Jeremiah 48:26

Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 48:26-27. Make ye him drunken — God’s judgments are often represented under the metaphor of a cup of intoxicating liquors: see note on Jeremiah 25:15. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit — The judgments which God sends upon him shall expose him to the scorn of his enemies; just as a drunken man is the object of men’s laughter and derision. For was not Israel a derision unto thee? — Didst not thou insult over the calamities of the Jews when they were carried away captive? Israel is here put for Judah. Was he found among thieves? — Though the sins of Israel were great in the sight of God, yet, as he had done no injury to the Moabites, there was no reason why they should use him with the same despite and contempt as if he had been a common thief and robber, whom all men think they have a right to abuse. For since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy — This translation, Blaney observes, seems quite foreign to the purpose, and does not accord with the literal meaning of the Hebrew, מדי דברין בו תתנודד, which, he thinks, may be properly rendered, That thou shouldest insult him with all the power of thy words. The sense then of the sentence will be, “Didst thou find Israel among thieves, coming to rob thee of thy property, that thou shouldest think thyself entitled to break out into all manner of revilings against him? Compare Ezekiel 25:8; Zephaniah 2:8; Zephaniah 2:10. Lowth suggests another interpretation, which the words will very well bear, and which agrees with the Chaldee paraphrase, namely, For the words thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be carried captive. To this purpose also the Vulgar Latin, propter verba tua quæ adversum ilium locutus es, captivus diceres.

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

Make ye him drunken - With the wine-cup of God's fury, until terror deprive him of his senses.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26. drunken—(see on [980]Jer 13:12; Jer 25:17). Intoxicated with the cup of divine wrath, so as to be in helpless distraction.

magnified … against … Lord—boasted arrogantly against God's people, that whereas Israel was fallen, Moab remained flourishing.

wallow in … vomit—following up the image of a drunken man, that is, shall be so afflicted by God's wrath as to disgorge all his past pride, riches, and vainglory, and fall in his shameful abasement.

he also … derision—He in his disaster shall be an object of derision to us, as we in ours have been to him (Jer 48:27). Retribution in kind.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Make ye him drunken; either make ye him to stagger like a drunken man, (the cause being put for the effect,) or fill him with the intoxicating wine cup of God’s vengeance, with the effects of God’s wrath. For he magnified himself against the Lord; because of his pride, and exalting himself against the Lord, as if he had been stronger than he, and so ont of the reach of God’s power.

Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision: as drunken men vomit, and stagger, and fall, and wallow in their vomit, so let the Moabites fall by the sword, wallow in their blood, and like drunken men be mocked at and had in derision by all those who see what their vaunts come to, and what vengeance they have pulled upon themselves.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Make ye him drunken,.... Not with wine, but with the cup of divine wrath; with the vengeance of God; with sore judgments, afflictions, and calamities; give him his fill of them, till he is quite intoxicated with them, and has lost his senses, and is brought to madness and distraction, and reels, and staggers, and falls to the ground, like a drunken man; and his state and kingdom is quite ruined: this is said to the enemies of Moab, the king of Babylon and his army:

for he magnified himself against the Lord; made himself as great as he; yea, set himself above him; thought himself out of his reach; spoke proudly, haughtily, and contemptibly of him, and blasphemously against him, as if he could not deliver his people, or destroy his and their enemies. The Targum interprets it of the people of God, as in Zephaniah 2:10; paraphrasing the words thus;

"bring distress upon them, that they may be like to drunken men; for against the people of the Lord have they magnified themselves:''

Moab also shall wallow in his vomit; as drunken men do: or, he shall "clap", or "dash (a) his hand in his vomit": dash his hands and feet against the ground as he lies in his vomit, as persons in such a condition do: or shall wring his hands, and clap them together for sorrow, being sick, and in distress. Some render it, "he shall clap the hand at Moab in his vomit" (b); men shall laugh at him as he lies wallowing in it, or rejoice at his fall and ruin; but this is expressed in the next clause:

and he also shall be in derision; as drunken men are; he shall be derided by others, as others have been derided by him; now it will be his turn.

(a) "plaudat", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius; "plaudet", Piscator; "complodat", Munster, Tigurine version, Schmidt; "allidet", Lyranus. (b) "Complodet manus super Moabum jacentem in vomitu suo", Gataker.

Geneva Study Bible

Make ye him {o} drunk: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

(o) He willed the Chaldeans to lay afflictions enough on them till they are like drunken men that fall down to their shame and are derided by all.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. Make ye him drunken] For the metaphor of drunkenness see on ch. Jeremiah 25:15.

he magnified himself against the Lord] He resisted Reuben in his occupation of the territory which the Lord had assigned him, but also in much more recent times. See e.g. 2 Kings 24:2.

wallow] or, splash into.

he also shall be in derision] just as he derided Israel.

26, 27. Probably post-Jeremianic.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 26-35. - And what is Moab's crime? At an earlier point the prophet said that it was the callousness produced by long prosperity (ver. 11); but here another sin is mentioned - Moab's haughty contempt of Jehovah. "For this it deserves that its contempt should be thrown back upon itself, by its being made, like a drunken man, the scorn of all" (Ewald). The figure is, no doubt, a coarse one, but not unnatural in the oratory (we must put aside inspiration, which leaves the forms of speech untouched) of a rude people like the Jews. It occurs not unfrequently elsewhere; see especially Isaiah 19:14; Habakkuk 2:15, 16; and, for milder examples of the figure, Jeremiah 13:13 and 25. Verse 26. - Make ye him drunken. The command is issued to the agents of the Divine wrath (comp. vers. 10, 21). He magnified himself against the Lord. Offences against Israel being also offences against Israel's God (see Jephthah's striking words in Judges 11:23, 24). Shall wallow; rather, shall fall heavily (literally, shall clap - a pregnant expression). Jeremiah 48:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Moab's haughtiness and deplorable fall. - Jeremiah 48:26. "Make him drunk - for he hath boasted against Jahveh - so that Moab shall splash down into his vomit, and himself become a laughing-stock. Jeremiah 48:27. Was not Israel a laughing-stock to thee, or was he found among thieves? for whenever thou spakest of him, thou didst shake thine head. Jeremiah 48:28. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, ye inhabitants of Moab; and be ye like a dove [that] builds its nest in the sides of the mouth of a pit. Jeremiah 48:29. We have heard the very arrogant pride of Moab, his haughtiness, and his arrogance, and his high-mindedness, and his elation of mind. Jeremiah 48:30. I know, saith Jahveh, his wrath, and the untruthfulness of his words; they have done what is untrue. Jeremiah 48:31. Therefore will I howl over Moab, and for all Moab will I cry; they mourn for the people of Kir-heres. Jeremiah 48:32. I will weep for thee [with more] than the weeping of Jazer, O vine of Sibmah, thou whose tendrils have gone over the sea, have reached even to the sea of Jazer; on thy fruit-harvest and thy vintage a spoiler has fallen. Jeremiah 48:33. And joy and gladness are taken from the garden, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-vats: they shall not tread [with] a shout; the shout shall be no shout. Jeremiah 48:34. From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, as far as Jahaz, they utter their voice; from Zoar as far as Horonaim and the third Eglath; for even the waters of Nimrim shall become desolations. Jeremiah 48:35. And I will destroy from Moab, saith Jahveh, him that offers on a high place and burns incense to his gods."

Through his pride, Moab has incurred the sentence of destruction to his power. In arrogance and rage he has exalted himself over Jahveh and His people Israel; therefore must he now be humbled, Jeremiah 48:26-30. The summons to make Moab drunk is addressed to those whom God has charged with the execution of the sentence; cf. Jeremiah 48:10 and Jeremiah 48:21. These are to present to the people of Moab the cup of the divine wrath, and so to intoxicate them, that they shall fall like a drunk man into his vomit, and become a laughing-stock to others (cf. Jeremiah 13:13; Jeremiah 25:15), because they have boasted against Jahveh by driving the Israelites from their inheritance, and by deriding the people of God; cf. Zephaniah 2:8. ספק, to strike, frequently of striking the hands together; here it signifies to fall into his vomit, i.e., to tumble into it with a splash. No other explanation of the word can find support from the language used. Cf. Isaiah 19:14 and Isaiah 25:10. In the last clause of Jeremiah 48:26, the emphasis lies on גּם הוּא: "he also (Moab, like Israel before) shall become a laughing-stock." This statement is enforced by the question put in Jeremiah 48:27, "Was not Israel a laughing-stock to thee?" ואם־אם shows a double question, like ה־אם; and ואם in the first clause may be further strengthened by the interrogative ה before שׂחק, as in Genesis 17:17. For other forms of the double question, see Psalm 94:9; Job 21:4; Jeremiah 23:26. On Dagesh dirimens in השּׂחק, cf. Ewald, 104, b. There is no sufficient reason for questioning the feminine form נמצאה in the Qeri; Israel is personified as a woman, just as Moab in Jeremiah 48:20, where חתּה is found. On מדּי דב, cf. Jeremiah 31:20, where, however, דּבּר בּ is used in another meaning. התנודד, to shake oneself, is a stronger expression than הניד בּראשׁ, to shake the head (Jeremiah 18:16), a gesture denoting mockery and rejoicing over another's injury; cf. Psalm 64:9.