{}ערג significat diminuere, sed hic accipitur, pro rasura,) et super omnes manus
JOHN CALVIN was then difficult for the faithful to form an idea of this vengeance of God, therefore the Prophet transfers to himself the feelings of others, and relates what the Moabites would do, when God had so grievously afflicted them.
My heart, he says, shall sound like pipes Some think that mournful pipes are meant, but I know not whether or not they were instruments of this kind; and there are those who think that {,}חלליםchellim, were bag-pipes, but what is too refined I leave. The Prophet simply means that such would be the trepidation, that the hearts of the Moabites would make a noise like pipes. He repeats the same thing in different words, that his heart would make a noise, or sound, for the men of Kir-heres, of which city we spoke yesterday.
He now adds, for the residue which they have made, or which Moab has made, for the verb is in the singular number; and then, they have perished, where also there is a change of number; but the reference is to the word ``residue,'' {,}יתרתiteret, which included hidden treasures, as we have stated. 380 Whatever then the Moabites had gained for themselves, and whatever they thought would be always safe, the Prophet declares that it would perish. Isaiah adds, ``their substance,'' {,}פקותםpekotem, and says, that they would carry it to the willows, that is, to deserted places; as though he had said, that all the wealth of the Moabites would be scattered, as though it were, as they say, a thing forsaken. It now follows ---
Jeremiah 48:37
37. For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
37. Quia omni capiti calvitium, et omni barbae rasura (ad verbum diminutio;
diminuere, sed hic accipitur, pro rasura,) et super omnes manus incisiones, et super lumbos saccus.
The Prophet describes at large a very great mourning. They were wont in great sorrow to pull off their hair, to shave their beard, and to put on sackcloth, or to gird it round their loins, and also to cut their hands with a knife or with their nails. As these things were signs of grief; Jeremiah puts them all together, in order to show that the calamity of Moab would not be common, but what would cause to the whole people extreme lamentation. They shall make bald, he says, their heads, their beard they shall pull off, or shave; for the word, to diminish, may signify either. Then he adds, the incisions in the hands; they shall tear their faces and their hands with their nails, or as some say, with a knife or a razor. As to sackcloth, it was also a sign of mourning. It is indeed certain that it was formerly the practice for men, as though it was innate in human nature, in great calamities to spread ashes on the head and to put on sackloth. But he has added other excesses which are not very congenial to nature, for it is not agreeable to humanity to pull off the beard, to make bald the head, or to tear the hands and the face with the nails. These things show excesses, suitable neither to men nor to women, --- not to women on the ground of modesty, nor to men on the ground of manliness and strength of mind.
380As to this clause, widely different are all the versions; the Targ. gives the general sense. The word {{יתרתis evidently plural, the {}וbeing wanting. ``Reserves,'' as given by Blayney, is an exact rendering, ---
Because the reserves he had made have perished. Connected with this word is another in Isaiah 15:7, which means ``deposits;'' both signify the wealth or treasures they had laid up. --- Ed.