Jeremiah 48:6

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

Flee: Jeremiah 51:6, Genesis 19:17, Psalms 11:1, Proverbs 6:4, Proverbs 6:5, Matthew 24:16-18, Luke 3:7, Luke 17:31-33, Hebrews 6:18

be like: Jeremiah 17:6, Job 30:3-7

the heath: or, a naked tree

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 49:8 - Flee Micah 1:11 - Pass

Cross-References

Joshua 14:4
The descendants of Joseph became two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion of the land was given to the Levites, except for cities in which to live, along with pasturelands for their flocks and herds.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Flee, save your lives,.... These are either the words of the Moabites, their cry of destruction mentioned in the latter part of

Jeremiah 48:5; who, seeing nothing but ruin before their eyes, advise one another to flee in all haste, and save their lives if possible, since nothing else could be saved: or else they are the words of the prophet, giving counsel to the Moabites to betake themselves to flight for the safety of their lives, these being in great danger; so Abarbinel; with whom others agree, only think they are spoken ironically; suggesting, that when they had endeavoured by flight to save their lives, it would be to no purpose; they should not escape the hands of their enemies; which seems to be the truest sense:

and be like the heath in the wilderness; which is called "erice", or "ling", which grows in waste places. Kimchi and Menachem in Jarchi interpret it of a tree that grows in dry and desert places; a low, naked, barren, fruitless shrub; signifying, that, when they were fled from their habitations, they should be as solitary and stripped of all their good things as such a bare and naked shrub in a desert. Kimchi's note is, that when they had left their cities and fled, their cities would be as the heath in the wilderness. The Targum is,

"and be ye as the tower of Aroer, "as they" who dwell in tents in the wilderness.''

Jarchi observes that the tower of Aroer was built in the wilderness, and there was no inhabitant round it but those that dwelt in tents; and, the tower standing where there was no inhabitant, it looked like a waste. The Septuagint version is very foreign, "as a wild ass in the wilderness"; which is followed by the Arabic version.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Like the heath - Or, Like a destitute man. See the marginal reference note.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 48:6. Flee, save your lives — The enemy is in full pursuit of you.

Be like the heath — כערוער caaroer, "like Aroer;" which some take for a city, others for a blasted or withered tree. It is supposed that a place of this name lay towards the north, in the land of the Ammonites, on a branch of the river Jabbok; surrounded by deserts. Save yourselves by getting into the wilderness, where the pursuing foe will scarcely think it worth his while to follow you, as the wilderness itself must soon destroy you.