Jeremiah 48:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

In the sides of the hole's mouth— By the sides of the pit's mouth: that is, on the edge of the precipice. The mouth of the pit is the same as the brink of destruction; the pit or grave yawning wide, as it were, ready to swallow one up. And the image is peculiarly striking, when a person from the side of a steep rock looks down into a deep gulph below. The Moabites are exhorted to retire for safety to such places, where the apprehensions of danger would secure them from the enemy's pursuit. That doves build in the clefts or natural hollows of a rock, see Song of Solomon 2:14. Dr. Shaw in his Travels, p. 162 fol. mentions a city on the African coast, called Hamam-et, from the number of wild pigeons (Hamam) that are bred in the cliffs of the adjacent mountains.