Bible Strands
Jeremiah 48:36
Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres, because the wealth they acquired has perished.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh declares judgment against Moab and the inhabitants of Kir-heres during a prophetic oracle concerning the collapse of their idolatrous worship and national security.
The words — כַּחֲלִלִים (kaḥălîlîm) translates literally as "like flutes," and יֶהֱמֶה (yehĕmeh) means "it will groan" or lament.
The thread — Isaiah 16:11 parallels the image with a harp, while Isaiah 15:5 and 15:7 track the same trajectory of Moabite fugitives fleeing and carrying away their wealth.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that divinely enacted judgment renders human wealth and religious infrastructure permanently useless, requiring a sober assessment of where security is truly placed.
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
Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kir–heres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 15:7 So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows.
- Isaiah 16:11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres.
- Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- Proverbs 11:4 Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
- Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is passed to the righteous.
- Proverbs 18:11 A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.
- Ecclesiastes 5:13 There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,
- Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.
- Jeremiah 4:19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.
- Jeremiah 17:11 Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay is the man who makes a fortune unjustly. In the middle of his days his riches will desert him, and in the end he will be the fool.”