Who wails for Moab?  

It appears to be the Lord himself who speaks in Jeremiah 48:31–33. These are verses of mourning and lament because of what is about to happen to Moab. The Lord mourns the destruction that is coming to Kir-hareseth, which is the ancient capital of Moab, to Jazer, which lies 16 kilometers north of Heshbon, and to Sibmah, 5 kilometres northwest of Heshbon. Shibmah is referred to by the Lord as the vine of Shibmah. This region was famous for its wine.¹ This explains the next sentence, Your branches passed over the sea, reached to the Sea of Jazer. Even though Moab lay to the east of the Dead Sea, it seems this sentence is a metaphorical reference to the reach of Moab’s international trade in commodities such as grain, but especially its wine. These exports would have been sent via the Mediterranean Sea that lay further to the west and did not border on Moab.² All this produce and source of wealth will come to an end as Moab’s summer fruits and grapes will be destroyed. Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one treads them with shouts of joy, the shouting is not the shout of joy. Harvest time is normally a time of joy but now the shouting is not from the winepress, but from those caught up in battle.³ It is the Lord himself who does this to Moab.

The question is what this passage of mourning for Moab means? Is the Lord taunting Moab with words of sorrow? Is he taking some form of ironic delight in Moab’s destruction? Is the Lord expressing compassion for Moab even as he brings destruction to it? The context in Jeremiah 48 is the Lord’s judgment for Moab’s pride. It seems that the language of lament is used here to express the destruction of Moab in a different way (refer to Amos 5:1–3). However, it is too much to say that these verses are a taunt or an example of malicious joy.⁴ It is also not unusual to hear words of lament in the book of Jeremiah. The Lord does not take delight in judgment, even though it is deserved and vindicates his righteousness.