlooked by God. Though He chastised them, some hope of mercy remained, as He took up their cause and would be their defender. This prophecy then brought no small comfort to the faithful, for they thereby knew that God was still their Father, even though He apparently seemed severe to them. We now perceive the purpose of what is said here.

The case of the Moabites was different from that of the Egyptians, for the Egyptians were entirely foreign to the chosen people; but the Moabites, as we have said, were related to them. They were therefore willful and, so to speak, internal enemies. Nature itself should have taught them to acknowledge the Israelites as their brothers and to cultivate mutual kindness. This cruelty and ingratitude were so hateful to God that eventually He punished them most severely.

But since the Moabites remained undisturbed when Judea was devastated and the city of Jerusalem destroyed—after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel and the banishment of the ten tribes to distant countries—it was necessary for the faithful to exercise patience, which could not have been done without hope. This, then, was what Jeremiah had in view: to sustain the minds of the godly with the expectation of God’s judgment, which he here denounces on the Moabites.

He says, Against Moab; and then it follows, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel. By the first term He designates the immense power of God and reminds them that God is the judge of the whole world and that His kingdom extends over all nations. By the second expression, He bears testimony to the love with which He had embraced the children of Abraham, because He had been pleased to choose them as His special inheritance. Woe, he says, on Nebo; which was a city in the land of Moab; because laid waste, ashamed, taken is Kiriathaim. He names here, as we see, some cities, and he will name more as he proceeds. Ashamed then and taken is Kiriathaim; and Misgab is ashamed and torn (or broken in mind).

The Prophet, as before, does not speak in an ordinary way but declares in lofty terms what God had committed to him, so that he might terrify the Moabites. It was not indeed that they heard his threats, but it was necessary for him to denounce vengeance in this vehement manner so that the Jews might know that the cruelty and pride of the Moabites, later mentioned, would not go unpunished.

Therefore he says, No more shall be the praise or the boasting of Moab over Heshbon. We may learn from this passage and from others that Heshbon had been taken from the Moabites, for it was occupied by God’s people because the Moabites had lost it, as Moses relates in Numbers 21:30 and Deuteronomy 2:26 and following.

But, as things change, when the Moabites became strong, they took this city away from the Israelites. Therefore the Prophet says that there would be no more boasting that they possessed Heshbon, for he adds, They have thought, or devised, etc. There is a striking allusion here, for Heshbon (from the Hebrew חשבון, chesbon) is derived from the root חשב, chesheb, meaning 'to devise' or 'to consult', as though Heshbon were a place of consultation or devising.

The Prophet then says that concerning Heshbon, they consulted against it (in Hebrew, חשבו עליה, cheshbu olie). He uses the root from which the name of the city is derived. Heshbon, then, previously called the place of consultation, was to have and find other counselors—namely, those who would contrive ruin for it.

Come ye; the Prophet here refers to the counsel taken by the Chaldeans: Come ye, and let us cut her off from being a nation. He then addresses another city: And thou, Madmen, shalt be cut off, for a sword shall go after thee, or pursue thee, as though the city itself were fleeing from the sword.

This is not because cities move from one place to another. Rather, when the citizens deliberate how they might drive away their enemies and resist their attacks—when they seek aid here and there, and when they employ their own remedies—they are said to flee. But the Prophet says, Thou shalt gain nothing by fleeing, for the sword shall pursue thee.

By naming many cities, he shows that the whole land was doomed to ruin, so that no corner of it would be exempt from destruction. For the Moabites might have suffered some loss without much injury had they been moderately chastised; but the Prophet shows that they would be so reduced by the power of Nebuchadnezzar, that ruin would extend to every part of the land. Thus, we now see why this catalogue of the cities is given.

By the voice of crying he means howling, a loud lamentation, heard far and wide. He says that the voice of crying would go forth from Horonaim, which some think was so called because the city consisted of two parts, a higher and a lower part. He then adds, desolation and great destruction. He thus explains himself, for the citizens of Horonaim would in vain cry out, because desolation and breaking or destruction would constrain them, that is, make them cry out so as to howl for the bitterness of their grief.

The Prophet speaks again generally of the whole country. It is said that the land of Moab was afflicted; not that it was so at that time, but to make the prophecy certain, the prophet speaks of the event as having already taken place. For the prophets, as is well known, speaking in the person of God, relate things still hidden as though they had already been completed.

He says that the little ones of Moab cried out so as to be heard. This is much more emphatic than if he had said that men and women cried out, for children do not quickly perceive what is happening, because their understanding is limited.

Men and women howl when merely threats are announced, but little children are moved only by present evils. Unless they are actually beaten, they are not affected. Even then, they hardly distinguish between some slight evil and death.

Therefore, when the Prophet says that the little ones of Moab were heard in their crying, he means that the severity of its calamity would be extreme, such that little children, as though wise before their time, would perceive the atrocious cruelty of their enemies.

Here Jeremiah uses another figure, that weeping would be heard everywhere in the ascent to Luhith. It is probable, and it appears from the Prophet’s words, that this city was situated on a high place. He then says that men would go up with weeping in the ascent to Luhith; literally, In (or with) weeping shall weeping ascend; but some read as though it were written בכה, beke, weeping; and there is no doubt that the verb יעלה, iole, refers to a person. Jeremiah seems to have mentioned weeping twice to show that men would not only weep in one place but during the long course of their ascent, as though he had said, “Those who are near the city shall weep, and those in the middle of their course, and those at the foot of the mountain;” that is, there will be weeping in every place. We now perceive the Prophet's meaning.

He afterwards says, In the descent to Horonaim. From this it appears that this city was situated in a low place or on a plain; and therefore I do not know why they say that one part of it was higher than the other. It might indeed be that it had a hill in it; but the place was in a level country and had mountains around it, as we learn from the Prophet’s words, In the descent to Horonaim the enemies shall hear a cry of distress. By saying that enemies would hear a cry, he means that the citizens of Horonaim and their neighbors would become frantic through grief.

For fear restrains weeping, and when anyone sees an enemy near, the very sight of him checks him, so that he dares not openly show his grief; and then shame also restrains tears as well as sighings, for an enemy would deride our weeping in our misery. So there is no doubt that the Prophet here amplifies the grievousness of their sorrow when he says that though the citizens of Horonaim had enemies before their eyes, they would still break forth with weeping and loud crying, and that the reproach and derision of enemies would not restrain them.

Then he adds, Flee, save: this is the crying of distress. For miserable men, as is the case in extreme calamities, mutually exhort one another, Flee, save your lives. He then compares them to a tamarisk. The word ערוער, oruor, designates a country, as is probable, and there were also two cities of this name. However, ערער, oror, is a tamarisk, as we have already seen in Jeremiah 17:6. Some render it, “a tower;” and the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 17:2 are perverted by some to maintain another meaning, for they think that ערוער, oruor, means the hut of shepherds in the desert. But I prefer the opinion of those who render it “tamarisk,” or juniper, though the Prophet seems to me to allude to the city Aroer, or to a region of that name, but I rather think to the city. He then says, And ye shall be as a tamarisk in the desert; and it is known from other places that Aroer was in the land of Moab.

We now perceive what the Prophet means: that Moab would be like a juniper in the desert, that is, a barren tree, which never grows to any size; and then it is dry, because it is not nourished by any rain, nor fed by any moisture from the ground. It is in this sense, as we have stated, that our Prophet took the comparison in Jeremiah 17:5-8:

“Blessed,” he says, “is the man who trusts in Jehovah, for he shall be like a tree planted near waters: cursed is the man who trusts in man, and who makes flesh his arm, and withdraws his heart from Jehovah; for he shall be as the tamarisk of the desert;”

that is, he shall be barren and dry, without any moisture or support. It now follows:—