Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 48:4
Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
4. her little ones have caused a cry to be heard ] Read rather, with LXX, they make a cry to be heard unto Zoar (S.E. of the Dead Sea). The point then is that the cry extends throughout Moab from N. to S. Cp. Isa 15:5, from which also Jer 48:5 is mainly taken.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4, 5. Both these vv. are probably later than Jeremiah.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moab – Probably the city elsewhere called Ar-Moab. See the Septuagint of this verse.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Moab was both the name of the whole country, and of a principal city in it. Some by it here understand the city; by her
little ones some understand little children; others, inferior magistrates, or the common people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. little ones . . . cryheighteningthe distress of the scene. The foe does not spare even infants.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moab is destroyed,…. Either the whole nation in general; so the Targum,
“the kingdom of Moab is broken;”
and so Abarbinel; or a city so called, which some take to be the city Areopolis. Jerom g says, that Moab is a city of Arabia, now called Areopolis; and which also has the name of Rabbathmoab, or “grand Moab”;
her little ones have caused a cry to be heard; seeing their parents killed, and they left desolate, and in the hands of the enemy; and not only so, but just going to be dashed in pieces by them. The Targum interprets it, her governors; and so Jarchi, who thinks they are so called, because they are lesser than kings. Kimchi and Ben Melech suggest, that these are called so by way of contempt. The word “tzeir” signifies both “little” and “great”, as the learned Pocock h has abundantly proved.
g De locis Heb. fol. 87. H. & 93. B. h Not. Miscell. in Port. Mosis, p. 17, 18.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet speaks again generally of the whole country. It is said that the land of Moab was afflicted; not that it was so then; but to make certain the prophecy, he speaks of the event as having already taken place; for the prophets, as it is well known, speaking in the person of God, relate things as yet hidden, as though they had been completed. He says that the little ones of Moab so cried as to be heard. (5) This is much more emphatic than if he had said that men and women cried out; for children do not soon perceive what is going on, for their understanding is not great. Men and women howl when threatenings only are announced; but little children are not moved but by present evils, and except they are actually beaten, they are not affected; and then they hardly distinguish between some slight evil and death. Hence, when the Prophet says that the little ones of Moab were heard in their crying, he means that the grievousness of its calamity would be extreme, as that little children, as though wise before their time, would perceive the atrocious cruelty of their enemies. It follows, —
(5) Here all the versions and the Targum differ. The Vulg. only has “little ones;” the Syr. has “her poor,” the Sept. take “Zoar” to be intended, according to Isa 15:5, the word צוערה, instead of צעוריה. The passage in Isaiah confirms this reading, though not found in any copies. Then the verse would read thus, —
Broken is Moab, They made the cry heard at Zoar.
This is substantially the version of Venema. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Her little ones.The Hebrew adjective is the same as the Zoar, the little one, of Gen. 19:20, and that city may probably have been, as in Isa. 15:5, in the prophets mind. In any case the little ones are cities, and not children.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Moab Some understand here the city Ar-Moab, of Num 21:15, etc.; but this is unnecessary. It is better to take it in its ordinary sense, the name of the country.
Little ones cry No feature of the picture could be more pathetic than these piteous cries of the children.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 48:4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
Ver. 4. Moab is destroyed, ] i.e., Shall be shortly.
Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Moab: This prophecy against Moab, as well as the following ones concerning Ammon, Edom, and the neighbouring countries, seem to have been fulfilled during the long siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus places these events five years after the destruction of Jerusalem. Num 21:27-30
her: Est 8:11, Psa 137:9
Reciprocal: Exo 10:7 – that Egypt Jer 20:16 – let him Jer 48:15 – gone
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 48:4. Moah is named and includes the land and the people. Little has a various definition in the lexicon, hut the general meaning is to be small or helpless against the attacking foe, and that was to make the people of the land cry out so as to he heard.