John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 48:1

"Of Moab. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down." — Jeremiah 48:1 (ASV)

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).