Verses 26-35. - And what is Moab's crime? At an earlier point the prophet said that it was the callousness produced by long prosperity (ver. 11); but here another sin is mentioned - Moab's haughty contempt of Jehovah. "For this it deserves that its contempt should be thrown back upon itself, by its being made, like a drunken man, the scorn of all" (Ewald). The figure is, no doubt, a coarse one, but not unnatural in the oratory (we must put aside inspiration, which leaves the forms of speech untouched) of a rude people like the Jews. It occurs not unfrequently elsewhere; see especially Isaiah 19:14; Habakkuk 2:15, 16; and, for milder examples of the figure, Jeremiah 13:13 and 25. Verse 26. - Make ye him drunken. The command is issued to the agents of the Divine wrath (comp. vers. 10, 21). He magnified himself against the Lord. Offences against Israel being also offences against Israel's God (see Jephthah's striking words in Judges 11:23, 24). Shall wallow; rather, shall fall heavily (literally, shall clap - a pregnant expression).
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.
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 (a) 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" (b); 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.
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 (a) 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" (b); 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.
(a) "plaudat", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius; "plaudet", Piscator; "complodat", Munster, Tigurine version, Schmidt; "allidet", Lyranus. (b) "Complodet manus super Moabum jacentem in vomitu suo", Gataker.