gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
What, then, does Jeremiah now do? He sets before their eyes the ten tribes whom
God had destroyed, though the Israelites, as well as the Jews, had descended from the same father, even Abraham. As, then, God had inflicted so heavy a punishment on the kingdom of Israel, he now shews to the Jews, that the punishment of the
Moabites was not less probable; and why? because they have, he says, their idol.
God shews that this was a most atrocious wickedness, by which the Moabites had provoked his anger; for there is nothing less intolerable than for men to transfer the glory of God to their own inventions, to statues, to logs of wood, to stones, or to idols of gold and silver. We now, then, understand the object of the Prophet. It follows ---
Jeremiah 48:14-15
14. How say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?
14. Quomodo dicitis, Viri (fortes) nos, et viri robusti ad praelium?
15. Moab is spoiled, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
15. Vastatus est Moab, civitates ejus excidit (alii vertunt, civitates ejus evanuerunt, ut sit mutatio numeri; alii, incola ascendit, vel, discessit ab urbibus ejus,) et electio juvenum descendit (hoc est, electi juvenes; et est allusio ad nomen
{,}בחריוnam {,}בחוריםdicuntur apud Hebroeos adolescentes, qui sunt in flore oetatis, sed nomen hoc deducitur a {,}בחרquod est eligere, unde est etiam nomen hoc quo utitur Propheta; electio igitur juvenum, vel, electi juvenes, descenderunt) ad mactationem, dicit Rex, nomen ejus Jehova exercituum (id est, cujus nomen est
Jehova exercituum.)
The Prophet here reproves the pride of the Moabites, because they trusted in their own strength, and derided God and what the Prophets announced. We indeed know that ungodly men, when all things prosper with them, are moved by no fear, divest themselves of every feeling, and become so sunk in indifference, that they not only disdainfully disregard the true God, but also what is connected with moral obligation. Such, then, was the confidence which prevailed among the Moabites.
Hence the Prophet here checks this foolish boasting.
How say ye, We are strong, we are warlike men? as though he had said, ``These boastings, while God is seriously contending with you, are all empty, and will avail you nothing: ye think yourselves beyond the reach of danger, because ye possess great power, and are surrounded with strong defences; but God will reduce to nothing whatever you regard as your protection.'' Wasted, then, is Moab He sets up this threatening in opposition to their arrogance. He indeed foretells what was to come, but speaks of it as a thing already fulfilled. Wasted, he says, is Moab, and the enemy has cut off his cities The verb {,}עלהole, is to be taken in a transitive sense; it is indeed a neuter verb, but the other meaning is more suitable to this place, that the enemy would cut off the cities of the Moabites. I yet allow that it may be explained otherwise, that the inhabitants would ascend or depart from his cities; for, {,}עלה ole, metaphorically, indeed, signifies to ascend, and to flow off, or to go away, as they say, in smoke; and if an anomaly as to number, common in Hebrew, be approved, the sense will be, ``and from his cities they have vanished.'' 368 And this explanation
368There is no agreement in the Versions and Targ., as to these words, nor among critics. The