Jeremiah 48:12

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.] Moab abounded with the best wine; but dwelling so near Sodom, his grapes also became grapes of Sodom and clusters of Gomorrah: his manners were Sodomitish too. It was but time therefore to send those that should empty his vessels and break his bottles, carry him into another country, where he might get a new taste, and his scent be changed.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

wanderers--rather, "pourers out," retaining the image of Jer 48:11, that is, the Chaldeans who shall remove Moab from his settlements, 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, "to turn on one side," so as to empty a vessel [MAURER].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. I will send unto him wanderers that shall cause him to wander] Dr. Blayney renders צעים 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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, 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 —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wanderers, that shall cause him to wander; rather, taters, and they shall tilt him. The earthen jars of which Thevenot speaks were doubtless similar to those of the Israelites. They would be tilted on one side, that the wine might run off clear from the dregs. Their bottles; rather, flagons or pitchers (of earthenware). The confusion of numbers and pronouns is remarkable. First, Moab collectively is spoken of as a wine jar; then the Moabites individually as Moab"s jars; last of all, the Moabites are spoken of as possessing "jars" (i.e. all the institutions, public and private, of the state and of society).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wanderers - The Chaldeans, who wandered from their own country to conquer other people. Break his 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, but destroy them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

men to pour Heb. ציעים, those who pour. Cf. “What must be poured out (צֹעֶה) hastened to be opened” (Isa. 51:14). That is the moving of the bowels by pouring.

his jars Heb. נבליהם [lit. their jars], the Moabites’ flasks.

smash Heb. ינפצו, they shall break. Cf. “How were they regarded as earthen jars (לְנִבְלֵי) (Lam. 4:2). Also, “Every bottle (נֵבֶל) will be filled with wine” (supra 13.12).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.