Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He prophesies the destruction of Moab, not by Sennacherib, as Lyranus holds and Saint Jerome favors, for he long preceded Jeremiah; but by Nebuchadnezzar, so Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugo and Vatablus. Hence in verse 11 he says the Moabites are to be transferred like wine from one barrel into another, that is, from Moab to Chaldea. Thirdly, in verse 26, he compares them to drunkards vomiting from grief, and this because they did not bring help to the Jews, their kinsmen, when they were attacked by the Chaldeans — rather, they arrogantly mocked them. Fourthly, in verse 27, he describes the lamentation of the Moabites. Jeremiah seems to have prophesied these things at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, as is gathered from chapter XLIX, verse 34, when, as ambassadors of kings came to Zedekiah, he sent these prophecies through them to the kings and nations subject to them, chapter XXVII, verse 1. Hence this chapter and the next should be appended to chapter XXVII.
Verse 1: Ad Moab Haec Dicit Dominus Exercituum Deus Israel: Vae Super Nabo
1. Concerning Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe upon Nebo, for it has been laid waste and put to shame: Kiriathaim has been captured: the stronghold is confounded and trembles...
Vulgate Text: Jeremias 48:2-16
2. There is no more rejoicing in Moab over Heshbon: they have devised evil. Come, let us destroy it from being a nation; therefore you shall be utterly silenced, and the sword shall pursue you. 3. A voice of crying from Horonaim: devastation and great destruction. 4. Moab is crushed: announce the cry to her little ones. 5. For on the ascent of Luhith they shall go up weeping with continual weeping: for on the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard the wailing of destruction. 6. Flee, save your lives; and you shall be like tamarisks in the desert. 7. For because you trusted in your fortifications and in your treasures, you also shall be captured: and Chemosh shall go into exile, his priests and his princes together. 8. And the plunderer shall come upon every city, and no city shall be saved: and the valleys shall perish, and the plains shall be laid waste, because the Lord has spoken. 9. Give wings to Moab, for she shall go forth in bloom; and her cities shall be desolate and uninhabitable. 10. Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully: and cursed is he who holds back his sword from blood. 11. Moab has been fertile from his youth, and has settled on his lees: he has not been poured from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile: therefore his taste has remained in him, and his scent has not changed. 12. Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord: and I will send him pourers, and pourers of flagons, and they shall pour him out, and shall empty his vessels, and shatter his flagons. 13. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which it trusted. 14. How do you say: We are strong, and mighty men for war? 15. Moab has been laid waste, and her cities have been set on fire: and her choicest young men have gone down to the slaughter: says the King, the Lord of hosts is His name. 16. The destruction of Moab is near to come: and his calamity hastens exceedingly.
1. CONCERNING MOAB — namely, the following prophecy is directed. Moab is both a region and a city, called Ar in Hebrew and Areopolis in Greek; here the subject is both the city and the whole province, which is part of Arabia Petraea: for this encompasses within its borders Moabitis, Idumea, Amalekitis and Kedar, says Adrichomius.
NEBO. — It was a city of Moab in the tribe of Reuben, Numbers XXXII, 37; it is also the name of a mountain and of the idol of the Chaldeans, Isaiah XLVI, 1. Nebo in Hebrew means oracle, because there was one in this city, hence it seems to have been called Nebo; and therefore he places it first in the destruction, as if to say: You, Nebo, from your false oracle promised yourself and the other cities of Moab peace and immunity from the Chaldeans; therefore I convict you and your idol of falsehood; and I will hand you over first to the Chaldeans, then the rest of the cities of Moab. So Sanchez.
It has been laid waste — it will be laid waste: for all these past tenses are taken prophetically for future events.
KIRIATHAIM. — It is a city of Moab in the tribe of Reuben, Numbers XXXII, 37, where the giants dwelt, Genesis XIV, 5. In the time of Saint Jerome (as he himself testifies in the Hebrew Places) it was called Corajatha, flourishing with all Christians, and was at the tenth milestone near Medaba, a city of Arabia. It is called Kiriathaim in the dual form, as if to say: Two cities: for it seems to have been a double city, as are Rome, Prague, Krakow, and many others. Thus Kirjath-jearim was so called, as if the city of forests: Kirjath-Sepher, as if the city of letters, that is, the Academy of Palestine, Joshua XV, 15. Thus Hebron was called Kirjath-Arba, as if the city of four, namely of the Patriarchs, that is, Adam, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are buried there, says Saint Jerome from the Hebrews, on Matthew chapter XXVII, and Lyranus, Hugo, Abulensis on Joshua, chapter XIV, 15.
THE STRONGHOLD IS CONFOUNDED. — In Hebrew: the refuge is confounded, namely the city of Kiriathaim, to which in time of war the neighbors were accustomed to flee for refuge, because of its fortifications.
(1) Nebo and most of the cities of the Moabites mentioned shortly, Kiriathaim, Heshbon, Dibon, Aroer, Beth-meon, Jazer, Sibmah, formerly belonged to the Reubenites or Gadites (see Numbers XXXII, 2, 34-38); but when these were deported by the Assyrians, they were occupied by the Moabites...
17. Console him, all you who are round about him; and all you who know his name, say: How is the strong rod broken, the glorious staff! 18. Come down from glory, and sit in thirst, O dwelling of the daughter of Dibon: for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you, he has destroyed your fortresses. 19. Stand in the way and watch, O dwelling of Aroer: ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say: What has happened? 20. Moab is confounded, for he is conquered: howl and cry out, announce in the Arnon that Moab is laid waste. 21. And judgment has come upon the plain country: upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath, 22. and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim, 23. and upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, 24. and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah; and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25. The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord. 26. Make him drunk, for he has exalted himself against the Lord: and Moab shall dash his hands in his vomit, and he himself also shall be a derision. 27. For was not Israel a derision to you, as if you had found him among thieves? Therefore because of your words which you spoke against him, you shall be led captive. 28. Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, O inhabitants of Moab: and be like a dove nesting at the top of the mouth of a cave. 29. We have heard the pride of Moab: he is exceedingly proud; his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. 30. I know, says the Lord, his boasting: and that his strength is not equal to it, nor has he attempted to do according to what he was able. 31. Therefore I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out for all of Moab, lamenting for the men of the brick wall. 32. With the weeping of Jazer I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah: your branches have crossed the sea, they have reached as far as the sea of Jazer: the plunderer has fallen upon your harvest and your vintage.
Verse 2: Non Est Ultra Exsultatio In Moab Contra Hesebon
2. THERE IS NO MORE REJOICING IN MOAB OVER HESHBON. — In Hebrew: concerning Heshbon, namely because it was formerly the most famous city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and it will be destroyed; hence Moab will not be able to glory in it. So the Septuagint and Vatablus.
Secondly and preferably, with Pagninus, the Chaldean, Lyranus, Hugo and Sanchez, these words should be punctuated differently, namely thus: There is no rejoicing in Moab. Against Heshbon they have devised evil, namely the Chaldeans. For Heshbon was a city in Moab: hence the Moabites could not rejoice at its misfortune and disaster, but had to grieve and mourn. In the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia: against Heshbon, that is, against the place of scheming and plotting, chasebu, that is, they devised evil, stirring one another up to the destruction and plunder of Heshbon, and saying: "Come, let us destroy it from being a nation," that is, from among the nations, so that it no longer exists among the nations, so that it is no longer a nation among other nations. Isaiah predicted these same things about Moab in chapters XV and XVI, from which Jeremiah drew much here, or rather through whose mouth the Holy Spirit repeated it, to confirm both His own prophecy and Isaiah's.
THEREFORE YOU SHALL BE UTTERLY SILENCED — namely you, O Heshbon: so Theodoret, Rabanus and Lyranus; but the Chaldean, Vatablus and Pagninus take "silent" as a proper name of another city, which in Hebrew is called Madmen, that is, silent, as if to say: You who are called Madmen from silence, shall be reduced to silence and solitude.
Verse 4: Annuntiate Clamorem Parvulis Ejus
4. ANNOUNCE THE CRY TO HER LITTLE ONES — that is, tell her children that they will cry out: for children in disasters and destructions wail and cry out above all others, especially when they see their parents killed or led away from them into captivity.
Verse 5: Per Ascensum Enim Luth
5. For on the ascent of Luhith — as if to say: the Moabites who flee from the Chaldeans will ascend weeping to Luhith, an elevated place, so that they may be safe there. So Lyranus and Vatablus. Saint Jerome, Rabanus and Hugo explain it differently, as if to say: By the slope of Luhith, the Moabites, weeping, will be led captive into Chaldea: for they think it is a town. So Eusebius.
Verse 6: Fugite
6. Flee — O Moabites!
YOU SHALL BE LIKE TAMARISKS — that is, lowly, abject, barren, sad and solitary: see what was said in chapter XVII, verse 6. Thus Saint Anthony, Paul, etc., fled into the desert because of the persecutions of either Decius and the tyrants, or of friends and the world, and there they hid like tamarisks.
Verse 7: Et Ibit Chamos In Transmigrationem
7. AND CHEMOSH SHALL GO INTO EXILE. — "Chemosh" was the idol of Moab, to which King Solomon built a shrine, III Kings XI, 7. From Chemosh many derive the Greek komas, who was the god of revelry, namely Bacchus according to Philostratus; whence komazein means to revel, and komai are called wanton songs and dances; and the Latin comessari (to carouse), and comedy and tragedy, were invented in Icarius, a city of Attica, at the time of the vintage itself: whence tragedy was at first called trygedy. For tryge means vintage, and trygan means to harvest grapes. Perhaps Chemosh, as Stuckius notes in book I of the Convivial, chapter X, is derived from the Syro-Chaldean kemas, that is, to hide, to lurk, meaning Bacchus nyktelios, or the one to whom they offered nocturnal rites through feasting and the consequent unbridled licentiousness, as Plutarch and Pausanias attest, to which the Apostle alludes in Romans XIII, 13: "Not in reveling and drunkenness, but let us walk honestly as in the day." Hence also those who, crowned and well-drunk, burst into another's banquet with a piper, were said to komazein.
Secondly, Christophorus a Castro holds that Chemosh is the same as Baal-peor, that is, the god of opening or of nakedness, who with a somewhat distorted name is called Priapus, and is called Chemosh, that is, as if fondling or handling. Baal-peor was the image of a naked man who had the skin of a dead man in his mouth; by which it signified that there was no remedy for mortality; nor could fleeing nature be retained unless through the mouth, by food and drink, material for lust and generation was supplied, through which fleeting nature is, as it were, held and propagated in offspring. His worship consisted of feasting and unbridled lust, and was practiced through priestess-prostitutes, Hosea chapter XIV, the chief of whom was Maacah the mother of Asa, whom Asa removed, and he overthrew the Priapus, III Kings XV, 13. But I have treated Baal-peor at length in Numbers XXV, 3.
Note: In the Hebrew, instead of Chemosh is written Chamis, as if by contempt his name were curtailed and cut short, because he has now been captured and confounded, and, as the French say, snub-nosed, since his authority, power and wealth have been stripped away.
Verse 9: Date Florem Moab
9. GIVE WINGS TO MOAB — This is irony, as if to say: See to it that Moab blooms in wealth and glory; therefore crown her with flowers, and place a flowery garland on her head; indeed, let her, indulging in pleasure and gluttony, crown herself with roses: but know that she, with all her blooming, is to be laid waste, captured and led out into captivity. So Rabanus, Hugo and Lyranus. Or: give a flower to Moab, so that she may know she will be reduced to nothing as quickly as a flower withers. Isaiah chapter XL, verse 6: "All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass has withered, and the flower has fallen." Such indeed is all earthly splendor, pomp and glory: for only in heaven is there solid, constant and everlasting beauty, pleasure and glory. To this may be added the exposition of Sanchez, which is as follows: However much Moab may be in a pleasant and well-watered place, and however much she may bloom and shine from the abundance of her land, yet blooming and shining she will be snatched away to a foreign soil: "and her cities" that were formerly flourishing and splendid "shall be desolate," squalid and waste, so that no one at all inhabits them. Indeed, in human affairs and wealth, that saying of Seneca is most true, epistle 39: "Thus excessive abundance lays the harvest low; thus branches are broken by their burden; thus excessive fertility does not reach maturity. The same happens to minds, which immoderate prosperity shatters." This sense is fitting and plausible. For from this we say that cities are nearest to destruction, and men to tribulation and the cross, when they most flourish in glory, wealth and pleasures: just as Moab, flourishing and crowning herself with roses, was very near to destruction. Indeed, "fortune is made of glass: when it shines, it breaks."
The reason is that the wheel of fortune is like the wheel of nature, which has been so arranged by its Author that it always revolves in a circle, and when it is at the summit and highest perfection, then by rotating it descends and tends toward its end. Thus fruits when most ripe decay; flowers when fullest wither; animals when they have reached their proper stature and age decline toward old age and death. The sun when at its highest at noon, soon declines toward setting; when it is at the summer solstice, it declines toward winter. The same therefore is the cycle, period, limit and setting of empires, kingdoms, princes and men.
Secondly, R. Kimchi, Pagninus and Vatablus translate thus: Give a wing to Moab, for she shall fly away in flight, namely into captivity; or to escape it, she will flee most swiftly and virtually fly away.
Thirdly, the Chaldean translates: Take the crown from Moab, and give it to the Chaldean. For the Hebrew tsits signifies first a flower, secondly a wing, thirdly a crown. Our translator most aptly, with Aquila and Symmachus, translates it as flower.
Fourthly, the Septuagint translates: Give signs to Moab, namely of impending destruction, as if to say: Warn her of it, and to make her believe, produce the signs of it: or, as Theodoret says, place, that is, set up signs through the desert, so that Moab may know which way to flee through it.
Fifthly, others explain it thus, as if to say: Just as a bride crowned with flowers is led to the bridegroom, so you, O Moab, adorn yourself for your husband, namely the Chaldean — but a monstrous enemy.
Sixthly and best, a Castro explains it thus, as if to say: With flowery crowns and perfumes, O Moab, adorn yourself and your funeral, for you will be buried and die in Chaldea: for the wealthy are accustomed to adorn the funerals of their dead with crowns and every pomp. This sense, like the first, is more fitting and clearer than the rest. Hence the Syriac and Arabic translate: Give a crown to Moab, for she shall be utterly destroyed, and all her cities shall become a desert, for lack of inhabitants.
Note here: The Gentiles were accustomed to crown the bodies of the dead with flowers and garlands; indeed, if anyone had won some crown for himself by virtue, even in death he was accustomed to be decorated with the same, and this by permission of the law of the Twelve Tables, which is found in Pliny, book XXI, chapter III, and Cicero, book II of the Laws; and Pliny himself testifies that this was done at the funeral of Scipio: "The people," he says, "arranged the funeral, and wherever it passed, they scattered flowers from every window." Halicarnassus reports the same was done at the funeral of the daughter of Virginius, book XI. He narrates the same about the funeral of Brutus in book V. Hence Clement of Alexandria, book II of the Stromata, chapter VIII: "The crown," he says, "is a sign of security removed from the crowd and business: therefore they also crown the dead." Lipsius proves the same at greater length from Livy, Capitolinus, Ovid, Herodian and Virgil, on chapter XIV of Tacitus.
But the first and early Christians rejected this custom of crowning the dead, because they wished to have nothing in common with the Gentiles. Hence Tertullian wrote against it his book On the Soldier's Crown, and Minucius Felix in the Octavius: "Nor do we crown the dead," he says. "I am rather amazed at you in this, how you attribute a crown to one who is lifeless or insensible; since the blessed one does not need it, and the wretched one does not rejoice in flowers." Thus they acted out of hatred of paganism, and to avoid the danger of relapse into idolatry: but since this danger has now ceased, we are accustomed to crown the funerals of Doctors, Virgins, Martyrs, etc., with flowers. Thus Palladius narrates in the Lausiac History, chapter XXXIX, concerning the religious women of Tabennesis living according to the rule of Saint Pachomius: "If a virgin dies," he says, "the remaining virgins, when they have prepared her for burial, carry her out and place her on the bank of the river. Then the brothers, crossing over with palms and olive branches and psalmody, convey her across and bury her in their own tombs."
Verse 10: Maledictus
10. CURSED. — This is an astysmus (a refined jest): for he festively, by exaggeration, calls those blessed who cooperated in any way, even only materially, with the holy and blessed work of divine justice, namely the destruction of the impious Moabites; but those who were reluctant and lazy in this work, he calls cursed. For he speaks in general, abstracting from the tyranny of this or that particular Chaldean, and only considers this work in itself, insofar as it is a work of divine justice: for thus in itself it is holy, and whoever cooperates with it is holy and worthy of blessing: but the soldiers and executioners who refuse to cooperate with it are wicked and worthy of a curse. Thus Cyrus, punishing and overthrowing Babylon, and thereby actually carrying out God's just judgment against it, is called blessed, Psalm CXXXVI, 8: "O daughter of Babylon, you wretch: blessed is he who shall repay you what you have done to us. Blessed is he who shall seize and dash your little ones against the rock." See chapter XXXVI.
Secondly, properly and specifically, "cursed is he" — namely, if he knows this to be the will of God, as the Chaldeans could know from this prophecy of Jeremiah and others — "who does the work of the Lord," that is, the devastation of Moab, which the Lord decrees and commands (for thus he calls the slaughter of the Chaldeans the work of the Lord, chapter L, 25) "deceitfully" (so it should be read with the Roman editions, the Hebrew and the Chaldean, not "negligently," although the Septuagint so translates, but they mean the same thing: for a soldier or servant who negligently performs a task commanded by his general or master, acts deceitfully: for he defrauds his master of his right and profit), that is, so that he pretends to wish to kill the Moabites, and meanwhile spares them for the sake of ransom or some other reason; whence, explaining further, he adds: "Cursed is he who holds back his sword from blood." Aristides says excellently, in his hymn to Jupiter: "Laziness," he says, "in divine matters is criminal. But if we prove inferior to so great a work, we shall easily be excused by the nature of the argument, as those who did not voluntarily desist, but were necessarily overcome; for it is better to be laughed at by the gods if need be, than to be reproached."
Hence it is clear that if the Chaldeans, knowing this will of God, had in good faith conformed themselves entirely to it, and had striven only to execute it, they would not have sinned — indeed, they would have acted rightly and piously in laying waste the Moabites: but because they served not so much God as their own ambition and avarice in the destruction of that and other nations, they were tyrants, and therefore they too in turn were handed over to the sword of Cyrus and the Persians, as we shall hear in chapter L.
Tropologically, cursed is he who does not pursue his enemies, namely his depraved affections, with the sword of mortification, does not slay them, but allows them to live and dominate. For they are the enemies of God as well as of one's own soul, which, unless they are slain, they will slay. Cursed, therefore, is he who does not stain the sword of mortification with the blood of his depraved desires (which are more cruel enemies and wage a more cruel war than the Moabites). For this sword, cutting off desires, triumphs not only over them, but also over the devil. For the demons attack us through our desires; hence Saint Augustine, in the book On the Christian Combat, chapter II: "There," he says, "the hostile powers are conquered, where desires are conquered."
Again Saint Gregory, part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 26: "Cursed," he says, "is he who holds back his sword from blood: to hold back the sword from blood is to withhold the word of preaching from the slaying of the carnal life, concerning which sword it is said again: And My sword shall devour flesh." Let preachers note this, who do not chastise the vices of the people, but dissimulate or even flatter them.
Finally, it is properly said to judges, magistrates and prelates: "Cursed is he who holds back his sword from blood." For, as Blessed Peter Damian says, epistle II, chapter III: "He holds back his sword from blood who restrains himself from inflicting due punishment upon the reprobate: for he bears the guilt of the deed who neglects to correct what he can." And he proves this by the example of Eli, who was punished with death by God because he had not severely enough chastised the sins of his sons.
Hear the wise saying of a jester. In the previous century a certain man guilty of murder came to Louis XI, king of France, seeking pardon for his crime. The king, considering the enormity of the deed, and that he had already committed murder with impunity for the third time, said: "What, you are asking for pardon again? You have already committed a third murder." Hearing this, the king's jester said: "What, my Lord, a third? No, only the first is what this man committed; the second and third are yours: because if you had not pardoned the first, he would not have committed the rest." More nobly therefore acted another, namely Saint Louis, king of France; a certain murderer had requested from him the pardon of the criminal: the king had agreed; but shortly after, while praying and falling upon that verse of Psalm CV: "Blessed are those who practice justice at all times," he immediately revoked that remission, saying: A prince who, when he can punish a crime, does not punish it, is no less guilty before God than if he himself had committed it. Also memorable is what we read in the Life of Jacopo da Carrara, prince of Padua. On his deathbed he admitted anyone who wished to complain about him. Among others came one who arrogantly demanded the return of the money he had given to have a death sentence pardoned, as having been given contrary to the order of justice. To whom the prince replied with a noble voice: "If justice had been done to you then, you could not now unjustly complain about me. I am therefore conscious of no fault except that you were punished more leniently than you deserved."
Verse 11: Fertilis Fuit
11. MOAB HAS BEEN FERTILE. — Here he assigns the cause of the disaster, namely fertility, and thence wantonness and every kind of luxury. We have known and seen the same cause of the calamity of the Netherlands for fifty years now. He compares the Moabites to wine, their land to a barrel, their peace and abundance to the lees, their customs to the taste and smell of wine, as if to say: Just as wine, especially strong wine such as is found in warm regions, as long as it rests on its lees, retains its strong, harsh and thick taste and smell; but in order to change it and make it purer, sweeter and more delicate, it is poured from one vessel into another; so the Moabites have settled in their region up to now in the greatest peace and wealth, never captured or led away, and consequently they remain in their native pride and habitual sins, especially those of Sodom and Gomorrah, to which they are nearest neighbors, as if in their lees; for the lees are leisure and tranquility, says Vatablus; and, as Hugo says, vices and pleasures; and, as the Chaldean and Lyranus say, riches, because just as wine is preserved by its lees, so kingdoms are preserved by their riches. But properly, as Sanchez says, the lees are the very birthplace itself, or fatherland, which is called mother, just as the lees of wine. For this place, neighboring Sodom, infected with so many crimes, exhaled something foul and Sodomitic into the customs of the Moabites.
Verse 12: And (therefore) I will send him pourers (who are accustomed to arrange flagon...
12. And (therefore) I will send him pourers (who are accustomed to arrange flagons or barrels in order, that is, vanquishers, as Vatablus translates), AND POURERS — not those who break the flagons and trample and spread the fragments, as some would have it; but "pourers," that is, those who are accustomed to tip over or incline the barrels, in order to pour wine from one into another. Hence the Septuagint translates: Tilters who tilted him; and the Hebrew has: those who cause to migrate, and they shall cause him to migrate; that is, pourers and, so to speak, transvasers, who pour him from one vessel into another. By these he means the Chaldeans, who transferred the Moabites from Moab into Chaldea, as into another barrel, so that there, humbled and afflicted, they might put on a new taste, that is, new customs, a new humility of spirit, a new worship of God; hence it follows: "And they shall empty his vessels," that is, they shall evacuate the cities of Moab, their inhabitants having been led away into captivity.
AND THEY SHALL SHATTER THEIR FLAGONS. — That is, they shall destroy their cities; for he takes vessels and flagons to mean the same thing, as if to say: After they have poured out the wine, they shall break the vessels in which it was, that is, after they have led the Moabites from their cities, they shall lay waste and demolish the cities themselves, say Maldonatus and Vatablus.
Thus tropologically, for one to be renewed, he must from time to time change his house, city, or region, as when he has a concubine, companion, or other nearby enticement to sin at home, which he must abandon. These things may also be aptly applied to the renewal that takes place when one enters Religious life.
Verse 13: Et Confundetur Moab A Chamos
13. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh — because he will see that he cannot be defended by Chemosh, but that he will be dragged with him ignominiously for mockery to Babylon: just as the golden calves, which the Israelites had set up and worshipped in Dan and Bethel, could not protect them from captivity by the Assyrians. He mentions Bethel rather than Dan, because Bethel was a more celebrated and holier place, consecrated by the patriarch Jacob, Genesis XXVIII, 18; and therefore the sin and idolatry committed there by the Jews was more wicked; for they turned Bethel, that is, the house of God, into Beth-aven, that is, the house of an idol and of the devil, as Hosea says, chapter IV, 15, just as our heretics and apostates also do.
Verse 15: Civitates Illius Succiderunt
15. HER CITIES HAVE BEEN CUT DOWN. — So the Roman edition; others, such as Plantinus, read "have been set on fire," and so it seems it should be read. For in Hebrew it says they have ascended, namely through fire and smoke into the sky, that is, they have vanished into ashes and air. Note: In the Hebrew there is a beautiful antithesis: "her cities" as cherem and anathema, that is, like an expiatory sacrifice of divine justice, offered and set ablaze, ascend into the sky; but the proud and conceited "young men" descend to the slaughterhouse and death, and thence to the grave and the underworld.
Maldonatus explains it differently: "The cities," he says, that is, the unwarlike populace, shall go up into captivity; but the military and warlike "young men" shall descend to the sword.
Verse 17: Consolamini Eum Omnes
17. Console him, all of you. — From the mention of consolation he implies previous mourning, as if to say: So great will be the devastation and mourning of Moab that it will need the consolation of all. It is metalepsis.
You who know his name — who have acquaintance and friendship with him. Thus Christ says: "I know," that is, I love and care for, "My sheep;" and conversely, "I know you not," that is, I despise, I disregard you. Furthermore, he prescribes the form of consolation, saying:
SAY: HOW IS THE STRONG ROD BROKEN, THE GLORIOUS STAFF? — Staff and rod mean the same thing, as if to say: How has the scepter, that is, the glorious kingdom of Moab, been broken? In the word "strong" there lurks irony, as if to say: Moab boasted of being strong and unconquered, but prostrated by a light breath of the Chaldeans, he showed how weak and feeble he really was.
Verse 18: Habitatio (O Popule
18. O dwelling (O people who dwell in) Dibon! — Which is interpreted as "flowing," says Saint Jerome, or "sufficiently understanding," as if to say: O people of Dibon, who formerly gloried in your abundance of waters and wisdom! Now mourn and sit in thirst and the utmost desolation and oblivion, like tamarisks in the desert, as he said in verse 6. Isaiah adds, in chapter XV, that the waters of Dibon will be defiled with the blood of its citizens.
Thus God inflicts a punishment fitting the offense, and upon the one who glories in his learning, He inflicts ignorance; upon the rich, poverty; upon the proud, insult; upon the lascivious, imprisonment; upon the glutton and the luxurious, diseases and torments.
The destroyer of Moab — that is, Nebuchadnezzar, who laid waste the Moabites.
20. Moab is confounded. — This is the response of the fleeing Moabites to the inquiry of the citizens of Aroer, which preceded.
21. Judgment. — The vengeance of God will come upon the cities not only of the mountains but also of the plains of Moab. For what follows up to verse 25 are the names of cities of Moab.
25. THE HORN OF MOAB AND HIS ARM — that is, the strength, power, glory and kingdom; because the strength and dominion of animals is in their horns and arms, that is, limbs. For with these soldiers fight and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
Verse 26: Inebriate Eum
26. MAKE HIM DRUNK, as if to say: O Chaldeans! force Moab to drink the cup of the Lord's fury, as executioners and enforcers of God's just vengeance; fill him with the wine of God's wrath and vengeance and make him drunk, that is, overwhelm him so with afflictions that, like a drunkard, he is forced to vomit up all his wealth and glory, and to wallow in his own vomit, beating his hands and feet against the ground from affliction and pain, and thus be a laughingstock to others, as drunkards and those who vomit are usually laughed at by the sober. Perhaps he alludes to the Moabites' carousing to the point of vomiting. He alludes to Job XX: "The riches he devoured he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly, and they shall be a derision." He adds the reason: "For Israel was a derision to you," as if to say: Because you, O Moab, mocked the Israelites, your kinsmen and neighbors, when they were being devastated by enemies, "as if you had found him (Israel) among thieves," that is, like a thief...
...who, when caught in theft, is laughed at and held up to scorn: so you mocked Israel. So the Chaldean, Vatablus and others.
Note: "He shall dash his hand," that is, say Hugo, Rabanus and Lyranus, he shall have his hand bound, that is, his power and dominion. Others say: From excessive grief he shall clap hand against hand. But more fitting is what I said, namely, he shall dash his hands and feet against the ground, wallowing in his own vomit, that is, in his terrible disaster and punishment, in his horrible affliction and torment: for drunkards and those who vomit are accustomed in their anguish not only to clap their hands together but also to strike them against the ground, to beat the bed or chair, to turn this way and that, and to exhibit other signs of anguish and pain, according to Job XX, 22: "When he is full, he shall be straitened, he shall be in agony, and every pain shall fall upon him."
Verse 28: Relinquite Civitates
28. LEAVE THE CITIES — as if to say: You will be forced, O Moabites, to leave the cities and dwell in rocks and caves, and to enter deep into them, so that there you may hide like doves: for in Hebrew it reads, beyond the mouth of the pit, that is, in the inner recesses of the cave.
Secondly, "dwell in the rock" can be understood thus, as if to say: Flee to the city of Moab that is called Petra; because it is situated on a rock and a very high mountain, and is therefore very well fortified and most secure from the enemy.
Thus tropologically, one must flee from the world to the Rock, that is, to Christ. In a third way, fittingly, Sanchez and Christophorus a Castro explain it as irony, as if to say: Even though you flee, O Moab, to the cliffs and caves in which you abound, yet the Chaldeans will drag you out from there — they who, like fierce hunting dogs thirsting for prey, will hunt you like a hare from every direction.
Verse 30: Ego Scio
30. I know, etc., his boasting. — In Hebrew ebrato, that is, his wrath. For pride makes men wrathful and obstinate. So Vatablus.
THAT HIS STRENGTH IS NOT EQUAL TO IT (that is, to his boasting) — as if to say, says Theodoret: Moab boasts more than he can perform. We see many such people today, who "in peace are lions, in battle are deer." See Isaiah XVI, 6.
R. Joseph Kimchi translates: I know his transgression, that is, his illegitimate birth and incest, namely that Moab was born from Lot through incest with his daughter: for to see one's own origin, vices and miseries is a remedy for checking pride.
NOR HAS SHE ATTEMPTED TO DO ACCORDING TO WHAT SHE WAS ABLE — as if to say: She did not consider what she could do, what her shoulders could bear; but she attempted to do more than she could accomplish.
Verse 31: Muri Fictilis
31. OF THE BRICK WALL. — In Hebrew kir cheres, it seems to be the proper name of a city in Moab called Kir, that is, wall, mentioned in Isaiah XVI, 7; so the Septuagint, Vatablus, Pagninus and others: to which is added cheres, that is, of clay, because it had walls made of clay, and, as Isaiah says, of baked brick, that is, of brick, such as few cities in that region, being rocky, possessed. Hence in IV Kings III, when the other cities were captured, only the brick walls are said to have remained untouched, that is, Kir-cheres, the city having brick walls, as if to say: However strong and brick-built you may be, you must still be overthrown by God, whom nothing, however strong, can resist.
Others think the Moabites are called in general men of the brick wall, because they were surrounded by brick walls. So Maldonatus.
Verse 32: De Planctu Jazer
32. With the weeping of Jazer — as if to say: With a weeping similar to the weeping done over Jazer, Sibmah must be mourned, which is fertile in vines and, metaphorically, in people; because she has been devastated, that is, will be devastated by the Chaldeans, just as Jazer was. Hence the Septuagint translates: With the weeping of Jazer I will mourn for you, O vine of Sibmah — these being the words of the Prophet. The Chaldean, however, takes them as the words of God, as if to say: As I made Jazer weep, so I will make you weep, O vine of Sibmah. All these cities belonged to the Moabites. It is well known that the Hebrews metaphorically call cities, especially the best ones with pleasant fields and vineyards, "vineyards," and citizens "vines," as is clear from chapter II, 21, chapter XII, 10, Isaiah V, 14. For just as in a vineyard there is a propagation of shoots and clusters, so in a city there is a propagation of citizens. Hence Christ also calls the Church a vineyard, Himself the vine, Christians the branches, John XV, 3.
YOUR BRANCHES — that is, your citizens whom you propagated, fleeing the Chaldeans, reached the city of Jazer and the Dead Sea near it, indeed fled beyond it, either into Judea, or into Palestine, or into Egypt: for otherwise, for those going or being led to Chaldea, there was no sea to cross.
Therefore the Chaldean, Hugo, Lyranus and Vatablus do not seem to explain correctly when they say: The citizens of Sibmah will be led away across the sea into captivity; but the citizens of Jazer will only reach as far as the sea.
Maldonatus and Sanchez explain it better thus: "Your branches," that is, the multitude of your citizens, extended as far as the sea and beyond, as if to say: You were too fertile, you sent your shoots too far, you must be pruned; for thus it is said of Israel, Psalm LXXIX, 12: "He extended his branches as far as the sea."
Finally, Saint Jerome understands by "sea" Babylon, to which the Moabites were led. But the first sense, being the most straightforward, is also the most genuine.
Verse 33: Ablata Est Laetitia Et Exsultatio De Carmelo
33. JOY AND GLADNESS HAVE BEEN TAKEN FROM CARMEL — that is, from the cultivated and fertile place of Moab, which in its abundance was similar to Mount Carmel of Judea. So Saint Jerome, Pagninus and Vatablus, because the Chaldeans will take and devastate both the harvest and the vintage of the Moabites. Sanchez explains it differently, by supplying the note of comparison "just as": Just as in Judea, devastated by the enemy, joy ceased from Carmel when its vines and inhabitants were likewise cut down, so joy has been taken from Moab — that joy, namely, which the excellence of its wine and vintage, just as in Carmel, used to bring it.
THE USUAL SHOUT. — In Hebrew: The shout shall not be a shout, as if to say: That joyful song shall be turned into mourning. So Vatablus. Secondly, the shout shall not be the shout of those encouraging one another to tread the grapes and press out the wine; but to flee from the approaching enemy. So R. Solomon. Thirdly, the shout will not be that of the Moabites, but of the Chaldeans encouraging themselves to their slaughter, and to the trampling of their harvest and vintage. So Maldonatus. See chapter XXV, 30, and chapter LI, 14. Thus the clamor and shout of joy of gluttons and drunkards is often turned into mourning and a shout of sorrow, and applause into lamentation, when grief seizes the extreme of joy.
Verse 34: De Clamore
34. FROM THE CRY — as if to say: Those fleeing from Heshbon, the city and eastern border of Moab, will continue their flight and crying as far as Elealeh, which is a city on the western border of Moab.
FROM ZOAR TO HORONAIM, LIKE A THREE-YEAR-OLD HEIFER — So the Roman edition; supply: the cry of those fleeing and devastated will be heard. He names these two cities as the extreme and opposite boundaries of Moab. For Zoar was to the east near the Dead Sea; Horonaim to the northwest, that is, on the side that faces the Assyrians and Babylonians. Horonaim is said in the dual, from the singular Oron, as if to say: Double Oron. For there were two cities joined together, one of which was called Upper Oron or Beth-horon, the other Lower Beth-horon, Joshua chapters XVI and XVIII.
Note: Zoar, says Saint Jerome on Genesis XIV, was formerly called in Hebrew Bale, that is, devouring; then Salisa, that is, third or three-year-old, because, as the Hebrews report, it was shaken by earthquakes and swallowed up three times. So also Theodoret, Suidas, Hugo and Lyranus. It was again called Zoar, that is, small, by Lot when he fled there from Sodom, Genesis XIX, 22.
Secondly and more certainly, Zoar is called a three-year-old heifer, that is, beautiful, strong, well-fed, mature, exulting. For just as in humans the thirtieth year is the age of full maturity, so in cattle the third year is the most robust. See Saint Cyril on Isaiah chapter XV, 5: "The third year suffices for animals without reason to attain the flower of age and full maturity of strength, and therefore at that time they must be tamed. As long as the heifer is inexperienced with the yoke, she frolics and exults as a young calf." Columella, book VI, chapter II, and Varro, book VII, chapter II, teach the same.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: The Moabites, and especially the inhabitants of Zoar, fattened and wanton like a three-year-old heifer, having now reached full strength, opulence and temporal prosperity, will be overthrown: for they dwelt in the Pentapolis, which before it was consumed by heavenly fire was most pleasant and most fertile like paradise, as it says in Genesis XIII, 10. But Zoar by the prayers of Lot remained untouched by this fire, Genesis XIX, 21. So from the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, Saint Jerome, Cyril and Basil on Isaiah XV, 6; for Isaiah says the same there.
Therefore some wrongly think that "three-year-old heifer" is the proper name of a city different from Zoar.
THE WATERS OF NIMRIM ALSO. — Nimrim is a small town, says Saint Jerome on Isaiah XV, 6, near Zoar and the Dead Sea, that is, the most salty or Dead Sea, and therefore abounding in salty and consequently barren waters, as if to say: With a barrenness similar to that in Nimrim, all of Moab will be punished. So Hugo. Secondly, Saint Jerome and Rabanus say: The waters that were formerly sweet in Nimrim, after its overthrow, were turned into bitterness. Thirdly, as Lyranus says, the waters of Nimrim are "most terrible" because they are infected with the blood and corpses of the slain, and because they will be stirred up by the multitude of enemies trampling through them, says Maldonatus. Fourthly...
"most terrible," that is, in Hebrew, they shall be desolate; and, as Isaiah says in chapter XV, "deserted," that is, they shall be ruined and useless, because the inhabitant who tilled and irrigated the fields shall have perished, as is clear from Isaiah XV, 6, who says: "Because the grass has withered, the shoot has failed, every green thing has perished," as if to say, says Vatablus: No place in Moab will be left untouched by the disaster, nor will anyone dwell in Nimrim, a well-watered place; hence its waters will seem deserted.
Note: The waters of Nimrim seem to have been bitter, from the salty waters of the nearby Dead Sea seeping in through underground channels, and hence they are called in Hebrew Nemrim, that is, bitter, from the root mara, that is, he was bitter. In order to keep these waters sweet and prevent them from becoming salty from the waters flowing in from the Dead Sea, the inhabitants had to block up the channels through which they flowed every year; likewise they had to separate the sweet waters from the salty by embankments, and sweeten the salty water by filtering it. But when the inhabitants were removed by the Chaldeans, the waters of Nimrim remained uncultivated and, as Isaiah says, deserted, and therefore bitter, and hence were most terrible. For they again contracted saltiness from the waters of the Dead Sea.
This sense seems very genuine; and at the same time symbolically and tropologically it teaches the Moabites and all others who indulge in pleasures that every pleasure and sweetness, with God as avenger, will be turned into bitterness for them; just as God made the waters of Sodom and the Pentapolis, formerly most sweet, most salty because of their lusts; and again the waters of Nimrim, formerly sweet, He made bitter and most terrible through the desolation of the Chaldeans. Think therefore, O glutton, O libertine! that your delights are the waters of Nimrim, your honey will shortly become gall, you will be fed by demons on wormwood, indeed on eternal and most burning fire and sulfur. Hear also the pagan Seneca: "Pleasures themselves are turned into torments. Feasts bring indigestion; drunkenness brings numbness and trembling of the nerves; lusts bring the deterioration of hands, feet and all joints."
Verse 36: MY HEART FOR MOAB (that is, on account of Moab) SHALL SOUND LIKE FLUTES (name...
36. MY HEART FOR MOAB (that is, on account of Moab) SHALL SOUND LIKE FLUTES (namely, flutes used in mourning, it shall produce a mournful sound) FOR THE MEN OF THE BRICK WALL — that is, for the men of the city called Kir-cheres. See what was said on verse 31.
Note: The ancients used flutes in mourning, because they produce a mournful sound; hence Matthew IX, 23, says of the dead girl: "And when Jesus had come into the ruler's house and had seen the flute players." So also Ovid:
The flute played at mournful funerals.
Although Servius, on that passage in Aeneid V, "and the immense desire for praise," writes that boys were accustomed to be buried to the sound of flutes, men to the sound of trumpets. And Gellius, book XX, chapter II, teaches that the ancients had a special instrument called a "sititium," that is, belonging to those who sing for the dead (siti) and accompany their bodies to burial with their song. Galen describes its form, book III On the Causes of Symptoms, where he also adds other things proper to this passage. For he says that the rumbling of the intestines, when they are empty, is similar to a funeral flute. "Furthermore," he says, "there are other (rumblings of the intestines) that are booming, not unlike the booming of the largest flutes, such as those who are called tymbaule, that is, funeral pipers, usually have." You see that the intestines can produce a sound that is sad and funereal, so that moved by great pain and groaning they resonate, just as a flute inflated by breath, or a lyre struck by a plectrum.
BECAUSE HE DID MORE THAN HE WAS ABLE — that is, because he amassed more wealth than was fitting or just. These are the words of the Prophet who assumes and expresses the character and feelings of a Moabite man, in order to place the future devastation before one's eyes.
Vatablus and others explain differently from the Hebrew, as if to say: Therefore I will mourn, because the riches that Moab had acquired with much labor have perished.
Verse 37: Omne Enim Caput (Moabitarum Erit) Calvitium
37. FOR EVERY HEAD (of the Moabites will have) BALDNESS — that is, will be shaved, because all will be either captives or mourners: for both were formerly shaved.
IN ALL HANDS (there will be) BINDING — as if to say: The hands of all Moabites will be bound with chains. In Hebrew: upon all hands there shall be cuttings; and the Septuagint: all hands shall be cut: because from the violence and impatience of grief, according to ancient custom, they will tear their hands with teeth or nails; or rather, as our translator renders it, because from the binding of chains their hands will be cut into and lacerated.
Verse 38: Super Omnia Tecta
38. Upon all the rooftops — which in Moab and Judea, as well as in many places in Spain and Italy, are flat, so that people may sit and walk on them, as I said on Deuteronomy XXII, 8. Saint Jerome, writing to Sunias and Fretela, calls these "roof-terraces, balconies and sun-porches."
LIKE A USELESS VESSEL — that is, a rejected one: hence in Hebrew it reads, in which there is no will, that is, which no one wants, but all reject.
Verse 39: Quomodo Dejecit Cervicem Moab
39. HOW MOAB HAS BOWED HIS NECK. — He who like a three-year-old heifer used to lift his neck, has now "submitted his proud neck to a sad yoke," to drag a cart, or plow and till the fields of the Chaldeans. He speaks of Moab now in the masculine, now in the feminine gender: because he sometimes means the people, sometimes the region.
As an example — of terror, so that all nations seeing the disaster of Moab may fear lest they fall into the same.
Verse 40: Quasi Aquila
40. Like an eagle — namely, Nebuchadnezzar with his wings, that is, his army, will swoop upon Moab. He compares the Chaldeans to a flying eagle for their strength, speed and rapacity: Ezekiel does the same in chapter XVII, 3. So Theodoret.
Note: The eagle is a sign of assault, devastation, and swift, violent and magnificent victory. Hence the pagans often took omens from eagles, even to the point of superstition.
When the Locrians were fighting the Crotoniates, the eagle of the Locrians never departed, and flew around them until they conquered. On the wings also two young men of different armor from the rest, of remarkable size, mounted on white horses, clad in scarlet cloaks, were seen fighting: nor did they appear any longer than the battle lasted.
Cornelius Tacitus, book II of the Annals, records the omen of eight eagles given to Germanicus, commander of the camp, in these words: "The soldiers, attentive and ready, stood in battle formation as the order of march required. When they saw the bands of the Cherusci, who had burst forth in their fierceness, he ordered the strongest cavalry to charge their flank, and Stertinius with the other squadrons to ride around and attack their rear, while he himself would be present at the right moment. Meanwhile, a most beautiful omen — eight eagles were seen making for the forest and entering it — caught the general's attention (that is, they turned him to consider himself and his situation: for adverto is frequently used in this sense by Tacitus, as Lipsius notes); he exclaimed: let them go, let them follow the Roman birds, the proper deities of the legions."
Eagles announced victory to Caesar when he was fighting against Pompey, as Dio reports, book XLIII: "The eagles (he says) of his legions, shaking their wings and dropping the thunderbolts which they held in golden talons, were openly announcing destruction to Pompey, and were, as it were, flying toward Caesar."
In similar fashion they report that the pious eagle that was carried in the army of Crassus turned of its own accord, with no one forcing it, when he was setting out against the Parthians, as Plutarch records in the Life of Crassus.
Appian also, in book IV of the Civil War, reports that two eagles appeared in the camp of Cassius, where he says: "Shortly afterwards the commanders also followed. At that time two eagles, descending from above, perched on the silver eagles of the standard-bearers, pecking with their beaks, or, as some say, protecting them with their wings. They remained in the army, fed by the generals at public expense, until the day before the battle, when they flew away."
Verse 41: Sicut Cor Mulieris Parturientis
41. LIKE THE HEART OF A WOMAN IN LABOR — which is in distress, weak, faint-hearted and full of pains: for in childbirth the very bowels seem to be crushed and torn apart because of the severity of the pain.
42. Because he boasted against the Lord (that is, against Israel who is the people of the Lord) — as he said in verse 27; for whoever touched them, touched the apple of the Lord's eye, Zechariah II, 8.
Verse 43: Pavorem Vocat
43. By "terror" he means the enemy's sword; by "pit," an unexpected fall; by "snare," the traps of the Chaldeans for capturing the Moabites, as if to say: Some will be cut down by the sword; others, while fleeing from the sword, will fall into a pit, that is, will perish by some unexpected mishap; others, like birds, will be caught alive in a snare. By these three he means the remaining kinds of calamities and disasters, as is clear from what follows. Similar is Isaiah XXIV, 17 and 18. See what was said there.
Note: In the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia among these three words: pach, pachat, pachad, that is, snare, pit, terror.
Verse 44: Annum Visitationis (Id Est Punitionis) Eorum
44. The year of their visitation (that is, punishment).
45. In the shadow of Heshbon they stopped (as if to say: The Moabites who fled from the snare — in Hebrew, from the power and onslaught and invasion of the Chaldeans — will betake themselves to the most fortified city of Heshbon, to be safe there; but they will be deceived, for they will fall into a greater danger and evil: for the most fierce soldiers, like fire devastating everything, namely the Chaldeans, having entered Heshbon by force or stratagem, or the soldiers of Heshbon themselves who, while the Moabites quarrel and disagree among themselves, will betray Heshbon to the Chaldeans, shall go forth from Heshbon, and burning like flame shall burst out from the city of king Sihon (which is the same as Heshbon just mentioned), and shall devour all of Moabitis to its furthest corner, as the Hebrew has: and also) THE CROWN (that is, the cities and fortresses themselves) OF THE SONS OF TUMULT — that is, of those who caused tumult; for he calls the princes "sons of tumult," who were the cause of the Moabites' rioting and rebelling against the Chaldeans, as if they had sufficient forces, weapons and soldiers for it: or certainly the Moabites tumultuous among themselves, while some wanted peace with the Chaldean, others war, others counseled still other things in a doubtful and confused situation. So the Chaldean, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugo, Lyranus and Sanchez, who however by "crown" understands the leaders and princes of the tumultuous citizens and soldiers. And rightly.
Note: He cites Numbers XXI, 26, because what is narrated there as having been done in Heshbon by the Amorites before Moses, is said here to be done again by the Chaldeans. Again, for Sion, as the Plantin edition reads, one should read Seon, with the Roman editions, the Hebrew, the Septuagint and the Chaldean; for Sihon was the king of the Amorites, whom Moses defeated: his capital was Heshbon, which was hence called the city of Sihon, Numbers XXI, 26, 27 and 28.
Verse 46: Periisti, Popule Chamos
46. YOU HAVE PERISHED, O PEOPLE OF CHEMOSH — O people of Moab, who worshipped the idol Chemosh.
47. I will restore the captivity — both the temporal captivity of the Moabites, so that they may return from Babylon to Moab; for this was done, as is clear from Zephaniah II, 9, and from Josephus, book XIII of the Antiquities, chapter XX. So Theodoret, Lyranus and others. For when Cyrus the Persian, having captured Babylon, gave liberty to the Jews, he gave it to the Moabites also. Also the spiritual captivity of them and other nations under the yoke of the devil I will release through Christ and the Apostles. So Rabanus, Hugo and Vatablus.
Thus far the judgments — thus far extends the just sentence, just decree, just vengeance, just punishment of God upon Moab. He adds this because of the length of the prophecy.
(1) "Terror, and pit, and snare upon you." You will be seized by dread, caught in a snare by enemies, you will fall into a trench prepared for your destruction. These are tropical expressions, drawn from hunting. When a large wild animal is to be captured, such as a deer, boar, or bear, the part of the forest where it lurks is enclosed partly with very strong nets, into which the animal is driven, partly with a denser cord, with feathers of various colors hung from it at intervals, which, agitated by the wind, terrify the animal and drive it into the nets...
Note: Moab suffered this disaster because of two vices: first, pride; second, gluttony and lust, by which they served the god Chemosh, that is, Baal-peor. These vices arose from the wealth and fortification of the land of Moab. Finally, Moab was laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar in the 23rd year of his reign, says Josephus, that is, in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem: therefore at that time this prophecy was executed. The same is gathered from Isaiah chapter XVI, verse 14.
He never departed from those places, and circled around them for so long until they conquered. On the wings also two youths, distinguished from the rest by their different armor, of extraordinary size, on white horses, clothed in scarlet cloaks, were seen fighting: nor did they appear any longer than the battle lasted.
Cornelius Tacitus, book II of the Annals, notes the omen of eight eagles given to Germanicus as camp commander, in these words: 'The soldiers, attentive and ready, stood in battle formation as if in line of march (Lipsius reads adstitere, and in my opinion more correctly). Seeing the bands of the Cherusci, who had burst forth in their ferocity, he orders the strongest cavalry to charge their flank, Stertinius with the remaining squadrons to ride around and attack the rear, while he himself would be present at the right moment. Meanwhile, a most beautiful omen: eight eagles were seen heading for and entering the woods; the general noticed them (that is, they turned him to consideration of himself and his situation: for adverto is used more often in this sense by Tacitus, as Lipsius notes); he cried out that they should go, that they should follow the Roman birds, the proper divine spirits of the legions.'
Eagles announced victory to Caesar fighting against Pompey, as Dio reports, book XLIII: 'The eagles (he says) of his legions, shaking their wings and casting away the thunderbolts which they held in their golden talons, openly proclaimed destruction to Pompey, and they themselves flew, as it were, toward Caesar.'
In a similar way they report that the ancient eagle, which was carried in the army of Crassus, turned around of its own accord, with no one compelling it, when he was setting out against the Parthians, as Plutarch records in the Life of Crassus.
Appian also, in book IV of the Civil War, reports that two eagles appeared in the camp of Cassius, where he says: 'Shortly after, the commanders also followed. At that time two eagles, sent down from above, perched upon the silver eagles of the standard-bearers, striking with their beaks, or as some report, protecting them with their wings. They remained in the army, fed by the commanders at public expense, until the day before the battle was fought, when they flew away.'
Verse 41: Sicut Cor Mulieris Parturientis
41. Like the heart of a woman in labor, which is in distress, weak, faint-hearted and full of pains: for in childbirth the very innards seem to be broken and torn apart because of the bitterness of the pain.
Verse 42
42. Because he gloried against the Lord (that is, against Israel who is the people of the Lord), as he said in verse 27; for whoever touched them, touched the pupil of the Lord's eye, Zechariah 2:8.
Verse 43: Pavorem Vocat
43. By 'terror' he means the hostile sword; by 'pit,' an unforeseen calamity; by 'snare,' the ambushes of the Chaldeans to capture the Moabites, as if to say: Some will be slaughtered by the sword; others, while fleeing the sword, will fall into the pit, that is, they will perish by some unforeseen accident; others, like birds, will be taken alive by the snare. By these three, he means the other kinds of calamities and disasters, as is clear from what follows. Similar is Isaiah 24:17 and 18. See what was said there.
Note: In the Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia among these three words: pach, pachat, pachad, that is, snare, pit, terror.
Verse 44: Annum Visitationis (Id Est Punitionis) Eorum
44. The year of their visitation (that is, of their punishment).
Verse 45: In Umbra Hesebon Steterunt (Q
45. In the shadow of Heshbon they stood (as if to say: The Moabites who fled from the snare, in Hebrew, from the power and assault and invasion of the Chaldeans, will betake themselves to the most fortified city of Heshbon, so that they might be safe there; but they will be deceived, for they will fall into a greater danger and evil: for the fiercest soldiers, destroying everything like fire, namely the Chaldeans, having entered Heshbon by force or cunning, or the very soldiers of Heshbon itself, who, when the Moabites were fighting and disagreeing among themselves, will betray Heshbon to the Chaldeans — they will come forth from Heshbon, and most ardent like a flame will burst forth from the city of King Sihon (which is the same as the Heshbon just mentioned), and will devour the whole of Moab up to its last corner, as the Hebrew has: indeed also) the crown (that is, the cities and fortresses themselves) of the sons of tumult, that is, of those causing tumult; for he calls the princes 'sons of tumult,' who were the cause for the Moabites of revolting and rebelling against the Chaldeans, as if they had sufficient strength, arms, and soldiers for this: or certainly the Moabites tumultuous among themselves, while some wanted peace with the Chaldean, others war, others counseled other things in an uncertain and perplexing situation. So the Chaldee, Theodoret, Rabanus, Hugo, Lyra, and Sanchez, who however takes 'crown' to mean the leaders and princes of the tumultuous citizens and soldiers. And rightly so.
Note: He cites Numbers 21:26, because what is narrated there as having been done in Heshbon by the Amorites before Moses, is here said to be done again by the Chaldeans. Moreover, instead of 'Zion,' as the Plantin editions read, one should read 'Sihon,' with the Roman editions, the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee; for Sihon was king of the Amorites, whom Moses defeated: his capital was Heshbon, which was thence called the city of Sihon, Numbers 21:26, 27 and 28.
Verse 46: Periisti
46. You have perished, O people of Chemosh — O people of Moab, who worshiped the idol Chemosh.
Verse 47: Convertam Captivitatem
47. I will turn the captivity — both the temporal captivity of the Moabites, so that they return from Babylon to Moab; for this was done, as is clear from Zephaniah 2:9, and from Josephus, book XIII of the Antiquities, chapter 20. So Theodoret, Lyra, and others. For when Cyrus the Persian, having captured Babylon, granted freedom to the Jews, he also granted it to the Moabites; and the spiritual captivity of them and other nations under the yoke of the devil, I will release through Christ and the Apostles. So Rabanus, Hugo, and Vatablus.
Thus far the judgments — thus far extends the just sentence, the just decree, the just vengeance, the just punishment of God upon Moab. He adds this because of the length of the prophecy.
Note: Moab suffered this disaster on account of two vices: namely, first pride, and second gluttony and lust, by which it served the god Chemosh, that is, Baal-Peor. These vices arose from the wealth and fortification of the land of Moab. Finally, Moab was laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar in the 23rd year of his reign, says Josephus, that is, in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem: so then this prophecy was fulfilled. The same is gathered from Isaiah chapter 16, verse 14.
(1) 'Terror, and pit, and snare upon you.' You will be seized by dread, captured by the snare of enemies, and fall into the ditch prepared for your destruction. These are figurative expressions, drawn from hunting. When a large beast is to be captured, such as a stag, boar, or bear, part of the thicket where it hides is surrounded partly with very strong nets, into which the beast is driven, partly with denser cord, with feathers of various colors hung here and there, which, agitated by the wind, terrify the beast and drive it into the nets. Ancient writers everywhere recall this custom. (Calmet, Cursus complet. of Sacred Scripture.) See a similar manner of speaking in Isaiah 24:17.