Jeremiah 48:26

26 "Turn Moab into a drunken sot, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomit - Moab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste.

Jeremiah 48:26 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 48:26

Make ye him drunken
Not with wine, but with the cup of divine wrath; with the vengeance of God; with sore judgments, afflictions, and calamities; give him his fill of them, till he is quite intoxicated with them, and has lost his senses, and is brought to madness and distraction, and reels, and staggers, and falls to the ground, like a drunken man; and his state and kingdom is quite ruined: this is said to the enemies of Moab, the king of Babylon and his army: for he magnified [himself] against the Lord;
made himself as great as he; yea, set himself above him; thought himself out of his reach; spoke proudly, haughtily, and contemptibly of him, and blasphemously against him, as if he could not deliver his people, or destroy his and their enemies. The Targum interprets it of the people of God, as in ( Zephaniah 2:10 ) ; paraphrasing the words thus;

``bring distress upon them, that they may be like to drunken men; for against the people of the Lord have they magnified themselves:''

Moab also shall wallow in his vomit;
as drunken men do: or, he shall "clap", or "dash ^F1 [his hand] in his vomit": dash his hands and feet against the ground as he lies in his vomit, as persons in such a condition do: or shall wring his hands, and clap them together for sorrow, being sick, and in distress. Some render it, "he shall clap [the hand at] Moab in his vomit" ^F2; men shall laugh at him as he lies wallowing in it, or rejoice at his fall and ruin; but this is expressed in the next clause: and he also shall be in derision;
as drunken men are; he shall be derided by others, as others have been derided by him; now it will be his turn.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (wayqb bawm qpow) "plaudat", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius; "plaudet", Piscator; "complodat", Munster, Tigurine version, Schmidt; "allidet", Lyranus.
F2 "Complodet manus [super] Moabum [jacentem] in vomitu suo", Gataker.

Jeremiah 48:26 In-Context

24 on Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the cities of Moab, far and near.

25 "Moab's link to power is severed. Moab's arm is broken." God's Decree. The Sheer Nothingness of Moab

26 "Turn Moab into a drunken sot, drunk on the wine of my wrath, a dung-faced drunk, filling the country with vomit - Moab a falling-down drunk, a joke in bad taste.

27 Wasn't it you, Moab, who made crude jokes over Israel? And when they were caught in bad company, didn't you cluck and gossip and snicker?

28 "Leave town! Leave! Look for a home in the cliffs, you who grew up in Moab. Try living like a dove who nests high in the river gorge.