Jeremiah 49:31-33

A Renewed Call To Nebuchadrezzar To Carry Out YHWH's Purpose (Jeremiah 49:31).

Jeremiah 49:31

“Arise, get you up to a nation which is at ease,

Which dwells without care,

The word of YHWH,

Who have neither gates nor bars,

Who dwell alone.

And their camels will be a booty,

And the large numbers of their cattle 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,

The word of YHWH,

And Hazor will be a dwelling-place of jackals,

A desolation for ever,

No man will dwell there,

Nor will any son of man sojourn in it.”

We have here a picture of the desert semi-nomads of ‘Kedar', split up into different sub-tribes, living in tents in the desert where no one troubled them, and where no gates or bars were required to protect them, because the desert itself was their wall. At this time they were rich in cattle and camels, but felt at ease because of their situation, forgetting that their very wealth would prove to be a magnet to such as the Babylonians.

But now Nebuchadrezzar was called on to disturb their ease, take possession of their camels and large numbers of cattle, and scatter them into the desert. And we are given a reason for this. It was because of their idolatry. They, whose supposed descent from Ishmael should have ensured that they worshipped Abraham's God, had themselves become idol worshippers, as was proved by their ritual act of cutting off the ‘corners' of their hairs (having cropped hair temples). Compare for similar religious symbols Jeremiah 47:5.

The peoples of Kedar were to be hemmed in by the huge Babylonian armies, with no way of escape (‘I will bring their calamity from every side'), and even those in southern Arabia would be affected as Hazor became a dwellingplace for wild beasts, never again inhabited. Whether there was an actual town of that name, or whether it was an oasis encampment which had possibly become more urbanised, we do not know. But whichever it was it would be desolated. Thus all who followed after idols, not just Israel/Judah, came under God's judgment.

The fulfilment of this came about when, after the battle of Carchemish, Babylon proceeded to extend its empire and seize spoil, establishing its authority over the lower Euphrates, Palestine and the Syro-Arabian desert. The so-called Babylonian Chronicle records the fulfilment of this in 599 BC