Bible Strands
Jeremiah 48:27
Was not Israel your object of ridicule? Was he ever found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers this oracle to Moab immediately after pronouncing their drunken humiliation, contrasting their past mockery of Israel with their own coming disgrace. The prophet addresses Moab's leaders and people as they face the collapse of their pride.
The words — הַשְּׂחֹק (haśśəḥōq) literally means "the laughingstock," and גַנָּבִים (gannāḇîm) translates to "thieves." These terms frame the rhetorical questions that expose the reversal of Moab's former contempt.
The thread — The imagery of stolen honor and shaken heads appears in Jeremiah 2:26, which equates Israel's shame with a thief's disgrace, and Lamentations 2:15, where passersby clap and shake their heads at Jerusalem. These references establish a pattern where national mockery precedes national humiliation.
Why it lands — The text declares that Moab's past ridicule of Israel has been replaced by Moab becoming the target of ridicule, and it records the physical gesture of shaking heads to signal final disgrace. It requires the reader to acknowledge that boasting against divine order guarantees reciprocal shame, stripping away any illusion of lasting pride.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets
- Micah 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Ezekiel 25:8 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,”
- Zephaniah 2:8 “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
- Job 16:4 I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Psalms 44:13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Psalms 79:4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
- Proverbs 24:17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
- Jeremiah 18:16 They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.