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Jeremiah 49

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Judgment Against Ammon 1–6

1
Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? ​
2
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the LORD. ​
3
Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together. ​
4
Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?
5
Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.
6
And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD. ​

Judgment Against Edom 7–22

7
Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? ​
8
Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.
9
If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. ​
10
But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.
11
Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. ​
12
For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it. ​
13
For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.
14
I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
15
For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men.
16
Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. ​
17
Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.
18
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. ​
19
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
20
Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. ​
21
The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.
22
Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Judgment Against Damascus 23–27

23
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. ​
24
Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25
How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! ​
26
Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27
And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad. ​

Judgment Against Kedar and Hazor 28–33

28
Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east. ​
29
Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.
30
Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.
31
Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone. ​
32
And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the LORD. ​
33
And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

Judgment Against Elam 34–39

34
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ​
35
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. ​
36
And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
37
For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:
38
And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD. ​
39
But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Jeremiah 49

Verse 1

doth their king inherit Gad — The question turns on one root, yarash, to possess: ‘no heir’, ‘inherit’, and in v.2 ‘be heir’. Moses gave Gad an inheritance whose coast took in ‘half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer that is before Rabbah’ (Josh 13:24–25).

Verse 2

a desolate heap — Tel shemamah, a ruin-mound. Rabbah of the Ammonites is named again in Ezek 21:20, and its ‘daughters’ (bath) are the dependent towns. The reversal rests on the root of v.1: ‘then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs’, so the dispossessor is dispossessed.

Verse 3

priests and his princes together — The closing wording matches Jer 48:7, ‘Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together’, said of Moab. To ‘gird… with sackcloth’ (saq) is mourning dress; ‘hedges’ (gederah) are enclosures, usually for flocks.

Verse 6

bring again the captivity — Shub shebut, to turn back the captivity. The same promise closes the oracles on Moab (Jer 48:47) and Elam (v.39), and Egypt receives it in Ezek 29:14. ‘Afterward’ (achar) places the restoration after the judgment of vv.1–5.

Verse 7

Is wisdom no more in Teman? — Teman was a son of Eliphaz, son of Esau (Gen 36:15), and Job’s friend Eliphaz is ‘the Temanite’ (Job 2:11). Three words for wisdom stand together: chokmah, wisdom, etsah, counsel, and bin, understanding. Obad 1:8 asks the same, ‘destroy the wise men out of Edom’.

Verse 9

gleaning grapes — Olelah is the small cluster left after the gathering. Even grapegatherers (batsar) leave some, and thieves destroy only ‘till they have enough’ (day). Edom’s case is worse: ‘I have made Esau bare’ (v.10). Obad 1:5 asks the same two questions.

Verse 11

Leave thy fatherless children — Chayah, to keep alive. The LORD is ‘a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows’ (Ps 68:5); here the fatherless (yatom) and widows (almanah) of Edom are kept alive, and the widows are bidden ‘trust’ (batach) in him. The promise sits inside an oracle of judgment.

Verse 12

the cup — The cup (kos) is the ‘wine cup of this fury’ of Jer 25:15, passed to the nations. If those ‘whose judgment was not to drink’ drink, ‘thou shalt surely drink of it’; Jer 25:29 shows judgment beginning ‘on the city which is called by my name’. Lam 4:21 says it directly: ‘the cup also shall pass through unto thee’.

Verse 16

the clefts of the rock — Obad 1:3–4 has nearly the same words: ‘The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock’. ‘Terribleness’ (tiphletseth) is fearfulness; the verse says it ‘deceived’ Edom. The eagle’s nest ‘as high’ is the image Obad 1:4 uses; ‘I will bring thee down from thence’.

Verse 18

Sodom and Gomorrah — The overthrow of Gen 19:24, when the LORD ‘rained… brimstone and fire’. Mahpekah is an overturning. The same verdict, ‘no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it’, is given for Hazor (49:33), and for Babylon in 50:40, ‘As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah’.

Verse 20

the least of the flock — Tsa’ir is the smallest, the least regarded, and the shepherd’s picture continues in ‘habitations’ (naveh), a dwelling or pasture. ‘The counsel of the LORD’ (etsah) and ‘purposes’ (machashavah) are repeated against Babylon in 50:45. Mal 1:3 says he ‘laid his mountains and his heritage waste’.

Verse 23

Hamath… and Arpad — The two cities are paired in 2 Kgs 18:34, ‘Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad?’, and in Isa 10:9. ‘Sorrow on the sea’ is de’agah, anxiety. ‘It cannot be quiet’ is the figure of the sea in Isa 57:20: ‘the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest’.

Verse 25

the city of praise — Tehillah, praise, the word of Jer 51:41, ‘how is the praise of the whole earth surprised!’ said of Babylon. The city is named ‘of my joy’ (masos). The verse is a lament, ‘How is… not left!’, over a city that has not been spared.

Verse 27

the palaces of Benhadad — The same words stand in Amos 1:4, ‘a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad’. Benhadad was a king of Syria ‘that dwelt at Damascus’ (1 Kgs 15:18). The fire is kindled ‘in the wall’, the city’s defence.

Verse 28

Kedar — Kedar was a son of Ishmael (Gen 25:13). ‘The men of the east’ (bene-qedem) is the phrase of Job 1:3, ‘the greatest of all the men of the east’. The command ‘Arise ye, go up’ is given to the invader, and is repeated in v.31; the instrument named is Nebuchadrezzar.

Verse 31

neither gates nor bars — Deleth and berich, door and bar. The verse describes an unwalled people, as in Ezek 38:11, ‘the land of unwalled villages… neither bars nor gates’. ‘Wealthy’ (shalev) is at ease, and ‘without care’ is betach, security. ‘Alone’ (badad) is the word of Deut 33:28, ‘Israel then shall dwell in safety alone’.

Verse 32

the utmost corners — The Hebrew joins qatsats, to cut off, with pe’ah, corner; pe’ah is the ‘corners’ of the head in Lev 19:27, ‘Ye shall not round the corners of your heads’. The same people are named in Jer 9:26 and 25:23. ‘Booty’ and ‘spoil’ (baz, shalal) fall to the invader.

Verse 34

Elam — Elam was a son of Shem (Gen 10:22), and Chedorlaomer was ‘king of Elam’ (Gen 14:1); Shushan lay in its province (Dan 8:2). The oracle is dated ‘in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah’, and Elam already stands among the nations of the cup in Jer 25:25.

Verse 35

the bow of Elam — Isa 22:6 has ‘Elam bare the quiver’, so the bow stands for its strength. ‘Chief’ (reshit) is the word translated ‘beginning’ in v.34. The LORD ‘breaketh the bow’ in Ps 46:9.

Verse 38

I will set my throne in Elam — The throne is the LORD’s own; in Jer 43:10 he sets the throne of ‘Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant’ upon ‘these stones that I have hid’. Here he ‘will destroy from thence the king and the princes’ (sar).

Verse 39

the latter days — Acharit hayyamim, ‘the end of the days’. Elam’s restoration follows the pattern of Ammon (v.6) and Moab (Jer 48:47): judgment, then the captivity brought back. Mic 4:1 uses the same phrase of ‘the last days’ when the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established.