EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
8.
the valley] the valley of the Jordan towards the Dead Sea.
the plain] the tableland of Moab.
Verse 8. -
The valley... the plain. The latter (Hebrew,
mishor)
is the upland region which extends from the Jordan eastward of Jericho into the Arabian desert; in
Numbers 21:20 it is called the "field" (
i.e. "open country") of Moab. The former means that part of the Jordan valley which borders on this upland "plain" towards the west. Jeremiah 48:8
Moab will not be saved from destruction by any trust on their works or on their treasures. The lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac render מעשׂיך by fortresses, hence Ewald would read מעוניך instead; but there is no ground for the change, since the peculiar rendering alluded to has evidently originated from מעשׂה having been confounded with מעוז. Others, as Dahler, refer the word to idols; but these are always designated as מעשׂי יד. Graf translates "property," and points to
1 Samuel 25:2;
Exodus 23:16; but this meaning also has really nothing to support it, for מעשׂה in these passages denotes only agriculture and its produce, and the combination of the word with אוצרות in this passage does not require such a rendering. We abide by the common meaning of "doings" or "works," not evil deeds specially (Hitzig), but "all that Moab undertakes." Neither their efforts to maintain and increase their power, nor their wealth, will avail them in any way. They shall be overcome. Moab is addressed as a country or kingdom. לכד, to seize, capture; of a land, to take, conquer. Chemosh, with his priests and princes, shall go into exile. כּמישׁ is perhaps a mere error of the copyist for כּמושׁ, Chemosh, the chief deity of the Moabites and Ammonites, worshipped as a king and the war-god of his people: see on
Numbers 21:29. As in the last-named passage the Moabites are called the people of Chemosh, so here, not merely the priests, but also the princes of Moab, are called his priests and his princes. The Kethib יחד is not to be changed, although Jeremiah elsewhere always uses יחדּו, which is substituted in the Qeri; cf.
Jeremiah 49:3. In confirmation of this, it is added, in
Jeremiah 48:8, that all the cities of Moab, without exception, shall be laid waste, and the whole country, valley and plain, shall be brought to ruin. המּישׁור, "the level," is the table-land stretching from the Arnon to Heshbon, and north-eastwards as far as Rabbath-Ammon, and which originally belonged to the Moabites, hence called "the fields of Moab" in
Numbers 21:40; but it was taken from them by the Amorites, and after the conquest of the latter was taken possession of by the Israelites (
Deuteronomy 3:10;
Deuteronomy 4:43;
Joshua 13:9), but at that time had been taken back once more by the Moabites. העמק is the valley of the Jordan, commonly called הערבה, as in
Joshua 13:27 and
Joshua 13:19; here it is that portion of the valley towards the west which bounds the table-land. אשׁר can only be taken in a causal signification, "because," as in
Jeremiah 16:13, or in a relative meaning, quod, or "as."
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