Jeremiah 48 Footnotes

48:10 Some scholars contend that this verse is an editorial insertion. However, since the nation that destroyed Moab was doing the Lord’s work, this curse was fitting.

48:13 There is some question regarding what “Bethel” referred to. It could refer to the sanctuary in Israel where calf worship was practiced (2Kg 10:29). Some scholars claim it could refer to a god worshiped by Jewish people in Syria, a suggestion that draws support from a passage in the Elephantine Papyri. Even if this ambiguity is allowed to stand, the impact of the verse remains: Whoever trusts in anything other than God will be put to shame.

48:21-24 Many of the cities mentioned here are also mentioned on the Moabite Stone (a monument set up by Mesha, king of Moab, in the ninth century BC), which provides outside verification of the reliability of Scripture.

48:29 Jr 48:29-47 repeats material from Nm 21:27-29; Is 15–16; and other passages in Isaiah. Critics contend that this means the writer was not a composer but a mere editor who needed to borrow material. However, changes and additions as well as the arrangement of borrowed material make it a new composition. The reuse of other passages of the Bible, with variations, is a well-known technique of biblical writers; it is a testimony to the authority and reliability ascribed to the inspired Scriptures even during the period of their formation. One could view this author as one intimately familiar with the Torah and the writings of Isaiah, who used those words to express a new thought the Lord revealed to him. This did not make the writer, or compiler, any less a creator of literature—perhaps more. The sayings of Isaiah were available to Jeremiah, or his editor, who considered them worth learning, repeating, and adapting as authoritative Scripture. Since God inspired both Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s oracles against Moab, it is not surprising that they include overlapping material.