AMMON. The Ammonite territory lay eastward of part of that assigned to Gad, between Heshbon and the river Jabbok; the Ammonites appear to have occupied the territory of Gad after the deportation of its inhabitants in 734 (2 Kings 15:29). Why has Milcom seized the land of Gad as his inheritance (1 _m... [ Continue Reading ]
EDOM. For the land, and the relations of this people to Israel, see on Obadiah, from Jeremiah 49:1 of which the present prophecy has taken verbally Jeremiah 49:9; Jeremiah 49:14. This does not, in itself, disprove the Jeremianic authorship of other parts of this prophecy, _e.g._ Jeremiah 49:7 f., Je... [ Continue Reading ]
DAMASCUS. The prophecy refers to the Aramæ ans; Hamath, 110 miles N. of Damascus, and Arpad, 95 m. N. of Hamath, never belonged to the Damascene kingdom. They were absorbed into the Assyrian empire c. 720 B.C.; _cf._ Isaiah 10:9. There is no mention of these cities in the list of foreign prophecies,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ARABIAN TRIBES. Kedar (Jeremiah 2:10) a branch of the Ishmaelites (Genesis 25:13), is here used generically for Arab tribes E. of Palestine. Hazor, perhaps a collective term meaning settlements, seems to denote Arabs in village communities, as distinct from the nomadic tribes. Yahweh summons the... [ Continue Reading ]
ELAM. Roughly, this was the modern Khuzistan, E. of the Tigris, and N. or NE. of the Persian Gulf; the date given is c. 596, and the occasion may have been the conquest of Elam by Teispes, a Persian ancestor of Cyrus. News of this could have reached Jeremiah through Jewish exiles in Babylonia. Yahwe... [ Continue Reading ]