Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 48:18 - 48:18

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 48:18 - 48:18


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In Jer 48:18-25 is further described the downfall of this strong and glorious power. The inhabitants if Dibon are to come down from their glory and sit in misery; those of Aroer are to ask the fugitives what has happened, that they may learn that the whole table-land on to the Arnon has been taken by the enemy; and they are to howl over the calamity. The idea presented in Jer 48:18 is an imitation of that in Isa 47:1, "Come down, O daughter of Babylon, sit in the dust;" but רְדִי is intensified by the addition of מִכָּבֹוד, and וּשְׁבִי עַל is changed into וּשְׁבִי בַצָּמָא (the Kethib ישׁבי has evidently been written by mistake for וּשְׁבִי, the Qeri). צָמָא elsewhere means "thirst;" but "sit down in the thirst" would be too strange an expression; hence צָמָא must here have the meaning of צָמֵא, Isa 44:3, "the thirsty arid land:" thus it remains a question whether we should point the word צָמֵא, or take צָמָא as another form of צָמֵא, as חָלֵב sa ,צָîֵא fo mro is of חָלָב, Eze 23:19. There is no sufficient reason why Hitzig and Ewald should give the word a meaning foreign to it, from the Arabic or Syriac. Dibon lay about four miles north from the Arnon, at the foot of a mountain, in a very beautiful plain, where, under the name of Dibân, many traces of walls, and a well by the wayside, hewn out of the rock, are still to be found (Seetzen, i. S. 409f.). Hence it must have been well provided with water, even though we should be obliged to understand by "the water of Dimon" (Dibon), which Isaiah mentions (Isa 15:9), the river Arnon, which is about three miles off. The command to "sit down in an arid land" thus forms a suitable figure, representing the humiliation and devastation of Dibon. That the city was fortified, is evident from the mention of the fortifications in the last clause. יֹשֶׁבֶת , as in Jer 46:19. Aroer was situated on the north bank of the Arnon (Mojeb), where its ruins still remain, under the old name Arâ'ir (Burckhardt, p. 372). It was a frontier town, between the kingdom of Sihon (afterwards the territory of the Israelites) and the possession of the Moabites (Deu 2:36; Deu 3:12; Deu 4:48; Jos 12:2; Jos 13:9, Jos 13:16). But after the Moabites had regained the northern portion of their original territory, it lay in the midst of the land. The fugitives here represented as passing by are endeavouring, by crossing the Arnon, to escape from the enemy advancing from the north, and subduing the country before them. נָס וְנִמְלָטָה means fugitives of every kind. The co-ordination of the same word or synonymous terms in the masc. and fem. serves to generalize the idea; see on Isa 3:1, and Ewald, §172, c. In נִמְלָטָה the tone is retracted through the influence of the distinctive accent; the form is participial. The question, "What has happened?" is answered in Jer 48:20. כִּי חַתָּה, "for (= certainly) it is broken down." The Kethib הֵלִילִי וּזְעָקִי must not be changed. Moab is addressed: with הַגִּידוּ is introduced the summons, addressed to individuals, to proclaim at the Arnon the calamity that has befallen the country to the north of that river.