Jeremiah 48:40

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Moab.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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יִדְאֶ֑ה

dâʼâh

H1675

“to fly swiftly”

Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 4× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Deuteronomy 28:49

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 394

to fly fast, fly swiftly, dart through the air - (Qal) to fly swiftly, dart

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is יִדְאֶ֑ה to fly swiftly H1675 — appearing just 4 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יִדְאֶ֑ה to fly swiftly H1675 occurs in 4 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 preposition
1 conjunction
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

אָמַ֣ר Qal · Perfect
יִדְאֶ֑ה Qal · Imperfect
וּפָרַ֥שׂ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Jeremiah 48:40 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Isaiah 8:8 and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.
Deuteronomy 28:49 Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;
Jeremiah 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Ezekiel 17:3 and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings and long feathers, full of feathers, which had various colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:
Hosea 8:1 "Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh's house, Because they have broken my covenant, And rebelled against my law.
Jeremiah 4:13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined.
Lamentations 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Daniel 7:4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I saw until the wings of it were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on two feet as a man; and a man's heart was given to it.

Habakkuk 1:8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Jeremiah 48:40 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כִּי כֹה֙ אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה הִנֵּ֥ה כַנֶּ֖שֶׁר יִדְאֶ֑ה וּפָרַ֥שׂ כְּנָפָ֖יו אֶל מוֹאָֽב

For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Moab.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

On this verse, The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

אֲרֵי כִדְנַן אֲמַר יְיָ הָא כְנִשְׁרָא דְמִשְׁתְּדֵי כֵּן יִסַק מֶלֶךְ בְּמַשִׁרְיָתֵיהּ וְיִשְׁרֵי עַל מוֹאָב:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Jeremiah 48:40 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Commentary source

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

40. he shall fly as an eagle] Cp. on Jer_4:13. The simile seems taken from Deu_28:49, but is used elsewhere (see Isa_46:11; Eze_17:3). It well represented the Babylonian empire, which “seemed to those who witnessed it like the rising of a mighty eagle, spreading out his vast wings, feathered with the innumerable colours of the variegated masses which composed the Chaldean host, sweeping over the different countries, and striking fear in his rapid flight:” Stanley, J. Ch. II. 451.

40, 41. The LXX omit “Behold … Moab” (Jer_48:40) and “and the heart … pangs” (Jer_48:41). Both are probably glosses in MT. supplied from Jer_49:22, with change of names.

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.

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jer 48:40 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.

Ver. 40. Behold, he shall fly as an eagle.] To an eagle Nebuchadnezzar is compared, for his strength, swiftness, and ravenousness.

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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jer 48:40-44. Behold, he shall fly as an eagle — Conquerors are often compared to eagles and other birds of prey; and the encamping of their armies is represented by the spreading of the wings of such fowls. The mighty men’s hearts shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs — They shall be dismayed at the apprehension of the evils that are coming upon them, and shall lose their wonted courage and resolution. Moab shall be destroyed from being a people — From being a nation or government, as it was before. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, &c. — These words, and those of the next verse, are taken from Isa 24:17-18, where see the notes.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

48:40 The eagle represents speed and surprise; its victim is caught and carried off before it is able to react.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

That is, Nebuchadnezzar, as Jer. 49:22.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

he--Nebuzara-dan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar.

as . . . eagle--not to bear them "on eagles' wings" (Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11-12), as God does His people, but to pounce on them as a prey (Jer 49:22; Deu 28:49; Hab 1:8).

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 40. He shall fly as an eagle] The enemy will pounce upon him, carry him off, and tear him to pieces.

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

John Calvin's Commentaries

Here again he introduces God’s name, for it was necessary to confirm an incredible prophecy by his authority. “God is he,” he says, “who declares that enemies will come, who will fly through all the land of Moab.” He now compares the Chaldeans to eagles; and there is here a name understood which is not expressed. Fly will he like an eagle, that is, the king of Babylon with his army.

The sum of what is said then is, that however widely extended might be the country of Moab, yet there would be no corner into which the Chaldeans would not penetrate, because they would nearly equal the eagles in swiftness. Hence he adds, They will extend their wings, not to cherish, as eagles spread their wings over their young ones; but by extension he means, that they would seize on all the land of Moab; so that hiding places would be sought in vain, because the Chaldeans would from one part to another take possession of every place, however remote the Moabites might think it to be, and however they might hope its distance would render it safe. He afterwards adds, —

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.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(40) He shall fly as an eagle . . .—The image, as in Deu_28:49; Isa_46:11; Eze_17:3, was the natural symbol of a fierce invader, probably, in this case, of Nebuchadnezzar. Here it receives a fresh vividness from the previous comparison of Moab to the dove that had its nest in the clefts of the rock. The verse is reproduced in Jer_49:22, in reference to Edom.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Kerioth is taken,.... The name of a city in Moab, as in Jer 48:24; so Jarchi, and others; but Kimchi and Abarbinel observe, that it may be taken for an appellative, and be rendered "the cities"; everyone of the cities of Moab, which were as easily and quickly taken as one city; these may intend the cities in the plain, as the strong holds those in high places:

and the strong holds are surprised; everyone of them; so that there was not a city, or a fortified place, but what came into the enemies' hands:

and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs; even the hearts of the soldiers, and the most courageous generals, shall sink within them; and they be not only as timorous as women in common, but as low spirited as a woman when she finds her pains are coming upon her, and the time of her delivery is at hand.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The rapid and irresistible attack of Nebuchadnezzar is compared to the impetuous dash of the eagle on its prey Deu 28:49.

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Nebuchadnezzar shall come upon Moab swiftly; and as an eagle covereth the prey which he hath taken with his wings, so Nebuchadnezzar shall spread himself over Moab.

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

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

40. He (Nebuchadrezzar) shall fly as an eagle — So strong and swift shall be his coming.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 40, 41. The Septuagint has a shorter form (see introduction to chapter).

He shall fly as an eagle; rather, he shall swoop. (same word and figure in Deu_28:49) The subject is not named, but (as in Jer_46:18) is Nebuchadnezzar.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

He - Nebuchadnezzar shall come swiftly, and spread himself over Moab.

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

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

the enemy will come flying like an eagle, spreading out his wings

These phrases compare how a powerful army will descend on Moab and conquer it to the way an eagle swoops down to capture its prey. (See: Simile)

Kerioth has been captured, and its strongholds have been seized

This can be stated in active form. AT: "The enemy has captured Kerioth and seized its strongholds" (See: Active or Passive)

Kerioth

This is a city in Moab. See how you translated this name in Jeremiah 48:24. (See: How to Translate Names)

in that day the hearts of Moab's soldiers ... women in birth labor

This phrase compares the fear that will overwhelm the soldiers of Moab to the fear a woman may feel when she is about to give birth to her child. (See: Simile)

the hearts of Moab's soldiers will be like the hearts of women in birth labor

Here "hearts" represent a person's emotions. AT: "Moab's soldiers will be afraid like a woman about to give birth" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

Yahweh

eagle

stronghold

labor pains

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

like an eagle he shall soar [i.e.,] the enemy [shall swoop] upon Moab.

shall soar Heb. ידאה, shall fly.

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.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Jeremiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is dâʼâh (“to fly swiftly”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “to fly swiftly” (dâʼâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
How does Deuteronomy 28:49, which shares the word «to fly swiftly», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«אָמַ֣ר» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and Trapp's Complete Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 18 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.