(20) Tell ye it in Arnon.--The name, which means a rushing stream, belonged to the chief river of Moab, now the Mugab, which rises in the Arabian mountains and flows into the Dead Sea. It appears in the war-song quoted, in Numbers 21:14, from the "Book of the Wars of the Lord," and the "high places" on either side its course were crowned with the castles of the lords of Moab (Numbers 21:28). The verse contains the answer to the question that precedes it--"This is what has come to pass, Moab is confounded and spoiled." For the "plain country" see Note on Jeremiah 48:8.
(20) Make ye him drunken . . .--The image is suggested by the wine-cup of Jehovah's fury in Jeremiah 25:15, and was familiar in the symbolic language of the prophets (Isaiah 51:17; Job 21:20; Ezekiel 23:32; Revelation 14:10). The words that follow paint the image in its strongest colours. As men looked with scorn on the drunkard wallowing in his shame, so should they look on Moab, that had been so boastful in its pride, when it was brought low.
Verse 20. - The answer of the fugitives begins in the latter part of this verse, and, continues to ver. 24. Confounded ought, as usual, to be brought to shame. The address, howl and cry, which is in the feminine, refers to Moab, which has just before been spoken of in the feminine ("It is broken down," or rather, "she is dismayed," refers to Moab, not to Dibon). In Arnon; i.e. in the region of the Amen; better, beside Arnon (comp. Jeremiah 13:5, "by Euphrates").
48:14-47. The destruction of Moab is further prophesied, to awaken them by national repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a personal repentance and reformation to prepare for it. In reading this long roll of threatenings, and mediating on the terror, it will be of more use to us to keep in view the power of God's anger and the terror of his judgments, and to have our hearts possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath, than to search into all the figures and expressions here used. Yet it is not perpetual destruction. The chapter ends with a promise of their return out of captivity in the latter days. Even with Moabites God will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. The Jews refer it to the days of the Messiah; then the captives of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin and Satan, shall be brought back by Divine grace, which shall make them free indeed.
Moab is confounded, for it is broken down,.... This is the answer returned, by those that had escaped and were fleeing, to those who inquired of them; who report that the whole country of Moab was in the utmost confusion and consternation; not being able to stand before the enemy, who broke down and destroyed all that was in his way: and therefore calls upon them to
howl and cry; because of the general ruin at the nation, and who must expect themselves to share the same fate; and therefore should prepare themselves and their neighbours for it, as follows:
tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled; the country of Arnon, so called from a river of that name, on the banks of which Aroer was situated; the inhabitants of which are desired to spread it all over that part of the country, that Moab was utterly ruined by the Chaldean army; the particulars of which follow:
(20) Make ye him drunken . . .--The image is suggested by the wine-cup of Jehovah's fury in Jeremiah 25:15, and was familiar in the symbolic language of the prophets (Isaiah 51:17; Job 21:20; Ezekiel 23:32; Revelation 14:10). The words that follow paint the image in its strongest colours. As men looked with scorn on the drunkard wallowing in his shame, so should they look on Moab, that had been so boastful in its pride, when it was brought low.
howl and cry; because of the general ruin at the nation, and who must expect themselves to share the same fate; and therefore should prepare themselves and their neighbours for it, as follows:
tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled; the country of Arnon, so called from a river of that name, on the banks of which Aroer was situated; the inhabitants of which are desired to spread it all over that part of the country, that Moab was utterly ruined by the Chaldean army; the particulars of which follow: