Tell ye it in Arnon. — The name, which means a rushing stream, belonged to the chief river of Moab, now the Mugab, which rises in the Arabian mountains and flows into the Dead Sea. It appears in the war-song quoted, in Numbers 21:14, from the “Book of the Wars of the Lord,” and the “high places” on either side its course were crowned with the castles of the lords of Moab (Numbers 21:28). The verse contains the answer to the question that precedes it — “This is what has come to pass, Moab is confounded and spoiled.” For the “plain country” see Note on Jeremiah 48:8.
(20) Make ye him drunken... — The image is suggested by the wine-cup of Jehovah’s fury in Jeremiah 25:15, and was familiar in the symbolic language of the prophets (Isaiah 51:17; Job 21:20; Ezekiel 23:32; Revelation 14:10). The words that follow paint the image in its strongest colours. As men looked with scorn on the drunkard wallowing in his shame, so should they look on Moab, that had been so boastful in its pride, when it was brought low.