Jeremiah 48:30

I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) His lies shall not so effect it.—The Hebrew for “lies” has also, as in the margin, the meaning of “bars” or “staves” or “branches” as the symbol of defence (Hosea 11:6), but the version in the text is preferable. The emphasis of the original lies in the iteration. “Not so,” the sentence of frustration, is written alike on the wrath which leads to passionate outrage, and on the lies in which it seeks to find safety.

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

But it shall not be so - Most commentators translate, "I know, saith Jehovah, his arrogancy, and the emptiness of his boastings; they have worked emptiness."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. I know—Moab's "proud arrogancy" (Jer 48:29) or "wrath," against My people, is not unknown to Me.

it shall not be so—The result shall not be so as he thinks: his lies shall not so effect what he aims at by them. Calvin translates, "his lies are not right (that is, his vauntings are vain because God will not give them effect); they shall not do so" as they project in their minds, for God will set at naught their plans.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I know his rage, either against Israel, or other people; but he shall never execute it, or bring to pass what he thinks to do. There is no trusting to what he saith, his boastings and his confidence are but lies, and shall never effect his designs.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I know his wrath, saith the Lord,.... Against the Jews, and other nations; what he has threatened to do unto them, and would do if not restrained:

but it shall not be so; as he has devised in his mind, and threatened in his wrath; all his swelling thoughts and big words shall come to nothing:

his lies shall not so effect it; it shall not be according to his words; they will prove lies, and of no effect. Kimchi interprets it of the sons of Moab, who shall not be able to do what they thought to do; and Jarchi of his mighty ones; and the Targum of his nobles, paraphrasing it,

"and their nobles are not right, they do not as is becoming;''

perhaps it may be better understood of his diviners and soothsayers, as the word is used in Isaiah 44:25; and be rendered, "his diviners have not done right" (f); they have deceived him with their lying oracles; swelled him with pride; and brought him to ruin, he trusting to them.

(f) "vaniloqui ejus non rectum fecerunt", Cocceius. So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 38. 1.

Geneva Study Bible

I know his wrath, saith the LORD; {q} but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

(q) He will not execute his malice against his neighbours.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. I know his wrath] The Lord corroborates the assertion of the prophet in the former verse.

that it is nought … nothing] rather, as Dr. his boastings are untruth; they do untruth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - But it shall not be so, etc. This is a case in which the accentuation must most decidedly be deviated from; it implies a faulty view of the word rendered in the Authorized Version, "his lies." But the rendering of our version is neither in itself tenable nor is it that intended by the accentuation. The rendering suggested by the latter is "his praters" (i.e. soothsayers), as the word, no doubt, must be taken in Jeremiah 1:36; Isaiah 44:25. But it is much more natural to render thus: "And the untruth of his pratings [i.e. of his boastings]; the untruth that they have wrought." In his words and in his works (and a word is equal to a work before the Divine Judge) Mesh was essentially "untrue." Truth, in the Biblical sense, is to know and serve the true God. Jeremiah 48:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 48:29 and Jeremiah 48:30 only more fully develop the idea contained in Isaiah 16:6. Those who "heard" are the prophet and the people of God. There is an accumulation of words to describe the pride of Moab. Isaiah's expression also, עברתו לא־כן בּדּיו, is here expanded into two clauses, and Jahveh is named as the subject. Not only have the people of God perceived the pride of Moab, but God also knows his wrath. בּדּיו belongs to לא־כן as a genitive, as in Isaiah לא־כן means "not right," contrary to actual facts, i.e., untrue.

(Note: The Masoretic accentuation, according to which Athnach is placed under כּן, exhibits another view of the words in the text: this is shown by the Chaldee paraphrase, "their nobles endure not, they have not done what is right." The Masoretes took בּדּים in the sense of "staves," and took staves as a symbol of princes, as in Hosea 11:6. Luther, in his translation, "I know his anger well, that he cannot do so very much, and attempts to do more than he can," follows the Vulgate, Ego scio jactantiam ejus, et quod non sit juxta eam virtus ejus, nec juxta quod poterat conata sit facere, which again seems to have followed the lxx in taking בּדיּו for בּדּיו.)