What Does Jeremiah 48:20 Mean in the King James?
Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes devastation public: “spoiled” names violent plunder, and the cries carry that loss into the open.
THE MEANING
You encounter a place that is not merely embarrassed; it is broken down and plundered, and its grief is audible. The call to tell the news at Arnon brings the devastation into public view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a ruined place should hide its grief: here the loss is named aloud, and the cries are part of the truth.
THE ROOT
שֻׁדָּד
shuddad
GROWS FROM
שדד
shadad
To devastate or plunder violently.
This root carries physical ruin and loss, not just disgrace. Its branches name both the devastation and the plunderer, so “spoiled” holds the force that takes a place apart.
ALSO GROWS
shod: Plunder, violence, devastation.
שֹׁד
It names the wreckage carried by “spoiled.”
meshoded: A plunderer or devastator.
מְשׁוֹדֵד
It names the force behind the loss that Moab’s cries make public.
הַגִּידוּ
haggidu
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To be in front; by extension, to declare or make known.
This root links telling with bringing something before view. The call to tell the news at Arnon makes Moab’s devastation public rather than hidden.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: He declared or made known.
הִגִּיד
It shares the act of bringing news into view.
nagid: A leader, one who stands before others.
נָגִיד
It preserves the root’s image of what stands in front; here the devastation is set before witnesses.
THE PATTERN
When devastation overtakes a place, its loss is voiced publicly and witnessed by others.
In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,THE THREAD
Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.Jeremiah names Moab as plundered; Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root behind “spoiler” while naming Moab as a refuge for outcasts. That shared root connects a place under devastation with the danger it can shelter others from.
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