What Does Jeremiah 48:26 Mean?
Make him drunk, for he has swelled himself against the LORD. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall become laughter.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.THE KEY
Moab’s attempt to make itself great against the LORD ends in drunken collapse and public derision.
THE MEANING
When self-exaltation rises against the LORD, the verse shows its end as exposure: intoxication, bodily collapse into vomit, and ridicule. The image stays physical and public; the fall is not made dignified or abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that making oneself great against the LORD secures a higher place: here, that very self-exaltation becomes the path to collapse and ridicule.
THE ROOT
הִגְדִּיל
higdîl
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
grow, become great; in this form, make great
“swelled” in this verse is higdîl. The root carries growth and elevation: Moab is not merely described as important but as making itself great against the LORD. Its branches include “great” and “tower,” so the claim to height is built into the word; the verse then turns that self-made height into humiliation.
ALSO GROWS
gādōl: Great or large.
גָּדוֹל
The shared root makes Moab’s self-exaltation a claim to greatness, not simply confidence.
migdāl: A tower.
מִגְדָּל
This branch carries the image of height: the verse shows how a self-raised position can collapse into exposure.
הַשְׁכִּירֻהוּ
hashkîrūhū
GROWS FROM
שכר
sh-k-r
become drunk; intoxicate
The Hebrew is an instruction to make him drunk, so the intoxication is imposed, not celebratory. In the verse, it becomes the means of a bodily, public undoing: Moab cannot maintain the greatness it claims.
ALSO GROWS
shēkār: An intoxicating drink.
שֵׁכָר
The drink belongs to the same root as the imposed drunkenness and makes the verse’s image concrete.
shikkōr: Drunk; intoxicated.
שִׁכּוֹר
This branch names the resulting state that leads directly to Moab wallowing in vomit.
THE PATTERN
Self-exaltation against the LORD turns into exposure and abasement.
Swelling goes before breaking, and a breath lifted high goes before a stumbling.Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and lift high and honor the King of heaven, whose deeds are all truth, and whose paths are judgment; and those who walk with lifted heads he is able to bring low.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.THE THREAD
I bow down toward your set-apart temple, and I extend my hands in thanks to your name for your faithful love and for your truth; for you make your word great above all your name.Jeremiah’s הִגְדִּיל (higdîl, “made great”) and Psalm 138:2’s הִגְדַּלְתָּ (higdaltā, “magnified”) share the root גדל (g-d-l, “grow or become great”). Moab directs greatness against the LORD; the Psalm directs it toward the LORD’s word above his name, his nature.
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