Jeremiah 48:47

King James Version (KJV)

Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days - I have already expressed doubts (see Jeremiah 48:42;) whether the Moabites were ever restored to their national distinction. The expressions in this chapter, relative to their total destruction as a people, are so strong and so frequent, that they leave little room for a limited interpretation. That many of them returned on the edict of Cyrus by virtue of which the Jews were restored, I doubt not; but neither the Ammonites, Moabites, Philistines, nor even the Jews themselves were ever restored to their national consequence. Perhaps the restoration spoken of here which was to take place in the latter days, may mean the conversion of these people, in their existing remnants, to the faith of the Gospel. Several judicious interpreters are of this opinion. The Moabites were partially restored; but never, as far as I have been able to learn, to their national consequence. Their conversion to the Christian faith must be the main end designed by this prophecy.

Was this helpful?

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Bring again the captivity - (Or, “restore the prosperity.”) A similar promise is given to Egypt, Ammon, and Elam Jeremiah 46:26; Jeremiah 49:6.

Thus far … Moab - An editorial note by the same hand as the last words of Jeremiah 51:64.

Was this helpful?

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

The destruction of Moab is further prophesied, to awaken them by national repentance and reformation to prevent the trouble, or by a personal repentance and reformation to prepare for it. In reading this long roll of threatenings, and mediating on the terror, it will be of more use to us to keep in view the power of God's anger and the terror of his judgments, and to have our hearts possessed with a holy awe of God and of his wrath, than to search into all the figures and expressions here used. Yet it is not perpetual destruction. The chapter ends with a promise of their return out of captivity in the latter days. Even with Moabites God will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. The Jews refer it to the days of the Messiah; then the captives of the Gentiles, under the yoke of sin and Satan, shall be brought back by Divine grace, which shall make them free indeed.

Was this helpful?