What Does Jeremiah 48:31 Mean?
Therefore I will howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab. My heart shall moan for the men of Kirheres.
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
Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kir-heres.THE KEY
The word for mourning also carries the sense of murmuring and meditation: grief gives the suffering people a voice and keeps them present.
THE MEANING
The line keeps the people inside their ruin visible: it names Moab, then mourns its men. A heart can perceive another people’s devastation without reducing them to the devastation itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that compassion ends where blame or hostility begins.
THE ROOT
אֶהְגֶּה
ehgeh
GROWS FROM
הגה
hagah
To murmur, utter softly, or meditate, to make a low sound or turn words over inwardly.
“moan” in this verse is ehgeh. This verb for mourning comes from a root also used for murmuring and meditation. The grief here is not merely an inward feeling: it is a voiced attention that keeps the people in view.
ALSO GROWS
hagah: To murmur, utter, or meditate.
הָגָה
The same root can name low speech and inward pondering, revealing mourning as voiced attention.
hegyon: Musing, meditation, or a resonant sound.
הֶגְיוֹן
Psalm 19:14 uses this related word for the heart’s meditation, echoing the inward sound carried by the mourning here.
THE PATTERN
Lament keeps suffering people visible even while their ruin is being spoken aloud.
How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I hand you over, Israel? How shall I set you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned over within me, and my compassions burn together.And when he drew near, perceiving the city, he wept over it.that I have great heaviness, and an ache in my heart that does not leave.THE THREAD
Like a crane, like a swallow, so I chirped; I moaned like a dove; my eyes ran out toward the heights. O Lord, I am pressed; stand surety for me.Isaiah uses the same verb, אֶהְגֶּה (ehgeh), for mourning as a dove. The shared root makes the grief in Jeremiah audible too: mourning is a low utterance, not only an emotion.
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