significat etiam interitum, ideo vertunt quidam propinquus est interitus) ad venien-
JOHN CALVIN agrees well with what follows, and his young men have descended to the slaughter; that is, they who seem the strongest among them shall be drawn to destruction, or shall descend to the slaughter. But as the event seemed difficult to be believed,
God is again introduced. Then the Prophet says, that he did not speak from his own mind, but announced what God had committed to him. And he adds his title, that the Jews might be more attentive to the consideration of God's power. God, he says, is he who speaks, the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts He sets up God's name in opposition to the warlike preparations, of which the Moabites, as we have seen, boasted; as though he had said, that if the Moabites had to do with mortals, they might indeed have justly gloried; but as they had a contest with the living God, all their power would vanish away, since God was prepared to execute vengeance. It follows ---
Jeremiah 48:16
16. The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.
16. Propinqua est calamitas Moab ,{)}דיאsigificat infortunium et calamitatem, significat etiam interitum, ideo vertunt quidam propinquus est interitus) ad veniendum (ut veniat,) et malum ejus (id est, calamitas) festinat valde.
Here the Prophet expresses something more, that the vengeance of which he spoke was near and hastening. It served to alleviate the sorrow of the faithful, when they understood that the Moabites would shortly be punished; for it was a grievous and bitter trial, when God severely chastened his own children, to see that the wicked were in the meantime spared. As, then, he deferred his judgments as to the wicked, that delay tended to drive the faithful to despair, at least they could not bear with sufficient patience the scourges of God.
This is the reason why the Prophet now says, Near is the destruction of the
Moabites, and their calamity hastens And though God did for some time yet bear with the Moabites, so that they remained in a quiet state, and reveled in their pleasures, yet this prophecy was true; for we are to bear in mind that truth, which ought ever to be remembered as to promises and threatenings, that a thousand years are as one day with the Lord: and hence is that exhortation given by the Prophet
Habakkuk,
the prophecy delays, wait for it; for coming it will come, and will not delay.''
(Habakkuk 2:3)
And this mode of speaking occurs often in the prophets. When, therefore, God denounces punishment on the wicked and the despisers of his Law, he says, ``Behold, your day hastens,'' and he says this, that they might be awakened and begin to fear in due time.
But here, as I have reminded you, Jeremiah had a regard to his own people. For the faithful might have objected, and said, ``What can this be? how long will God defer easiest construction is presented by Blayney, — A spoiler of Moab and of her cities is gone up. The next clause is not so well rendered by Blayney. He applies it to the Chaldeans. "Moab" is spoken of in this chapter, both in the feminine and in the masculine gender. In our language the neuter would be the most suitable, it and its. I render the verse thus, — 15. The waster of Moab and of its cities is going up, And the choice of its youth shall descend to the slaughter, Saith the King, Jehovah of hosts is his name. "Going up" as ascribed to the conqueror, and "descending" to the conquered. — Ed.