26 Make him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet now addresses the Chaldeans, who were to be the executioners of God's vengeance: hence he says, Make him drunk, because he has magnified himself against Jehovah, that is, raised himself in his pride against God. Then the Prophet, as God's herald, encouraged the Chaldeans, fully to execute God's judgment, who had been chosen to be his servants. And the address had more force in it when the Prophet showed that such a command was committed to him, as we have seen elsewhere; for the Prophets showed how efficacious was their doctrine, when they besieged and stormed cities, when they gave orders to armies. This then is the course which Jeremiah now follows, when as God's herald he summons the Chaldeans, and commands them vigorously to perform what God approved and what he had decreed, even to inebriate the Moabites with evils. The rest to-morrow.
Make ye him drunken - With the wine-cup of God's fury, until terror deprive him of his senses.
Make ye him (o) drunk: for he magnified [himself] against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
(o) He willed the Chaldeans to lay afflictions enough on them till they are like drunken men that fall down to their shame and are derided by all.
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.
(a) "plaudat", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius; "plaudet", Piscator; "complodat", Munster, Tigurine version, Schmidt; "allidet", Lyranus. (b) "Complodet manus super Moabum jacentem in vomitu suo", Gataker.
drunken--(see on Jeremiah 13:12; Jeremiah 25:17). Intoxicated with the cup of divine wrath, so as to be in helpless distraction.
magnified . . . against . . . Lord--boasted arrogantly against God's people, that whereas Israel was fallen, Moab remained flourishing.
wallow in . . . vomit--following up the image of a drunken man, that is, shall be so afflicted by God's wrath as to disgorge all his past pride, riches, and vainglory, and fall in his shameful abasement.
he also . . . derision--He in his disaster shall be an object of derision to us, as we in ours have been to him (Jeremiah 48:27). Retribution in kind.
Moab's haughtiness and deplorable fall. - Jeremiah 48:26. "Make him drunk - for he hath boasted against Jahveh - so that Moab shall splash down into his vomit, and himself become a laughing-stock. Jeremiah 48:27. Was not Israel a laughing-stock to thee, or was he found among thieves? for whenever thou spakest of him, thou didst shake thine head. Jeremiah 48:28. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, ye inhabitants of Moab; and be ye like a dove [that] builds its nest in the sides of the mouth of a pit. Jeremiah 48:29. We have heard the very arrogant pride of Moab, his haughtiness, and his arrogance, and his high-mindedness, and his elation of mind. Jeremiah 48:30. I know, saith Jahveh, his wrath, and the untruthfulness of his words; they have done what is untrue. Jeremiah 48:31. Therefore will I howl over Moab, and for all Moab will I cry; they mourn for the people of Kir-heres. Jeremiah 48:32. I will weep for thee [with more] than the weeping of Jazer, O vine of Sibmah, thou whose tendrils have gone over the sea, have reached even to the sea of Jazer; on thy fruit-harvest and thy vintage a spoiler has fallen. Jeremiah 48:33. And joy and gladness are taken from the garden, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-vats: they shall not tread [with] a shout; the shout shall be no shout. Jeremiah 48:34. From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, as far as Jahaz, they utter their voice; from Zoar as far as Horonaim and the third Eglath; for even the waters of Nimrim shall become desolations. Jeremiah 48:35. And I will destroy from Moab, saith Jahveh, him that offers on a high place and burns incense to his gods."
Through his pride, Moab has incurred the sentence of destruction to his power. In arrogance and rage he has exalted himself over Jahveh and His people Israel; therefore must he now be humbled, Jeremiah 48:26-30. The summons to make Moab drunk is addressed to those whom God has charged with the execution of the sentence; cf. Jeremiah 48:10 and Jeremiah 48:21. These are to present to the people of Moab the cup of the divine wrath, and so to intoxicate them, that they shall fall like a drunk man into his vomit, and become a laughing-stock to others (cf. Jeremiah 13:13; Jeremiah 25:15), because they have boasted against Jahveh by driving the Israelites from their inheritance, and by deriding the people of God; cf. Zephaniah 2:8. ספק, to strike, frequently of striking the hands together; here it signifies to fall into his vomit, i.e., to tumble into it with a splash. No other explanation of the word can find support from the language used. Cf. Isaiah 19:14 and Isaiah 25:10. In the last clause of Jeremiah 48:26, the emphasis lies on גּם הוּא: "he also (Moab, like Israel before) shall become a laughing-stock." This statement is enforced by the question put in Jeremiah 48:27, "Was not Israel a laughing-stock to thee?" ואם־אם shows a double question, like ה־אם; and ואם in the first clause may be further strengthened by the interrogative ה before שׂחק, as in Genesis 17:17. For other forms of the double question, see Psalm 94:9; Job 21:4; Jeremiah 23:26. On Dagesh dirimens in השּׂחק, cf. Ewald, 104, b. There is no sufficient reason for questioning the feminine form נמצאה in the Qeri; Israel is personified as a woman, just as Moab in Jeremiah 48:20, where חתּה is found. On מדּי דב, cf. Jeremiah 31:20, where, however, דּבּר בּ is used in another meaning. התנודד, to shake oneself, is a stronger expression than הניד בּראשׁ, to shake the head (Jeremiah 18:16), a gesture denoting mockery and rejoicing over another's injury; cf. Psalm 64:9.
Drunken - Fill him with the intoxicating wine of God's vengeance.
*More commentary available at chapter level.