Jeremiah 48:38

There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(38) Upon all the housetops of Moab.—The flat roof of Eastern houses was the natural gathering place of men in a time of panic and distress, as it was, in a time of peace, for prayer or meditation, or even for festive meetings. So in Isaiah 22:1, the city described as “the valley of vision” (Samaria or Jerusalem) is represented as “gone up to the house tops.”

I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure.—The image is one with which the prophet had made men familiar by his symbolic act in Jeremiah 19:10. So Coniah was “a vessel wherein is no pleasure” (Jeremiah 22:28).

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

Generally - Rather, entirely.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

38. vessel … no pleasure—(See on [986]Jer 22:28); a vessel cast aside by the potter as refuse, not answering his design.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We met with the same phrase applied to Coniah, Jeremiah 22:28. The meaning is, I have broken Moab all to pieces, as people use to do vessels they care not for; they never go about to mend such a vessel, but dash it in pieces against some stones or walls.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

There shall be lamentation generally,.... Or, "all of it is mourning" (n); the whole country of Moab is in mourning; or all is full of mourning; all persons, places, and things, express nothing but mourning; go where you will, it is to be seen:

upon all the house tops of Moab, and in the streets thereof; the mourning, as it was general, it was public; it was seen by all, and everywhere; See Gill on Isaiah 15:3;

for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord; as an earthen vessel, which the potter does not like, and which is useless and unprofitable to any, and which he takes and dashes into pieces; into a thousand shivers, as the word (o) here signifies, and can never be put together again; or as a filthy unclean vessel a man cannot bear in his sight: Moab is by the Lord called his wash pot, Psalm 60:8. The Moabites were vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction by their own this; and now the time of it was come.

(n) "totus luctus (est) vel omnia luctus (sunt)", Schmidt; "totus erit planctus", Junius & Tremellius; "per omnia erit planctus", Piscator. (o) "totalis confractio praedicitur", Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. vessel, etc.] See on Jeremiah 22:28.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 38. - Lamentation generally; literally, all of it is lamentation; i.e. nothing else is to be heard. Like a vessel, etc. For this figure, see on ch. 22:28 (Jeremiah repeats himself). Jeremiah 48:38

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 48:37 is formed out of pieces taken from Isaiah 15:2-3. קרחה is a substantive, "baldness," i.e., quite bald. גּרוּעה, decurtata, instead of גּדוּעה (in Isaiah), is weaker, but more suitable for the present connection. גּדדת, i.e., cuts or scratches inflicted on the body, as signs of mourning; cf. Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 41:5. כּלּה , "It is all wailing;" nothing is heard but wailing, for God has broken Moab in pieces like a useless vessel. On the simile employed, cf. Jeremiah 22:28.