Jeremiah 48:6
New International Version
Flee! Run for your lives; become like a bush in the desert.

New Living Translation
Flee for your lives! Hide in the wilderness!

English Standard Version
Flee! Save yourselves! You will be like a juniper in the desert!

Berean Standard Bible
‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’

King James Bible
Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

New King James Version
“Flee, save your lives! And be like the juniper in the wilderness.

New American Standard Bible
“Flee, save yourselves, So that you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

NASB 1995
“Flee, save your lives, That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

NASB 1977
“Flee, save your lives, That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

Legacy Standard Bible
Flee, escape with your lives, That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

Amplified Bible
“Run! Save your lives, That you may be like a juniper in the wilderness.

Christian Standard Bible
Flee! Save your lives! Be like a juniper bush in the wilderness.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Flee! Save your lives! Be like a juniper bush in the wilderness.

American Standard Version
Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

Contemporary English Version
Run for your lives! Head into the desert like a wild donkey.

English Revised Version
Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"Run away! Run for your lives! Run like a wild donkey in the desert."

Good News Translation
'Quick, run for your lives!' they say. 'Run like a wild desert donkey!'

International Standard Version
Flee, save your lives, and you will be like a wild donkey in the desert.

Majority Standard Bible
‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’

NET Bible
They will hear, 'Run! Save yourselves! Even if you must be like a lonely shrub in the desert!'

New Heart English Bible
"Flee, save your lives, and be like a shrub in the wilderness."

Webster's Bible Translation
Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

World English Bible
Flee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
Flee, deliver yourselves, "" You are as a naked thing in a wilderness.

Young's Literal Translation
Flee ye, deliver yourselves, Ye are as a naked thing in a wilderness.

Smith's Literal Translation
Flee, save your souls, and ye shall be as ruins in the desert.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
Flee, save your lives: and be as heath in the wilderness.

Catholic Public Domain Version
Flee, save your lives! And you shall be like a saltcedar tree in the desert.

New American Bible
“Flee, save your lives! Be like a wild donkey in the wilderness!”

New Revised Standard Version
Flee! Save yourselves! Be like a wild ass in the desert!
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
Hearken and flee, save your lives and be like a plant in the wilderness.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
Hear and flee and save your souls and be like a root in the wilderness!
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
Flee, save your lives, And be like a tamarisk in the wilderness.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Flee ye, and save your lives, and ye shall be as a wild ass in the desert.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Judgment on Moab
5For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction: 6‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’ 7Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.…

Cross References
Isaiah 15:5
My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.

Isaiah 16:2
Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:

Isaiah 16:3-4
“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees. / Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land,

Isaiah 21:15
For they flee from the sword—the sword that is drawn—from the bow that is bent, and from the stress of battle.

Isaiah 30:16
“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.

Isaiah 31:1
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.

Ezekiel 7:16
The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity.

Ezekiel 24:26-27
on that day a fugitive will come and tell you the news. / On that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped; you will speak and no longer be mute. So you will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the LORD.”

Amos 2:1-3
This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Moab, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he burned to lime the bones of Edom’s king. / So I will send fire against Moab to consume the citadels of Kerioth. Moab will die in tumult, amid war cries and the sound of the ram’s horn. / I will cut off the ruler of Moab and kill all the officials with him,” says the LORD.

Obadiah 1:3-4
The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ / Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

Zephaniah 2:8-9
“I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders. / Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”

Matthew 24:16
then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Mark 13:14
So when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Luke 21:21
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city.

Romans 11:25
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.


Treasury of Scripture

Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

Flee

Jeremiah 51:6
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

Genesis 19:17
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Psalm 11:1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

be like

Jeremiah 17:6
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Job 30:3-7
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste…

the heath.

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Arabah Aroer Ass Bush Deliver Desert Faces Flee Flight Heath Juniper Naked Run Save Shrub Tamarisk Turned Wild Wilderness Yourselves
Jeremiah 48
1. The judgment of Moab
7. for their pride
11. for their security
14. for their carnal confidence
26. and for their contempt of God and his people
47. The restoration of Moab














Flee!
The command "Flee!" in Jeremiah 48:6 is a direct and urgent call to action. In the Hebrew text, the word used is "נֻסוּ" (nus), which conveys a sense of immediate escape or flight from danger. This imperative is not merely a suggestion but a divine directive, emphasizing the seriousness of the impending judgment on Moab. Historically, Moab was a nation often in conflict with Israel, and this call to flee underscores the severity of God's judgment against them. Theologically, it serves as a reminder of the need for repentance and the urgency of turning away from sin to avoid divine wrath.

Run for your lives!
The phrase "Run for your lives!" further intensifies the urgency of the situation. The Hebrew root "מַלְּטוּ" (maltu) suggests a desperate escape, akin to slipping away or delivering oneself from peril. This imagery evokes the idea of a narrow escape from a life-threatening situation. In the context of Jeremiah's prophecy, it highlights the impending doom that awaits those who do not heed the warning. Spiritually, it serves as a metaphor for the urgency of seeking salvation and the necessity of fleeing from the bondage of sin to find refuge in God.

Become like a juniper in the desert
The comparison to a "juniper in the desert" is rich with symbolism. The Hebrew word for juniper, "עֲרוֹעֵר" (aroer), refers to a type of shrub that survives in arid, desolate environments. This imagery paints a picture of isolation and survival in harsh conditions. For the Moabites, it signifies the desolation and abandonment they would face as a result of their pride and idolatry. In a broader spiritual sense, it serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of turning away from God. The juniper's resilience in the desert can also be seen as a call to remain steadfast in faith, even in times of trial and desolation, trusting in God's provision and protection.

(6) Be like the heath in the wilderness.--Here, as in Jeremiah 17:6, the stunted solitary shrub in the desert is taken as the type of desolation. The LXX., which adopts the meaning in Jeremiah 17:6, here strangely enough gives "as a wild ass in the wilderness." Psalm 11:1 gives us an example of a like comparison. Here probably there is, as before, a paronomasia on the name of the Moabite city Aroer, which closely resembles the Hebrew word for "heath." In thus finding an ominous significance in the names of cities, Jeremiah follows in the wake of Micah 1.

Verse 6. - Flee, save your lives; literally, your souls. The prophet's human feeling prompts him to this counsel; but he knows full well that a life of abject misery is the utmost that can be hoped for. And be like the heath in the wilderness; literally, and (your souls) shall be like destitute ones in the wilderness. Imagine the case of one who has been robbed of everything, and left alone in the desert; not less miserable is that of the Moabite fugitives. The word rendered "the heath" (aro'er) is either miswritten for ar'ar, which occurs in the sense of "destitute" in Jeremiah 17:6 (see note), or also a rare plural form of the same word. The sense remains the same. It is tempting to see an allusion to one of the towns called Aroer (as in Isaiah 17:2). But the only Aroer the prophet could be thinking of is that on the Amen (Deuteronomy 2:36), which could not be described as "in the wilderness."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
‘Flee!
נֻ֖סוּ (nu·sū)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 5127: To flit, vanish away

Run
מַלְּט֣וּ (mal·lə·ṭū)
Verb - Piel - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 4422: To be smooth, to escape, to release, rescue, to bring forth young, emit sparks

for your lives!
נַפְשְׁכֶ֑ם (nap̄·šə·ḵem)
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

Become
וְתִֽהְיֶ֕ינָה (wə·ṯih·ye·nāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect - third person feminine plural
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

like a juniper
כַּעֲרוֹעֵ֖ר (ka·‘ă·rō·w·‘êr)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6176: (probably a tree or bush) perhaps juniper

in the desert.’
בַּמִּדְבָּֽר׃ (bam·miḏ·bār)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4057: A pasture, a desert, speech


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 48:6 Flee save your lives and be like (Jer.)
Jeremiah 48:5
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