Jeremiah 48:11

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Concerning Moab, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Woe to Nebo, for it will be devastated. Kiriathaim will be captured and disgraced; the fortress will be shattered and dismantled. ²There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: 'Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.' You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you. ³A voice cries out from Horonaim, 'Devastation and great destruction!' ⁴Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out. 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. ⁸The destroyer will move against every city, and not one town will escape. The valley also will be ruined, and the high plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has said. ⁹Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste; her cities will become desolate, with no one to dwell in them. ¹⁰Cursed be the one who is negligent in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

hath been: Psalms 55:19, Psalms 73:4-8, Psalms 123:4, Proverbs 1:32, *marg. Zechariah 1:15

he hath: Isaiah 25:6, Zephaniah 1:12

emptied: Jeremiah 51:34, Isaiah 24:3, Nahum 2:2, Nahum 2:10, thereof, Jeremiah 48:29, Isaiah 16:6, Ezekiel 16:49, Ezekiel 16:50

remained: Heb. stood

Reciprocal: Job 10:17 - changes Psalms 73:6 - Therefore Ecclesiastes 8:11 - sentence Isaiah 32:9 - ye women Jeremiah 48:12 - empty Jeremiah 49:31 - wealthy nation Daniel 4:4 - was Amos 6:1 - to them

Cross-References

Genesis 37:33
His father recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!"

Genesis 37:35
All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said. "I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son." So his father wept for him.

Genesis 42:36
Their father Jacob said to them, "You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is happening against me!"

Genesis 45:26
"Joseph is still alive," they said, "and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!" But Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to Him who is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Moab hath been at ease from his youth,.... Lived in great peace and prosperity from the time they became a kingdom; being very little disturbed with wars by their neighbours, or very rarely; so that they were in very prosperous and flourishing circumstances, which occasioned that pride and haughtiness they were notorious for. This is an emblem of unregenerate men; who, though sinners from their birth, and liable to the curse of the law, subject to the stroke of death, and must come to judgment; yet stupid and quite at ease, having no sight of sin, nor feeling of the burden of its guilt, nor grief or trouble for it; no sense of danger, or fear of hell; but in the utmost security: all which arise from ignorance, hardness of heart, profaneness, and infidelity; thoughtlessness about their immortal souls; putting the evil day far from them; and being under the influence of Satan, who keeps his goods in peace:

and he hath settled on his lees; a metaphor taken from wine; which, the longer it remains on the lees, the better body it has, and the richer and stronger it is; and denotes the great tranquillity of the Moabites; the riches they were possessed of, and in which they trusted. The Targum renders it,

"quiet in their substance;''

herein they were an emblem of unconverted sinners, who are settled and hardened in the corruptions of their nature; and not at all disturbed at the evil of sin; the wrath of God; his judgments on men; the last and awful judgment; or at the terrors of hell; and likewise of such who trust in their own righteousness, and depend upon that for salvation:

and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel; like wine that has never been racked off from the vessel or vessels it was first put into: they were never removed from place to place, but always continued in their land; in which they were an emblem of such who have never seen their own emptiness, and their want of the grace of God, and have never been emptied of sin, nor of self-righteousness:

neither hath he gone into captivity; this explains in proper words the metaphor in the preceding clause: the Moabites had never been carried captive out of their own land into others; an emblem of such who have never seen their captive state to sin and Satan; or ever brought to complain of it, or become the captives of Christ;

therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed; his wealth, riches, and prosperity, continued without any change and alteration; and also his sins and vices, idolatry, pride, luxury, and which were the cause of his ruin; and for that reason are here mentioned; an emblem of unregenerate men, whose taste is vitiated by sin, and continues as it was originally; they relish sin, and disrelish everything that is good; and savour the things that be of man, and not the things of God; and so are in a most dangerous condition.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Moab from the time it conquered the Emims Deuteronomy 2:9-10, and so became a nation, had retained quiet possession of its land, and enjoyed comparative prosperity. From the Moabite Stone we gather that King Mesha, after the death of Ahab threw off the yoke of Israel; nor except for a short time under Jeroboam II was Israel able to bring the Moabites back into subjection. They gradually drove the Reubenites back, and recovered most of the territory taken from the Amorites by Moses, and which originally had belonged to them.

He hath settled on his lees - Good wine was thought to be the better for being left to stand upon its sediment Isaiah 25:6, and in all cases its flavor was rendered thereby stronger (marginal reference). “By being emptied from vessel to vessel” it became vapid and tasteless. So a nation by going into captivity is rendered tame and feeble. By his taste is meant the flavor of the wine, and so Moab’s national character.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 48:11. Moab hath been at ease — The metaphor here is taken from the mode of preserving wines. They let them rest upon their lees for a considerable time, as this improves them both in strength and flavour; and when this is sufficiently done, they rack, or pour them off into other vessels. Moab had been very little molested by war since he was a nation; he had never gone out of his own land. Though some had been carried away by Shalmaneser forty years before this, he has had neither wars nor captivity.

Therefore his taste remained in him — Still carrying on the allusion to the curing of wines; by resting long upon the lees, the taste and smell are both improved. Isaiah 25:6.