--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 906 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/906/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 906. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/906/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 906. Jeremiah · 47 of 55 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/906/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/906/#p-N ### Verse 27 [¶1] 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]. [¶2] 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. ### Verse 28 [¶4] Dwell in the rock - Go to the most inaccessible places in the mountains. [¶5] The hole's mouth - And into the most secret eaves and holes of the earth. ### Verse 29 [¶7] The pride of Moab - See on [Isa 16:1] (note). ### Verse 32 [¶9] O vine of Sibmah - See on [Isa 16:8] (note). ### Verse 34 [¶11] As a heifer of three years old - Which runs lowing from place to place in search of her calf, which is lost or taken from her. ### Verse 37 [¶13] For every head shall be bald - These, as we have seen before, were signs of the deepest distress and desolation. ### Verse 40 [¶15] He shall fly as an eagle - The enemy will pounce upon him, carry him off, and tear him to pieces. ### Verse 42 [¶17] Moab shall be destroyed from being a people - They shall not have a king or civil governor: and I doubt whether there be any evidence that they were ever reinstated in their national character. They were captivated by the Chaldeans; and probably many returned with the Jews on the edict of Cyrus: but as to their being an independent nation after this, where is the positive proof? ### Verse 43 [¶19] Fear, and the pit, and the snare - See the note on [Isa 24:17], [Isa 24:18]. ### Verse 45 [¶21] They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon - Heshbon being a fortified place, they who were worsted in the fight fled to it, and rallied under its walls; but, instead of safety, they found themselves disappointed, betrayed, and ruined. See [Jer 48:2] (note), and the note there. [¶22] But a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon - Jeremiah has borrowed this part of his discourse from an ancient poet quoted by Moses, [Num 21:28] (note); where see the notes. [¶23] The crown of the head - The choicest persons of the whole nation. ### Verse 46 [¶25] The people of Chemosh - The Moabites, who worshipped Chemosh as their supreme god. ### Verse 47 [¶27] Will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days - I have already expressed doubts (see [Jer 48:42]) whether the Moabites were ever restored to their national distinction. The expressions in this chapter, relative to their total destruction as a people, are so strong and so frequent, that they leave little room for a limited interpretation. That many of them returned on the edict of Cyrus by virtue of which the Jews were restored, I doubt not; but neither the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, nor even the Jews themselves were ever restored to their national consequence. Perhaps the restoration spoken of here which was to take place in the latter days, may mean the conversion of these people, in their existing remnants, to the faith of the Gospel. Several judicious interpreters are of this opinion. The Moabites were partially restored; but never, as far as I have been able to learn, to their national consequence. Their conversion to the Christian faith must be the main end designed by this prophecy. ### Introduction [¶29] This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighborhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, [Jer 49:1-5]. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, [Jer 49:6]. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people), who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, vv. 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, [Jer 49:23-27]; and against Kedar, [Jer 49:28], [Jer 49:29]. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, [Jer 49:30-33]. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, [Jer 49:34-38]. The Elamites shall be delivered from their captivity in the latter days, [Jer 49:39]. It wilt be proper here to observe that these predictions should not be so explained as if they admitted of merely a private interpretation; for, as Bishop Lowth remarks upon Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Idumeans, "by a figure very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general;" therefore, it is under the Gospel dispensation that these prophecies shall be accomplished to their fullest extent upon all the antichrtstian nations that have sinned after the similitude of the ancient enemies of the people of God under the Mosaic economy. ### Verse 1 [¶31] Concerning the Ammonites - This prophetic discourse was also delivered after the capture of Jerusalem. [¶32] Hath Israel no sons? - no heir? - The Ammonites, it appears, took advantage of the depressed state of Israel, and invaded their territories in the tribe of Gad, hoping to make them their own for ever. But the prophet intimates that God will preserve the descendants of Israel, and will bring them back to their forfeited inheritances. [¶33] Why then doth their king - מלכם Malcom or Milcom, the chief idol of the Ammonites. That the idol Milcom is here meant is sufficiently evident from [Jer 49:3], where it is said: "Milcom (not their king) shall go into captivity; his Priests and his princes together." Milcom is also called Molech. Malcom is put here for the Ammonites, as the people of Chemosh in the preceding chapter are put for the Moabites in general. ### Verse 3 [¶35] Run to and fro by the hedges - It is supposed that this may refer to the women making lamentations for the dead, that were in general buried by the walls of their gardens; but others think that it refers to the smaller cities or villages, called here the daughters of Rabbah, the metropolis; the inhabitants of which are exhorted to seek safety somewhere else, as none can be expected from them, now that the enemy is at hand. ### Verse 4 [¶37] Wherefore gloriest thou - Though thy valleys be fruitful, yet glory not in them. Though thou have much political and military power, do not trust in them, nor in the multitude of thy cities; a stronger than thou is coming against thee. ### Verse 6 [¶39] Afterward I will bring again - The Ammonites are supposed to have returned with the Moabites and Israelites, on permission given by the edict of Cyrus. ### Verse 7 [¶41] Concerning Edom - This is a new and separate discourse. [¶42] Teman - A part of Idumea, put here for the whole country. ### Verse 8 [¶44] Dwell deep - An allusion to the custom of the Arabs, who, when about to be attacked by a powerful foe, strike their tents, pack up their utensils, lade their camels, which they can do in a couple of hours, and set off to the great desert, and so bury themselves in it that no enemy either will or can pursue, as it is the Arabs alone that know the deserts, and can find water and provender for their support.