Jeremiah 48:18

Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon.—Dibon is mentioned among the cities of Moab in Numbers 21:30; Isaiah 15:2, and as rebuilt by the Gadites in Numbers 33:45. It is prominent in the Moabite Stone inscription as a royal city. In the distribution of the conquered territory it fell to the lot of Reuben (Joshua 13:7; Joshua 13:9), but must afterwards have been retaken by Moab. The “strongholds” indicate a fortress. In Isaiah 15:9 it appears under the form of Dimon, and is there described as abounding in water, the site being probably on the north bank of the Arnon. This last feature gives point to the words of the prophet here. Its waters will not save its inhabitants from the thirst which falls on those who are dragged as captives into exile.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 48:18-25. Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon — Thou that art exalted in pride, and rendered effeminate through luxury: Dibon being one of the chief cities of Moab; come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst — Submit to a mean condition, wherein thou shalt feel the want of all the conveniences of life. The Hebrew language expresses a barren land, which yields no sustenance by a thirsty ground, Psalm 63:2; Isaiah 35:7; Ezekiel 19:13. O inhabitant of Aroer — A town in the borders of Moab; stand by the way and espy, &c. — The prophet describes the great concern and fear that were upon them, which made them hearken to every little report that was stirring. Howl and cry — There will be just cause for a general lamentation. Judgment is come upon the plain country, &c. — The inhabitants of the low grounds have suffered the punishment they deserved. The horn of Moab is cut off — The authority and power of Moab are taken away. This is a metaphorical expression, taken from horned beasts, whose power to defend themselves, and injure other creatures, lies chiefly in their horns. And his arm is broken — His strength is exhausted, the arm of man being the instrument whereby he chiefly discovers his strength.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

48:14-47. 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Sit in thirst - Jeremiah draws a picture of the conquered inhabitants, collected outside the walls, waiting for their captors to march them away to the slave mart. The enemy occupied with plundering the houses of Dibon thinks little of the hunger and thirst of his prisoners.

Strong holds - The remains of the fortifications of Dibon are still visible.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. (Isa 47:1).

dost inhabit—now so securely settled as if in a lasting habitation.

thirst—Dibon, being situated on the Arnon, abounded in water (Isa 15:9). In sad contrast with this, and with her "glory" in general, she shall be reduced not only to shame, but to the want of the commonest necessaries ("thirst") in the arid wilderness (Jer 48:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Of this

Dibon we read Numbers 21:30. It was a land for cattle, Numbers 32:3. Both Dibon, and Aroer, and Ataroth were built by-the children of Gad, to whose lot it fell, Numbers 32:34, as also to the Reubenites in part, Joshua 13 17. It should seem that the Moabites were now come into the possession of it, either by conquest, or upon the Assyrians taking the ten tribes.

Sit in thirst; it was a place well watered (otherwise it had not been fit for cattle); God threateneth that she should be

in thirst, that is, driven into some dry, barren countries.

For the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds; for the king of Babylon, whom God had appointed to spoil all Moab, shall destroy thee also, and thy strong holds shall not secure thee.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon,.... A city in Moab; See Gill on Isaiah 15:2. The Targum is,

"O kingdom of the congregation of Dibon;''

but this was not a kingdom of itself, though a principal city in the kingdom of Moab:

come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; in a dry and thirsty land; in want of all the necessaries of life; in captivity; who before abounded with all good things, inhabiting a well watered and fruitful soil; see Isaiah 15:9; but now called to quit all their former glory and happiness, their fulness and felicity, and submit to the greatest straits and difficulties:

for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds; the king of Babylon and his army, who spoiled the other cities of Moab; he should come against this also, and take it, and demolish its fortifications, by reason of which it thought itself secure; but these should not be able to protect it.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. thou daughter that dwellest (mg. art seated) in Dibon] meaning, inhabitants of Dibon See on Jeremiah 4:11.

Dibon] now Diban (the “Moabite stone” was found there in 1868) stands on two hills. Hence the expression “come down” in the text. It is four miles N. of the Arnon, and thirteen E. of the Dead Sea, and is described as now a dreary and featureless ruin.

sit in thirst] The words are apparently corrupt, but it is difficult to obtain a satisfactory emendation; perhaps sit in mire or filth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Dibon; now Diban, one of the chief towns of Moab, on two adjacent hills, now covered with ruins (Tristram), in the plain of Medeba (Joshua 13:9), north of Aroer and the Amen. Here the famous Moabite Stone (on which see Dr. Ginsburg's exhaustive monograph), with the inscription of King Mesha (2 Kings 3:4), was found, which, after having been broke up and pieced together, has now found a resting place in the Louvre. It is difficult to say to which Israelitish tribe Dibon was, strictly speaking, attached; for while in Joshua 13:17 it is given to Reuben, in Numbers 32:34 and in the Moabite Stone (line 10) it is assigned to Gad, Apparently the Israelitish population fluctuated. Sometimes Gad was the most adventurous in Occupying Moabitish territory, sometimes Reuben. On the phrase, the daughter, etc., see note on Jeremiah 46:19. The form of the first verse haft is modelled on Isaiah 47:1. Sit in thirst. The expression is unexampled, and it is possible that we should alter one of the vowel points (which constitute no part of the Massoretic text), rendering, "sit in thirsty (ground)," i.e. the dust (comp. the parallel passage; Isaiah 47:1). Or there may be a less used collateral form of the Hebrew for "thirsty" (came). Canon Tristram speaks of the "waterless plain" of Diban ('Land of Moab,' p. 132). Thy strongholds. It appears from the Moabite Stone that Diben was the centre of a district which was reckoned as belonging to it; so at least we may account for the phrase, "all Dibon was submissive" (line 28). Compare the phrase in Numbers 21:25, "Heshbon, and all the villages thereof" (comp. on Jeremiah 49:2). Jeremiah 48:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In Jeremiah 48:18-25 is further described the downfall of this strong and glorious power. The inhabitants if Dibon are to come down from their glory and sit in misery; those of Aroer are to ask the fugitives what has happened, that they may learn that the whole table-land on to the Arnon has been taken by the enemy; and they are to howl over the calamity. The idea presented in Jeremiah 48:18 is an imitation of that in Isaiah 47:1, "Come down, O daughter of Babylon, sit in the dust;" but רדי is intensified by the addition of מכּבוד, and וּשׁבי על is changed into וּשׁבי בצּמא (the Kethib ישׁבי has evidently been written by mistake for וּשׁבי, the Qeri). צמא elsewhere means "thirst;" but "sit down in the thirst" would be too strange an expression; hence צמא must here have the meaning of צמא, Isaiah 44:3, "the thirsty arid land:" thus it remains a question whether we should point the word צמא, or take צמא as another form of צמא, as חלב sa ,צמא fo mro is of חלב, Ezekiel 23:19. There is no sufficient reason why Hitzig and Ewald should give the word a meaning foreign to it, from the Arabic or Syriac. Dibon lay about four miles north from the Arnon, at the foot of a mountain, in a very beautiful plain, where, under the name of Dibn, many traces of walls, and a well by the wayside, hewn out of the rock, are still to be found (Seetzen, i. S. 409f.). Hence it must have been well provided with water, even though we should be obliged to understand by "the water of Dimon" (Dibon), which Isaiah mentions (Isaiah 15:9), the river Arnon, which is about three miles off. The command to "sit down in an arid land" thus forms a suitable figure, representing the humiliation and devastation of Dibon. That the city was fortified, is evident from the mention of the fortifications in the last clause. ישׁבת , as in Jeremiah 46:19. Aroer was situated on the north bank of the Arnon (Mojeb), where its ruins still remain, under the old name Arג'ir (Burckhardt, p. 372). It was a frontier town, between the kingdom of Sihon (afterwards the territory of the Israelites) and the possession of the Moabites (Deuteronomy 2:36; Deuteronomy 3:12; Deuteronomy 4:48; Joshua 12:2; Joshua 13:9, Joshua 13:16). But after the Moabites had regained the northern portion of their original territory, it lay in the midst of the land. The fugitives here represented as passing by are endeavouring, by crossing the Arnon, to escape from the enemy advancing from the north, and subduing the country before them. נס ונמלטה means fugitives of every kind. The co-ordination of the same word or synonymous terms in the masc. and fem. serves to generalize the idea; see on Isaiah 3:1, and Ewald, 172, c. In נמלטה the tone is retracted through the influence of the distinctive accent; the form is participial. The question, "What has happened?" is answered in Jeremiah 48:20. כּי חתּה, "for ( equals certainly) it is broken down." The Kethib הלילי וּזעקי must not be changed. Moab is addressed: with הגּידוּ is introduced the summons, addressed to individuals, to proclaim at the Arnon the calamity that has befallen the country to the north of that river.