Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 48:12
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.
12. pour off ] rather as mg. tilt (a vessel). The figure of earthenware jars of wine is continued. They are emptied by being tilted on one side, an operation which was performed slowly and carefully, that the jars might be safe and the wine run off clear while the sediment was left. This work, however, in the case of Moab shall be done roughly.
bottles ] rather as mg. jars.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will send – tilters unto him and they shall tilt him, and they shall empty his vessels, and break their pitchers in pieces. Pitchers originally meant skins, but the word came to signify small earthenware jars Isa 30:14 : thus the Chaldaeans shall destroy of Moab everything that has contained the wine of her political life both small and great.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander] Dr. Blayney renders tsaim, tilters; those who elevate one end of the wine cask when nearly run out that the remains of the liquor may be the more effectually drawn off at the cock. And this seems to be well supported by the following words, –
And shall empty his vessels] I will send such as will carry the whole nation into captivity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By the
wanderers here mentioned the Chaldeans are most certainly understood, who wandered from their own country to conquer other people; the word is variously translated, vagrants, travellers, removers, &c., who shall conquer the Moabites, and carry them into captivity.
And shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles: he had before compared the Moabites to wine settled upon the lees, here he saith that God would send those that should not only disturb and roll them, but ruin and destroy them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. wanderersrather, “pourersout,” retaining the image of Jer48:11, that is, the Chaldeans who shall remove Moab from hissettlements, as men pour wine from off the lees into other vessels.”His vessels” are the cities of Moab; the broken “bottles”the men slain [GROTIUS].The Hebrew and the kindred Arabic word means, “toturn on one side,” so as to empty a vessel [MAURER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,…. This being their case, they should not continue in it; a change would be made, and that in a very short time, as there was; for, according to Josephus p, it was about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem that the Moabites were subdued by the king of Babylon:
that I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander; the Chaldeans, who wandered out of their own country to Moab, directed by the providence of God to come there to do his work; and who, at first, might be treated by the Moabites with contempt, as vagrants, but would soon be made to know that they would cause them to wander; or would remove them out of their own country into other lands, particularly Babylon, to be vagrants there. The word may be rendered “travellers” q; and signifies such that walk with great strength of body, in a stately way, and with great agility and swiftness; in which manner the Chaldeans are described as coming to Moab, and who should cause them to travel back with them in all haste; see word in Isa 63:1. The Targum renders it “spoilers”; according to the metaphor of wine used in
Jer 48:11, it may signify a sort of persons that cause wine to go, or empty it from one vessel to another; such as we call “wine coopers”; and this agrees with what follows:
and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles; depopulate the cities of Moab; destroy the inhabitants of them, and make them barren and empty of men. The Targum is,
“I will send spoilers upon them, and they shall spoil them, and empty their substance, and consume the good of their land;”
see Jer 48:8. The Septuagint version is, “they shall cut in pieces his horns”; which, as Origen r interprets them, were a kind of cups anciently used; for in former times they drank out of horns, either of oxen, or other animals; and Pliny s says that the northern people used to drink out of the horns of buffaloes, a creature larger than a bull, and which the Muscovites call “thur”; the same is asserted by Athenaeus t, and others, that the horns of beasts were drinking vessels before cups were invented.
p Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7. q “viatores”, Tigurine version. r Apud Drusium in fragmentis in loc. s Nat. Hist. l. 11. e. 37. t Deipnosoph. l. 11. p. 235. Rhodigin. 1. 30.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet said in the last lecture that the Moabites, as long as they lived prosperously, were very hardened, as impunity becomes an incentive to sin; for the ungodly, while God spares them, think that they shall never be called to an account. He now adds, that the days would come, in which God would suddenly execute vengeance on them. But he pursues the comparison which he had used; for he had said, that the Moabites were like wine which had not been poured from one vessel into another; and hence they retained their own odor, that is, they were inebriated with their own pleasures, because God had granted them peace and quietness for a long time.
Now, the Prophet, on the other hand, says that God would send to them drivers, (7) to drive them away, and who would empty their vessels and scatter their bottles, — the containing for the contained; though I do not disapprove of another rendering, “and destroy their bottles;” for the verb is sometimes taken in this sense. Properly it means to scatter, to dissipate; but the verb נפף, nuphets, sometimes expresses a stronger idea, even to scatter or to cast forth with violence, so as to break what is thus cast forth. As to the real meaning there is not much difference: for we perceive what was God’s purpose, that he would send to the Moabites enemies to drive them into exile, and thus to deprive them of those pleasures in which they had so long indulged. But this was not said for the sake of the Moabites, but that the Jews might know, that though that land had been in a quiet state, yet it would not escape the hand of God; for its long continued felicity could not render void that decree of God of which the Prophet had spoken. It now follows —
(7) “Incliners” is the Sept.; “strewers,” the Vulg. ; “plunderers,” the Syr. and Targ. The verb means to spread, to strew. They were those who turned the wine vessels in order to empty them. Henderson has “overturners;” but Blayney has the best word, “tilters,” who should tilt him. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
12. Wanderers As is patent on the very surface, and as all expositors agree, this word is a wrong translation, and misleading. Luther renders tapsters; Ewald, overturners; Nagelsbach, Smith, Noyes, and others, tilters. Keil’s rendering expresses well the exact sense. I will send him those who pour out, and they shall pour him out. The wine in the earthen vessels of the time could be poured off only by tilting the vessel instead of draining it off, as in a wooden vessel, by a hole for the purpose.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
It would swell our Commentary to a length indeed, to enter minutely into the several branches of the visitations here set forth. Indeed it would only when done, tend to confirm what hardly needs further confirmation. God’s foes must be accounted with, and destruction must overtake all the workers of iniquity. Moab as well as the Philistines, and all that oppose God in his purposes, will finally perish. That one blessed declaration sums up and answers all: my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, Isa 46:10 . Precious consideration to all the people of God!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 48:12 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will send unto him wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles.
Ver. 12. That I will send him wanderers. ] Peregrinantes qui peregre agant eum; the Chaldean vagrants, as he proudly calleth and counteth them; but they shall make a vagrant of him in good earnest.
And shall empty his vessels, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos.
saith the LORD = [is] Jehovah’s oracle.
wanderers, that shall cause him to wander = tilters that shall tilt him. Keeping up the symbol of a wine-jar (Jer 48:11).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
wanderers: Jer 48:8, Jer 48:15, Jer 25:9, Isa 16:2, Eze 25:9, Eze 25:10
empty: Jer 48:11, Jer 48:38, Jer 14:3, Jer 19:10, Jer 25:34, Psa 2:9, Isa 30:14, Nah 2:2
Reciprocal: Pro 1:32 – prosperity Isa 32:9 – ye women Jer 13:14 – I will dash Jer 51:34 – he hath made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 48:12. This condition of peace was to be disturbed and the wanderers (the Babylonians) were to come and break the bottles (figuratively speaking) and destroy the peace of the land on which the people bad been resting in their false security.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
However, the days would come when the Lord would upset Moab’s complacency. He would send judgment, pictured in terms of foreign "tilters" who would decant her wine, prepare it for distribution, and destroy its casks. Then Moab would be disillusioned with Chemosh for not protecting her, even as Israel had been ashamed of the idols she had worshipped at Bethel.