Jeremiah 48:27
 Jeremiah 48:27 
New International Version (©2011)
Was not Israel the object of your ridicule? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head in scorn whenever you speak of her?

New Living Translation (©2007)
Did you not ridicule the people of Israel? Were they caught in the company of thieves that you should despise them as you do?

English Standard Version (©2001)
Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Now was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each time you speak about him you shake your head in scorn.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Wasn't Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he ever found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head."

International Standard Version (©2012)
Wasn't Israel an object of mocking for you? Wasn't he treated like a thief, so that whenever you spoke about him you shook your head in contempt?

NET Bible (©2006)
For did not you people of Moab laugh at the people of Israel? Did you think that they were nothing but thieves, that you shook your head in contempt every time you talked about them?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
People of Moab, didn't you laugh at the people of Israel? Were they caught among thieves? Whenever you talk about them you shake your heads in contempt.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
For was not Israel a derision unto you? was he found among thieves? for when you spoke of him, you wagged your head.

American King James Version
For was not Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for since you spoke of him, you skipped for joy.

American Standard Version
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for as often as thou speakest of him, thou waggest the head.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For Israel hath been a derision unto thee: as though thou hadst found him amongst thieves: for thy words therefore, which thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be led away captive.

Darby Bible Translation
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? Was he found among thieves, that as oft as thou didst speak of him, thou didst shake the head?

English Revised Version
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for as often as thou speakest of him, thou waggest the head.

Webster's Bible Translation
For was not Israel a derision to thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou hast spoken of him, thou hast leaped for joy.

World English Bible
For wasn't Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.

Young's Literal Translation
And was not Israel the derision to thee? Among thieves was he found? For since thy words concerning him, Thou dost bemoan thyself.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

48:14-47. 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.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Was he found among thieves? for, etc.; rather,... that, as often as thou speakest of him, thou waggest thy head. What giveth thee the right to show such scorn and insolent triumph towards Israel, as if he were one who had been arrested in the very act of robbery (comp. Jeremiah 2:26)?


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For was not Israel a derision unto thee?.... In the time of his calamity, when the ten tribes were carried captive by the Assyrians some years ago; and of late the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin by the Chaldeans; the Moabites rejoiced at this, which they ought not to have done, upon the common principles of humanity; and especially since they were not only neighbours, but akin; and therefore, according to the law of retaliation, it was but just that they should be had in derision themselves:

was he found among thieves? that is, Israel; that he should be a derision to any, as thieves are when they are taken; men rejoice at it, insult them, and deride them; but was this the case of Israel? had he robbed any? had he done any injury to Moab, or any other? no, verily: why this derision then?

for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy; or, "shookedst thyself" (c); whenever the Moabites spoke of the distresses and calamities of Israel, and of their captivity, they laughed till they shook themselves; not only shook their heads, but their whole bodies. The Vulgate Latin version is, "therefore, because of thy words which thou hast spoken against him, thou shall be carried captive"; and Jarchi mentions such a sense of the words, as given by some of their Rabbins; and to this agrees the Targum,

"and because ye have multiplied words against them, therefore ye shall go into captivity.''

(c) "commovisti te", Vatablus, Calvin; "commoves te", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "motitas te", Schmidt.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. (Zep 2:8).

a derision—The Hebrew has the article: referring to Jer 48:26, "Was not Israel (the whole nation) the object of derision to thee?" Therefore, Moab is to suffer as formerly for its exultation over the calamity (2Ki 17:6) of the ten tribes under the Assyrian Shalmaneser (Isa 15:1-16:14), so now for its exultation over the fall of Judah, under the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar. God takes up His people's cause as His own (Ob 10-13).

was he … among thieves—(Jer 2:26). Proverbial. What did Israel do to deserve such derision? Was he detected in theft, that thou didst so exult over him in speaking of him? Though guilty before God, Israel was guiltless towards thee.

since—"since ever" thou didst begin speaking of him.

skippedst for joy—at Israel's calamity [Calvin]; or, "thou didst shake thy head" in "derision" [Maurer].


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The Judgment on Moab
26Make you him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. 27For was not Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for since you spoke of him, you skipped for joy. 28O you that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth. …

Job 16:4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you.
Psalm 64:8 He will turn their own tongues against them and bring them to ruin; all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
Jeremiah 2:26 "As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced-- they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets.
Jeremiah 18:16 Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.
Lamentations 1:7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands, there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked at her and laughed at her destruction.
Lamentations 1:12 "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the LORD brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?
Lamentations 2:15 All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at Daughter Jerusalem: "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?"
Micah 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.