perdetur planities, quod (id est, quemadmodum) locutus est Jehova.
JOHN CALVIN be admitted. We may however understand by ``works'' fortifications, especially as
are added. He then says, that the Moabites were such that it was just that God should be roused against them, because they were inebriated with false confidence in their own power, and because they had many treasures: they hence thought that they were impregnable.
The Prophet in the meantime intimates, that the Moabites greatly deceived themselves in thinking that they were safe against God's hand, because they were strongly fortified, and because they had immense treasures laid up. Hence he says that all these things would avail nothing, for God would destroy the whole land.
Even thou, he says, shalt be taken There is no small emphasis in the particle
even or also; for the Prophet expresses what would now take place; for the Moabites in vain trusted in their treasures and power, because God would notwithstanding destroy them, and his hand would penetrate into their fortresses.
then shall find thee out equally the same, as though thou wert exposed to all dangers.'' They who abound in warlike preparations, furnished with all kinds of defences, think themselves exempted from the common lot of men: hence he says,
Even thou, equally the same with any village exposed to the will of enemies, even thou shalt be taken; and go forth shall Chemosh This was the tutelar God of the land, as it appears from the book of Judges and other places, and even from what
Moses says, (Judges 11:25; 1 Kings 11:7, 33; Numbers 21:29.) As, then, the Moabites worshipped this idol, they thought themselves safe whatever evil might be at hand.
The Prophet then derides this confidence. We have said before, that the ungodly in part set up their own earthly power in opposition to God, and in part imagined that they were aided by their idols. Hence the prophets exposed these two evils, as it appears also from the present passage: the Prophet had said, ``Because thou trustest in thy fortresses and treasures, even thou shalt be taken;'' and now he says,
thou thinkest Chemosh to be a sure and invincible defense, it shall be driven into exile and be kept captive.'' This he said in reproach to the idol. He adds, its priests and its princes, even those princes, who seem to lie down safely under its shadow, they also shall be driven into exile.
Jeremiah 48:8
8. And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD hath spoken.
8. Et veniet vastator ad omnem urbem, neque urbs eripietur; et peribit vallis, et perdetur planities, quod (id est, quemadmodum) locutus est Jehova.
He confirms the previous verse; nor ought he to be deemed too wordy, for this prophecy was not announced, that it might cherish the hope and patience of the faithful only for a few days; but it was necessary for them to rest dependent for a long time on this promise, which God had given them many years before. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet confirms at large a truth in itself sufficiently clear.
Come, he says, shall a waster to all the cities It now appears more clearly why he mentioned some of the cities, though, as we shall see, they were many, even that the Israelites might know that all the land of Moab was to be given up to desolation:
Nor shall a city escape, for destroyed shall be the valley and the plain, as Jehovah