Was not Israel your object of ridicule? Was he ever found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head.
Parallel translations
- WEB For wasn’t Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
- KJV For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.
- NKJV For was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him, You shake your head in scorn.
- NASB Now was Israel not a laughingstock to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For whenever you speak about him you shake your head in scorn.
- NLT Did you not ridicule the people of Israel? Were they caught in the company of thieves that you should despise them as you do?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moab had mocked Israel as a thief caught in the act, shaking her head in scorn, and now faces the same derision.
Overview
God recalls how Moab despised and ridiculed Israel in her troubles. Now the mocker becomes the mocked, reaping what she sowed. This reversal illustrates the biblical principle that those who scorn God's people answer to Him, and it warns against contempt that ignores our own need for mercy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Jer 2:26As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets
- Mic 7:8–10Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
- Zeph 2:8“I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
- Ezek 25:8This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,”
- Lam 2:15–17All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Ezek 26:2–3“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’
- Ezek 35:15As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
- Prov 24:17–18Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
- Ezek 36:2This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the enemy has said of you, ‘Aha! The ancient heights have become our possession,’
- Ps 79:4We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
- Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Ps 44:13You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Ezek 36:4therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you.
- Obad 1:12–13But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.
- Matt 26:55At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? Every day I sat teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me.
- Jer 18:16They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
- Matt 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- Matt 27:38Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on His right hand and the other on His left.
- Zeph 2:10This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 48:27 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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