Jeremiah 48:40-47

48:40 For the Lord says,

“Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings

a nation will swoop down on Moab. ¹ 

48:41 Her towns ²  will be captured.

Her fortresses will be taken.

At that time the soldiers of Moab will be frightened

like a woman in labor. ³ 

48:42 Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a nation, ⁴ 

because she has vaunted herself against the Lord.

48:43 Terror, pits, and traps ⁵  are in store

for the people who live in Moab. ⁶ 

I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁷ 

48:44 Anyone who flees at the sound of terror

will fall into a pit.

Anyone who climbs out of the pit

will be caught in a trap. ⁸ 

For the time is coming

when I will punish the people of Moab. ⁹ 

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁰ 

48:45 In the shadows of the walls of Heshbon

those trying to escape will stand helpless.

For a fire will burst forth from Heshbon.

Flames will shoot out from the former territory of Sihon.

They will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab,

the skulls of those war-loving people. ¹¹ 

48:46 Moab, you are doomed! ¹² 

You people who worship Chemosh will be destroyed.

Your sons will be taken away captive.

Your daughters will be carried away into exile. ¹³ 

48:47 Yet in days to come

I will reverse Moab’s ill fortune.” ¹⁴ 

says the Lord. ¹⁵ 

The judgment against Moab ends here.

[48:40]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold! Like an eagle he will swoop and will spread his wings against Moab.” The sentence has been reordered in English to give a better logical flow and the unidentified “he” has been identified as “a nation.” The nation is, of course, Babylon, but it is nowhere identified so the referent has been left ambiguous.

[48:41]  ² tn Parallelism argues that the word קְרִיּוֹת (qÿriyyot) be understood as the otherwise unattested feminine plural of the noun קִרְיָה (qiryah, “city”) rather than the place name Kerioth mentioned in v. 24 (cf. HALOT 1065 s.v. קִרְיָה). Both this noun and the parallel term “fortresses” are plural but are found with feminine singular verbs, being treated either as collectives or distributive plurals (cf. GKC 462-63 §145.c or 464 §145.l).

[48:41]  ³ tn Heb “The heart of the soldiers of Moab will be like the heart of a woman in labor.”

[48:42]  ⁴ tn Heb “Moab will be destroyed from [being] a people.”

[48:43]  ⁵ sn There is an extended use of assonance here and in the parallel passage in Isa 24:17. The Hebrew text reads פַּחַד וָפַחַת וָפָח (pakhad vafakhat vafakh). The assonance is intended to underscore the extensive trouble that is in store for them.

[48:43]  ⁶ tn Heb “are upon you, inhabitant of Moab.” This is another example of the rapid switch in person or direct address (apostrophe) in the midst of a third person description or prediction which the present translation typically keeps in the third person for smoother English style.

[48:43]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[48:44]  ⁸ sn Jer 48:43-44a are in the main the same as Isa 24:17-18 which shows that the judgment was somewhat proverbial. For a very similar kind of argumentation see Amos 5:19; judgment is unavoidable.

[48:44]  ⁹ tn Heb “For I will bring upon her, even upon Moab, the year of her punishment.”

[48:44]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[48:45]  ¹¹ tn Or “of those noisy boasters.” Or “They will burn up the frontiers of Moab. They will burn up the mountain heights of those war-loving people.” The meaning of this verse is not entirely certain because of the highly figurative nature of the last two lines. The Hebrew text has been translated somewhat literally here. The Hebrew text reads: “In the shadow of Heshbon those fleeing stand without strength. For a fire goes forth from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon. And it devours the forehead of Moab and the skull of the sons of noise.” The meaning of the first part is fairly clear because v. 2 has already spoken of the conquest of Heshbon and a plot formed there to conquer the rest of the nation. The fire going forth from Heshbon would hence refer here to the conflagrations of war spreading from Heshbon to the rest of the country. The reference to the “midst of Sihon” is to be understood metonymically as a reference for the ruler to what he once ruled (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 583). The last two lines must refer to more than the fugitives who stopped at Heshbon for protection because it refers to the forehead of Moab (a personification of the whole land or nation). It is unclear, however, why reference is made to the foreheads and skulls of the Moabites, other than the fact that this verse seems to be a readaptation or reuse of Num 24:17 where the verb used with them is “smite” which fits nicely in the sense of martial destruction. Translated rather literally, it appears here to refer to the destruction by the fires of war of the Moabites, the part (forehead and skulls) put for the whole. TEV sees a reference here to the “frontiers” and “mountain heights” of Moab and this would work nicely for “foreheads” which is elsewhere used of the corner or border of a land in Neh 9:22. The word “crown” or “skull” might be a picturesque metaphor for the mountain heights of a land, but the word is never used elsewhere in such a figurative way. TEV (and CEV) which follows it might be correct here but there is no way to validate it. The meaning “war-loving people” for the phrase “sons of noise” is based on the suggestion of BDB 981 s.v. שָׁאוֹן 1 which relates the phrase to the dominant use for שָׁאוֹן (sha’on) and is adopted also by TEV, CEV, and C. von Orelli, Jeremiah, 341. REB “braggarts” and NIV “noisy boasters” seem to base the nuance on the usage of שָׁאוֹן (sha’on) in Jer 46:17 where Pharaoh is referred to as an empty noise and the reference to Moab’s arrogance and boasting in 48:29.

[48:46]  ¹² tn Heb “Woe to you, Moab.” For the usage of this expression see 4:13, 31; 13:17 and the translator’s note on 4:13 and 10:19.

[48:46]  ¹³ tn Heb “Your sons will be taken away into captivity, your daughters into exile.”

[48:47]  ¹⁴ tn See 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.

[48:47]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”