Jeremiah 49:1-39
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 kinga 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.
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.b
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.
23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted;c 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.
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, getd 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 wealthye 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.
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.
Jeremiah 49:1. Hath Israel no sons; hath he no heir? In this bold and striking manner the prophet commences his elegy on Ammon. The king of Ammon had in times of war, seized the cities of Gad. By every art he had aimed at aggrandizement, but could never do it by the clashing of interests. His army had invaded Gilead, and ripped up the women with child, that they might enlarge their territory. Amos 1:13.
Jeremiah 49:2. I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah and her daughters shall be burned with fire. Rabbah was the capital of Ammon, and the minor cities are called her daughters, as the cities of Judah are called the daughters of Zion, and they should be utterly destroyed with fire. Rabbah was built by Ammon the son of Lot, and was in great prosperity. Deuteronomy 3:11. It was taken by David, after great insolence had been offered to his ambassadors. When Tiglath Pileser had reduced Samaria, the Ammonites cruelly made war on the remains of the Israelites, and possessed themselves of all the eastern shores of the Jordan. Now, in turn, they themselves must drink the bloody cup. The city is situate near the source of the river Arnon, and still subsists under the name of Amman; but after Antiochus had rebuilt it, the name was changed to Philadelphia. Revelation 3:7.
Rabbah shall be a desolate heap. At the time the prophet wrote, this city had existed for many ages, and gave no signs of approaching ruin. It was strong by nature, fortified by art, situate on the borders of an affluent stream, and in the midst of a fruitful country. Its ancient name is still preserved by the Arabs with little variation, and its scite is now “covered,” says Burckhardt, “with the ruins of private buildings.” A few years since, when this traveller visited the spot, he discovered the remains of many idol temples, a curved wall, a high arched bridge, the banks and bed of the river still paved in some places, an amphitheatre with ornamented columns, a very ancient strong castle, many cisterns and vaults, and a plain covered with ruins monuments of splendour standing amidst “a desolate heap.” Thus it is that the truth of prophecy is confirmed by persons who intended not to pay any homage to revelation.
Jeremiah 49:3. Ai is spoiled. The Ammonites had crossed the Jordan, and gained some possessions on the western shore.
Jeremiah 49:6. I will bring again the captivity of Ammon. A remnant returned, but not the less at enmity with Israel; for with these Judas had wars. 1Ma 5:6. These prophecies are all proved, and true to the letter. They could not be written after the events; therefore unbelief can find no plea.
Jeremiah 49:7 ; Jeremiah 49:22. Concerning Edom, or Idumea. The prophet opens his mission by three interrogations. Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? Why not send ambassadors of peace to meet the invading powers? Why be infatuated to your own destruction? The warning voice of the prophet was to save the nations. He exhorts them to flee in every direction, to flee to the eastern shores of the red sea. The gleaners of the vintage were coming, a hungry army without number, who should glean the land, and scarcely spare the women. The desolation should be as that of Sodom. The velocity of the invader, flying in chariots, should be like that of the eagle, and his anger like that of a lion driven from his lair by the swellings of Jordan: Jeremiah 12:5. Yea, the nations should be moved at the cry of Edom, and none to pity the desolations of Bozrah.
Jeremiah 49:28. The kingdoms of Hazor which Nebuchadrezzar shall smite. In Joshua's time, Jabin king of Hazor was the most powerful prince, east of the waters of Merom, extending from the sources of Jordan towards the Euphrates, and eastward. Tadmor, afterwards Palmyra, was one of his cities. 2 Chronicles 8:4. He claimed a sort of sovereignty over all the municipal kings of the seven nations. With this prince Joshua fought, and put all the inhabitants of Hazor to the sword. The city was however restored by the Canaanites; and under Jabin they grievously oppressed the Israelites for twenty years. Judges 4.
The different names of this kingdom, according to the city in which the king reigned, has obscured its notice in history. Hadarezer, king of Zobah, is the same power with Hazor, of which we read in 1 Chronicles 23:3. David subdued this prince, and conquered all his dominions to the boundaries of Hamath. David also captured a thousand of his chariots, and took seven thousand cavalry and twenty thousand infantry prisoners of war. When the Syrians of Damascus came to succour their allies, David defeated them also with the slaughter of twenty two thousand. Nebuchadrezzar put a final period to this kingdom, and made it a province of Babylon.
Jeremiah 49:35. I will break the bow of ELamentations This nation was famed for archery, as is noted by Livy, lib. 37. Of the nature and results of this prediction, sacred criticism knows but little. It regards the western parts of Persia; and from the prophecy it appears that the Elamites sustained tremendous defeats from the Chaldeans. But in half a century or more, with Cyrus at their head, they laid the glory of Babylon in the dust.
REFLECTIONS.
Moab was distinguished for her pride, which made her fall the more mortifying; but Ammon gloried in her riches, having succeeded Gad on the banks of Jordan, and sent her camels abroad with merchandise; now all this wealth served merely to make the invader more greedy of the prey. May this be a warning to our own nation, for we are both rich and proud. The ruin of my poor neighbour whose lands I buy, may possibly be but the forerunner of the fall and ruin of my own house, as eventually proved by the fall of the Ammonites. May it contribute, with all other intimations of providence, to make us seek safety in the arms of divine protection.
While Jeremiah uttered predictions against Judah, against Moab, and against Ammon, he extended his eye to the dark tempest which overspread the whole of western Asia, to Edom, Damascus, and Elam, now Persia, and saw the rolling waterspouts settle in a vortex on Babylon, the scourge of nations. Thus when God begins he finishes his strange work. How weak then for mortals to trust in riches, in power, in wisdom, or in any arm of flesh, when they have neither might nor defence in the Lord. Surely he who can say, The Lord is my rock and my strong tower, is the wisest and happiest man. But the gentile nations against which Jeremiah prophesied were all enemies of the people of God, and nine of those nations had leagued to blot out the name of Israel. Psalms 83. Hence, in their fall we have a pledge, that all the enemies of the church shall waste away, and the righteous alone be exalted in the day of the Lord.