Jeremiah 48 · Verse 6

Jeremiah 48:6

Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
Jeremiah 48:6, King James Version

Jeremiah 48:6 in other translations

BSB‘Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a juniper in the desert.’
WEBFlee! Save your lives! Be like the juniper bush in the wilderness.
ASVFlee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
YLTFlee ye, deliver yourselves, Ye are as a naked thing in a wilderness.
DARBYFlee, save your lives, and be like a shrub in the wilderness.
BBEGo in flight, get away with your lives, and let your faces be turned to Aroer in the Arabah.
WebsterFlee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

What does Jeremiah 48:6 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
6. They exhort one another to flee. heath--or the juniper (see on Jr 17:6). Maurer translates, "Be like one naked in the wilderness." But the sense is, Live in the wilderness like the heath, or juniper; do not "trust in" walls (Jr 48:7) [Grotius]. (Compare Mt 24:16-18).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 6 Flee, save your lives - The enemy is in full pursuit of you. Be like the heath - כערוער caaroer, "like Aroer;" which some take for a city, others for a blasted or withered tree. It is supposed that a place of this name lay towards the north, in the land of the Ammonites, on a branch of the river Jabbok; surrounded by deserts. Save yourselves by getting into the wilderness, where the pursuing foe will scarcely think it worth his while to follow you, as the wilderness itself must soon destroy you.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jeremiah 48:1-13

Prophecies against Moab for pride and security. (Jr 48:1-13) For carnal confidence and contempt of God. (Jr 48:14-47) Verses 1-13 . The Chaldeans are to destroy the Moabites. We should be thankful that we are required to seek the salvation of men's lives, and the salvation of their souls, not to shed their blood; but we shall be the more without excuse if we do this pleasant work deceitfully. The cities shall be…

Read the full comment on Jeremiah 48:1-13 →

Jeremiah 48:6 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

נֻ֖סוּNu.sufleeH5127
מַלְּט֣וּma.le.TusaveH4422
נַפְשְׁכֶ֑םnaf.she.Khemlife yourH5315
וְתִֽהְיֶ֕ינָהve.tih.Yei.nahso they may beH1961
כַּעֲרוֹעֵ֖רka.'a.ro.'Erlike a juniper bushH6176
בַּמִּדְבָּֽר\׃ba.mid.Barin the wildernessH4057

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jeremiah 48:6

  • Jeremiah 17:6

    For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

  • Job 30:3-7

    For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. …

  • Jeremiah 51:6

    Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

  • Luke 17:31-33

    In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

  • Psalms 11:1

    To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

  • Proverbs 6:4-5

    Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

  • Luke 3:7

    Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

  • Matthew 24:16-18

    Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

  • Hebrews 6:18

    That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

  • Genesis 19:17

    And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Flee.
51:6; Ge 19:17; Ps 11:1; Pr 6:4,5; Mt 24:16-18; Lu 3:7; 17:31-33
Heb 6:18
be like.
17:6; Job 30:3-7
the heath. or, a naked tree.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Jeremiah 48:5

    For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

  • Jeremiah 48:6

    Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

  • Jeremiah 48:7

    For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

Read all of Jeremiah 48

Jeremiah 48:6 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Huid, salvad vuestra vida, y sed como retama en el desierto.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Fuyez, sauvez vos vies; et vous serez comme la bruyère dans le désert!
German
Elberfelder 1871		Fliehet, rettet euer Leben, und seid wie ein Entblößter in der Wüste!
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Fugite, salvate animas vestras, et eritis quasi myricæ in deserto: