What Does Jeremiah 48:26 Mean in the King James?
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 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
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
“magnified himself” 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
“drunken” in this verse is hashkîrūhū. 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.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.THE THREAD
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy 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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