Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 48:27

For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.

27. was he found among thieves?] i.e. Thou couldst not, O Moab, have treated him with more contempt, hadst thou caught him in the act of stealing. Cp. Jer 2:26.

waggest the head ] in scorn. Cp. Psa 64:8; Mat 27:39.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Was he found … – Or, was he found among thieves that so often as thou speakest of him thou waggest thy head? – in contempt for a fallen enemy.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 27. Was not Israel a derision unto thee?] Didst thou not mock my people, and say their God was no better than the gods of other nations? See Eze 25:8.

Was he found among thieves?] Did the Israelites come to rob and plunder you? Why then mock them, and rejoice at their desolation, when their enemies prevailed over them? This the Lord particularly resents.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For was not Israel a derision unto thee? it is an ill thing to mock at the miseries of others, especially such as we have some relation to; the Moabites were descended from Lot, who was nearly related to Abraham the father of the Jews, and ought not to have mocked at them, but to have pitied their neighbours and kindred: they either mocked at the ten tribes when they were carried into captivity by Shalmaneser, or at Judah captivated by the king of Babylon. God threateneth the Ammonites, Eze 25:6, and the Edomites, by Obadiah, for the same misdemeanour.

Was he found among thieves? why didst thou deal by Israel as men deal by thieves, when they are brought to shame? Ought not he to have been by thee accounted in a better rank than that of thieves?

For since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy; instead of compassionating the Jews in their calamity, thou never spakest of them but with joy and triumph. Others make a quite other sense, viz. for those words against him thou thyself shalt wander. But the learned author of the English Annotations observes well, that the word in the form here used will not so well bear it, though the verb doth in its primary sense signify to wander.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

27. (Zep2:8).

a derisionThe Hebrewhas the article: referring to Jer48:26, “Was not Israel (the whole nation) theobject of derision to thee?” Therefore, Moab is to suffer asformerly for its exultation over the calamity (2Ki17:6) of the ten tribes under the Assyrian Shalmaneser (Isa15:1-16:14), so now for its exultation over the fall of Judah,under the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar. God takes up His people’s cause asHis own (Ob 10-13).

was he . . . among thieves(Jer 2:26). Proverbial. Whatdid Israel do to deserve such derision? Was he detected in theft,that thou didst so exult over him in speaking of him?Though guilty before God, Israel was guiltless towards thee.

since“since ever”thou didst begin speaking of him.

skippedst for joyatIsrael’s calamity [CALVIN];or, “thou didst shake thy head” in “derision”[MAURER].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For was not Israel a derision unto thee?…. In the time of his calamity, when the ten tribes were carried captive by the Assyrians some years ago; and of late the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin by the Chaldeans; the Moabites rejoiced at this, which they ought not to have done, upon the common principles of humanity; and especially since they were not only neighbours, but akin; and therefore, according to the law of retaliation, it was but just that they should be had in derision themselves:

was he found among thieves? that is, Israel; that he should be a derision to any, as thieves are when they are taken; men rejoice at it, insult them, and deride them; but was this the case of Israel? had he robbed any? had he done any injury to Moab, or any other? no, verily: why this derision then?

for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy; or, “shookedst thyself” c; whenever the Moabites spoke of the distresses and calamities of Israel, and of their captivity, they laughed till they shook themselves; not only shook their heads, but their whole bodies. The Vulgate Latin version is, “therefore, because of thy words which thou hast spoken against him, thou shall be carried captive”; and Jarchi mentions such a sense of the words, as given by some of their Rabbins; and to this agrees the Targum,

“and because ye have multiplied words against them, therefore ye shall go into captivity.”

c “commovisti te”, Vatablus, Calvin; “commoves te”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “motitas te”, Schmidt.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

But the higher cause for the drunkenness mentioned here ought to be observed, even because Moab exalted himself against God. For after having spoken of the pride through which he exulted over God, he adds an explanation, Has not Israel been a derision to thee? See then how the Moabites acted proudly towards God, even because they treated his Church reproachfully. And this ought especially to be noticed; for God intimates by these words, that he is so connected with the faithful as to regard their cause as his own, as it is said elsewhere,

“

He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of my eye.” (Zec 2:8)

God then so takes the faithful under his own protection, that whatever injury is done to them, he counts it as done to him. This connection is well expressed by the Prophet, when he says, “The Moabites have raised themselves against God;” and at the same time he shews the way and manner, even because they exulted over the Israelites. Were any one to object and say, that the Moabites injured mortal men only and not God; the answer has already been given, even that God has so adopted his Church as to identify himself with it. Let us then know, that God, when he sees us suffering anything unjustly, regards the wrong as done to himself. As then the people of Israel had been a derision to the Moabites, the Prophet threatens them with a similar punishment for their pride.

And then he adds, Has he been found among thieves? It is, indeed, certain, that the people of Israel deserved very severe scourges, and that when they were subjected to so many adversities, a just reward was rendered to them for their iniquities. With regard to God this is certain; but with regard to the Moabites, the people of Israel were innocent; for these ungodly men could not object anything to the Israelites, for they were altogether like them, or even worse. God then compares here his chosen people with aliens, and says that the Israelites were not thieves. Under one thing he comprehends everything, as though he had said, “Of what wickedness have the Israelites been guilty, that you have thus become so enraged against them?” We hence see what the words of the Prophet mean, even that the Moabites were impelled by nothing but cruelty and pride, when they so basely raged against the Israelites, and so disdainfully oppressed them; for as I have already said, there was no cause why the Moabites should have been so hostile to the miserable people. Thus their crime was doubled, for they acted proudly towards God’s people, and they acted thus without a cause; for with regard to them, God’s people were innocent.

By saying that they were moved, or excited whenever they spoke of the Israelites, he intimates that they were carried away by malevolence, so as to wish all kinds of evil to the miserable, and then, as far as they could, to lay snares for them. As then they thus raged furiously against the Israelites, the Prophet includes everything of this kind in the word “moved,” or raised an uproar. (13) It follows —

(13) The Vulg. and the Targ. give the best version of these words, —

Surely for the abundance of thy words against him, thou shalt be quickly removed, or, led captive.

Then, in the following verse, Moab is bidden to quit his cities — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(27) Was not Israel a derision unto thee?The derision had been shown at an earlier stage in the history of Judah (Zep. 2:8; comp. Eze. 25:6), but was, we may well believe, reproduced when the Moabites heard of the disasters that fell on Israel in the days of Josiah and his successors. The question that follows Was he found among thieves? implies an answer in the negative. Israel had not been among the lawless, aggressive nations, the robbers of the earth. Compare 2Sa. 3:33, where the question, Died Abner as a fool dieth? implies that he had not deserved his death as guilty of any crime. By some critics, however, the Hebrew interrogative is taken as meaning when, and so involving the admission that Israel had been guilty of unjust invasion, and been led to that guilt by her alliance with the robber nations of the heathen.

Thou skippedst for joy.The gesture described. like the wagging of the head of Jer. 18:16, or the shrugging of the shoulders, is one of triumphant malice. The symbolism of Oriental gesture is, it may be noted, specially rich in expressions of this form of evil. (Comp. Isa. 57:4; Psa. 22:7.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

27. Was he found among thieves The second member of this verse should not be separated from the third, that as often as thou speakest of him thou waggest thine head.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments