1 Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in its cities? 2 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess those who did possess him, says Yahweh. 3 Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, clothe yourself in sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together. 4 Why do you glory in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? who trusted in her treasures, (saying), Who shall come to me? 5 Behold, I will bring a fear on you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, from all who are around you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives. 6 But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon, says Yahweh. 7 Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? 8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I shall visit him. 9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had 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 destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more. 11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me. 12 For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. 13 For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes. 14 I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, (saying), Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. 15 For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. 16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh. 17 Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues. 18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man live therein. 19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me? 20 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, (even) the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them. 21 The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea. 22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. 23 Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet. 24 Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail. 25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? 26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of Armies. 27 I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. 28 Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus says Yahweh: Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east. 29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side! 30 Flee, wander far off, dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor, says Yahweh; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. 31 Arise, go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says Yahweh; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone. 32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners (of their hair) cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh. 33 Hazor shall be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man live therein. 34 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, 35 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. 36 On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come. 37 I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life; and I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger, says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them; 38 and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and princes, says Yahweh. 39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Yahweh.
To the north of the Moabites lay the country of the Ammonites, a closely allied nation Genesis 19:37-38 who claimed that the land assigned to the tribe of Gad had originally belonged to them Judges 11:13. They seem to have been far less civilized than the Moabites, and possessed but one stronghold, Rabbah, not devoting themselves to agriculture, but wandering with their flocks over the Arabian wastes. When, however, Tiglath-Pileser carried the inhabitants of Gilead into captivity, the Ammonites occupied much of the vacant land, and many of them probably adopted a more settled life; at this time they even possessed Heshbon, once the frontier town between Reuben and Gad. It is this seizure of the territory of Gad which forms the starting-point of Jeremiah's prediction. Older prophecies against Ammon are Amos 1:13-15; Zephaniah 2:8-11.
This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighborhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, Jeremiah 49:1-5. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, Jeremiah 49:6. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people), who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, vv. 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, Jeremiah 49:23-27; and against Kedar, Jeremiah 49:28, Jeremiah 49:29. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, Jeremiah 49:30-33. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, Jeremiah 49:34-38. The Elamites shall be delivered from their captivity in the latter days, Jeremiah 49:39. It wilt be proper here to observe that these predictions should not be so explained as if they admitted of merely a private interpretation; for, as Bishop Lowth remarks upon Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Idumeans, "by a figure very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general;" therefore, it is under the Gospel dispensation that these prophecies shall be accomplished to their fullest extent upon all the antichrtstian nations that have sinned after the similitude of the ancient enemies of the people of God under the Mosaic economy.
INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 49
This chapter contains prophecies concerning the judgments of God on several nations and kingdoms, chiefly bordering on the land of Israel; on the Ammonites, Jeremiah 49:1; on the Edomites, Jeremiah 49:7; on the kingdom of Damascus, or the Syrians, Jeremiah 49:23; on the Kedarenes or Arabians, Jeremiah 49:28; and on the Elamites or Persians, Jeremiah 49:34.
(Jeremiah 49:1-6) Prophecies relative to the Ammonites.
(v. 7-22) The Edomites.
(Jeremiah 49:23-27) The Syrians.
(Jeremiah 49:28-33) The Kedarenes.
(Jeremiah 49:34-39) The Elamites.
Concerning Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam
Concerning the Children of Ammon. - The Ammonites were, not merely as regards descent, but also as to their character and their relation to Israel, the twin-people with the Moabites. From them, too, as well as from the Moabites, Sihon the king of the Ammonites had wrenched a portion of their territory, which the Israelites received for a possession after Sihon had been subdued. This territory they sought every opportunity of retaking from the Israelites, whom they as constantly endeavoured to humiliate when they could. Besides their connection with Eglon the Moabite king (Judges 3:13), they oppressed Israel during the period of the judges for eighteen years, not only in Gilead, but also on this side of Jordan, since they fought against Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah (Judges 10:7., Jeremiah 11:12 -32). During Samuel's time, their king Nahash besieged Jabesh-gilead, and demanded the surrender of the city under shameful conditions, in consequence of which they were defeated by Saul (1 Sam 2). During the time of David they disgracefully treated his ambassadors, who had come to comfort King Hanun over the death of his father; they then united with the Syrians against Israel, but were defeated by Joab, and, after the taking of their capital, Rabbah, severely chastised (2-Samuel 10:1 to 2-Samuel 11:1, and 2-Samuel 12:26-31). Under the reign of Jehoshaphat, also, in company with the Moabites, they invaded Judah (2 Chron 20); and when, later, the Israelites were heavily oppressed by the Syrians under Hazael, the Ammonites practised cruelties on them in Gilead, for which the prophet Amos (Amos 1:13-15) threatens them with devastation of their country and foreign captivity. After the death of Jeroboam II, who had restored the borders of Israel as far as the Dead Sea (2-Kings 14:25), the Ammonites must have made fresh attempts to enlarge their territory during the interregnum that had begun in the kingdom of the ten tribes; for it is mentioned in 2-Chronicles 26:8 that they brought presents to King Uzziah, i.e., paid tribute, and had thus been rendered tributary to him: it is also stated in 2-Chronicles 27:5 that his son Jotham marched against them in order to enforce the payment of the tribute. But when, soon afterwards, Tiglath-pileser the Assyrian carried away the tribes of Israel on the east of the Jordan (2-Kings 15:29; 1-Chronicles 5:26), the Ammonites seized possession of the depopulated country of the tribes of Gad and Reuben, while they also seized Heshbon on the border of these two tribal territories. This unjust appropriation of Israelitish territory forms the starting-point of the prophecy now before us.
Ammon has taken possession of the inheritance of Gad, therefore must his cities be destroyed by war, that Israel may again obtain his own property (Jeremiah 49:1, Jeremiah 49:2). Ammon will sorrow deeply, for his god will go with his princes into captivity (Jeremiah 49:2-4). His trust in the wealth of his land will not help him, but his people will be frightened away through terror on every side, yet they will be restored in the future (Jeremiah 49:5, Jeremiah 49:6).
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.