Jeremiah 48:4

4 Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out. ^[a]

Jeremiah 48:4 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 48:4

Moab is destroyed
Either the whole nation in general; so the Targum,

``the kingdom of Moab is broken;''

and so Abarbinel; or a city so called, which some take to be the city Areopolis. Jerom ^F7 says, that Moab is a city of Arabia, now called Areopolis; and which also has the name of Rabbathmoab, or "grand Moab"; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard;
seeing their parents killed, and they left desolate, and in the hands of the enemy; and not only so, but just going to be dashed in pieces by them. The Targum interprets it, her governors; and so Jarchi, who thinks they are so called, because they are lesser than kings. Kimchi and Ben Melech suggest, that these are called so by way of contempt. The word "tzeir" signifies both "little" and "great", as the learned Pocock ^F8 has abundantly proved.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 De locis Heb. fol. 87. H. & 93. B.
F8 Not. Miscell. in Port. Mosis, p. 17, 18.

Jeremiah 48:4 In-Context

2 There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.

3 A voice cries out from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’

4 Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out.

5 For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction:

6 ‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert. ’

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew; LXX her cries are heard as far away as Zoar