Jeremiah 48:3

A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Horonaim—literally, the two caverns, or the two Horons—may imply, like other dual names of towns, that there was an upper and a lower city. It is mentioned in Isaiah 15:5, but has not been identified.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

48:1-13. The Chaldeans are to destroy the Moabites. We should be thankful that we are required to seek the salvation of men's lives, and the salvation of their souls, not to shed their blood; but we shall be the more without excuse if we do this pleasant work deceitfully. The cities shall be laid in ruins, and the country shall be wasted. There will be great sorrow. There will be great hurry. If any could give wings to sinners, still they could not fly out of the reach of Divine indignation. There are many who persist in unrepented iniquity, yet long enjoy outward prosperity. They had been long corrupt and unreformed, secure and sensual in prosperity. They have no changes of their peace and prosperity, therefore their hearts and lives are unchanged, Ps 55:19.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Omit shall be. "Spoiling and great destruction," literally breaking, is the cry heard from Horonaim Isaiah 15:5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. Horonaim—the same as the city Avara, mentioned by Ptolemy. The word means "double caves" (Ne 2:10; Isa 15:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Another city of Moab, mentioned only in this place, and in Isaiah 15:5. Some think it the same with Horon, where Sanballat was born, Nehemiah 2:10 13:28. The prophet threatens also ruin and destruction to this city.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim,.... Another city of Moab. The word is of the dual number; and, according to Kimchi and Ben Melech, there were two Horons, the upper and the lower; of this place See Gill on Isaiah 15:5; this also should be destroyed; and so a cry of the inhabitants of it should be heard out of it:

spoiling, and great destruction; because the city was spoiled, and a great destruction made in the inhabitants and riches of it.

Geneva Study Bible

A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim, spoiling and great destruction.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Horonaim. This Moabite town was probably on the borders of Edom; hence, perhaps, "Sanballat the Horonite." Jeremiah 48:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A cry is heard from Horonaim against violence and destruction. The words שׁד ושׁב are to be taken as the cry itself; cf. Jeremiah 4:20; Jeremiah 20:8. The city of Horonaim, mentioned both here and in Isaiah 15:5 in connection with Luhith, lay on a slope, it would seem, not far from Luhith. Regarding this latter place we find it remarked in the Onomasticon: est usque hodie vicus inter Areopolim et Zoaram nomine Luitha (Λουειθά). As to ̓Ωροναείμ, the Onomasticon says no more than πόλις Μωὰβ ὲν ̔Ιερεμίᾳ (ed. Lars. p. 376). The destruction over which the outcry is made comes on Moab. By "Moab" Graf refuses to understand the country or its inhabitants, but rather the ancient capital of the country, Ar-Moab (Numbers 21:28; Isaiah 15:1), in the valley of the Arnon, which is also simply called Ar in Numbers 21:15; Deuteronomy 2:9. But, as Dietrich has already shown (S. 329ff.), the arguments adduced in support of this view are insufficient to prove the point.

(Note: The mention of Moab among names if cities in Jeremiah 48:4, and in connection with Kir-heres in Jeremiah 48:31 and Jeremiah 48:36 proves nothing; for in Jeremiah 48:4 Moab is not named among towns, and the expression in Jeremiah 48:31 and Jeremiah 48:36 is analogous to the phrase "Judah and Jerusalem." Nor can any proof be derived from the fact that Rabbath-Moab is merely called "Moab" in the Onomasticon of Eusebius, and Mb in Abulfeda, and Rabbath-Ammon, now merely "Amman;" because this mode of speaking will not admit of being applied for purposes of proof to matters pertaining to Old Testament times, since it originated only in the Christian ages,at a time, too, when Rabbath had become the capital of the country, and when Rabbath-Moab could easily be shortened by the common people into "Moab." Rabbath (of Moab), however, is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament.)

שׁבר, to break,of a nation or a city (Jeremiah 19:11; Isaiah 14:25, etc.), as it were, to ruin, - is here used of the country or kingdom. צעוריה is for צעיריה, as in Jeremiah 14:3. The little ones of Moab, that raise a cry, are neither the children (Vulgate, Dahler, Maurer), nor the small towns (Hitzig), nor the people of humble condition, but cives Moabi ad statum miserum dejecti (Kueper). The lxx have rendered εἰς Ζογόρα (i.e., צעורה), which reading is preferred by J. D. Michaelis, Ewald, Umbreit, Graf, Ngelsbach, but without sufficient reason; for neither the occurrence of Zoar in combination with Horonaim in Jeremiah 48:34, nor the parallel passage Isaiah 15:5, will prove the point. Isaiah 15:5 is not a parallel to this verse, but to Jeremiah 48:34; however, the train of thought is different from that before us here. Besides, Jeremiah writes the name of the town צער (not צוער), cf. v. 34, as in Isaiah 15:5; Deuteronomy 34:3; Genesis 13:10 (צוער occurs only in Genesis 19:22, Genesis 19:30); hence it is unlikely that צעור has been written by mistake for צוער.