Bible Strands
Jeremiah 48:38
On all the rooftops of Moab and in the public squares, everyone is mourning; for I have shattered Moab like an unwanted jar,” declares the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD declares judgment to Moab, pronouncing that widespread mourning will cover every rooftop and public square at the moment of its impending devastation.
The words — מִסְפֵּד (misped) literally means formal wailing or mourning, and the shattered jar metaphor describes a vessel broken into pieces and discarded as worthless.
The thread — The shattered jar image runs parallel to Jeremiah 22:28, while the rooftop and square laments correspond to the public mourning in Isaiah 22:1 and the leaders' wailing in Jeremiah 25:34.
Why it lands — The text states that mourning will be universal and the nation will be reduced to a broken object, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment leaves no refuge and dismantles national 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
There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 22:28 Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know?
- Isaiah 22:1 This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops,
- Jeremiah 25:34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
- Psalms 2:9 You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”
- Isaiah 15:3 In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping.
- Isaiah 30:14 It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
- Hosea 8:8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
- Romans 9:21 Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
- 2 Timothy 2:20 A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.
- Revelation 2:27 He will rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like pottery—just as I have received authority from My Father.