Jeremiah 49
Bad news for Edom
Warning Ammon
1This is what the LORD has to say about the nation of Ammon.God’s tribe has plenty of sons,
More than enough to inherit the land.
So why have you settled on Gad's land,
You people who worship Molech? [1]
Against Ammon’s city of Rabbah. [2]
You'll be a dirt mound by the time I finish,
And your outlying cities will burn.
Then Israel will take your land and live there.
3People in Heshbon town,
Cry for Ai, a city destroyed.
People in Rabbah,
Change your clothes.
Dress in feed sacks,
And mourn for Molech who’s headed to exile
With his priests and servants.
4Why do you brag about your muscles?
Can't you see you're getting soft?
You’re just a child who doesn’t trust me.
You trust your wealth to keep you safe.
You brag, “Who would attack me?”
5I would. And I will.
You’re going to feel the terror.
I’m the LORD God of everyone.
Your neighbors will hunt you like animals,
And no one will welcome you.
6Later, I’ll bring you back home
And restore what you lost. [3]
Warning Edom
7This is what the LORD of everyone says about Edom.What happened to all the smart people in Teman?
They’re not so smart anymore.
What happened? Did their smarts vanish?
Find a good place to hide
Because I’m going to tear up Esau’s land [5]
When it’s time to dish out the punishment.
9Grape harvesters leave some grapes for the poor.
Burglars take only what they want most.
10But I’m going to leave you naked with nothing.
I know your hiding places.
You can’t hide from me.
I will kill you, your family, your neighbors.
I will end you all.
11Give me your orphans, though.
I’ll keep them safe.
Your widows, too. 12I’m bringing poison to your part of the world. Even the innocent will drink from that cup. So how can you people, guilty as sin, hope to escape what’s coming? You’ll drink that poison, too.
13I swear by my own name that Bozrah town and its outlying communities will all be destroyed. They’ll lie in ruins for the rest of time. People will be horrified when they see what I do to this town. “Bozrah” will become a cuss word.
14I’ve sent this message to the nations:
“Mobilize for war.
Gear up for battle.”
That’ll soon be you,
A nation everyone hates.
16You let pride fool you into believing
Nations are terrified of you.
You may live well-protected in cliffs,
High on the hilltops,
In homes beside eagle nests.
But I’ll bring you down to earth.
I’m the LORD.
17Edom’s ruins will horrify people passing by.
They’ll gasp in shock.
18Edom’s cities will be gone for good,
Like Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors.
No one will ever live there again.
19I’ll run you out of your land
Like a lion jumping out of Jordan River weeds
Onto sheep grazing in a meadow.
No shepherd can stop me from doing that.
They can’t even ask me why I’m doing it.
20Here’s what’s going to happen,
It’s the LORD’s plan for Edom.
Their children will get dragged away,
While their horrified families watch.
21Edom’s collapse will shake the ground
With a roar that carries to the Red Sea.
22Your enemy will come at you
Like an eagle in a dive.
It will spread its wings over Bozrah,
Terrifying Edom’s warriors.
They’ll become like women in labor,
Frightened to death.
Warning to Damascus
23This message is about Damascus.
Towns of Hamath and Arpad heard about you.
Now, they’re dissolving in fear.
Their new worries roll in like wave after wave
On rough water that won’t quit.
They start to run away
But panic stops them,
Anxiety attacks them,
And Anguish grips them
Like it does a woman in labor.
25Damascus is empty.
Once a town of music and laughter,
Now silent and abandoned.
26Their soldiers die in the fight,
Their young men are slaughtered in the square.
So says the LORD of everyone.
27I’ll set your city walls on fire.
And I’ll burn the palace of King Ben-hadad
Warnings for Kedar and Hazor
28This is about the Arab tribe of Kedar [6] and the kingdom of Hazor. [7] Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar defeated them both.The LORD said:
Gear up and attack Kedar.
Wipe out those people in the east.
Curtains and all the supplies.
Take their flocks and their camels, too.
Next come the warning cries,
“It’s terrifying everywhere!”
30People of Hazor,
Run and find a good hiding place
Because my oh my
Does Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar have plans for you.
31Babylon, rise up and attack an easy target.
It’s a nation that lives in peace,
Safe and sound without city walls
Or gates locked with thick, metal bars.
32Take their camels and cattle as war trophies.
I’ll scatter these people to every wind that blows.
These desert people cut the sides of their hair. [8]
So I’m going to hit them from every side.
Disaster all around. So says the LORD.
33Hazor will become a home for jackals,
Ruined forever,
Uninhabited forever,
And not a place anyone would want to settle.
Warning for Elam
34This is the message the LORD gave the prophet Jeremiah about Elam. This happened at the beginning of the reign of Judah’s King Zedekiah.35This is what the LORD of everyone says:
I’ll snap the bows and arrows of Elam,
The best of their fighting units.
36I’ll pound them with four winds,
Each embedded with fierce armies
That will scatter them to every nation on earth.
37These armies will terrify Elam.
I’m angry with the people of Elam,
So I’m sending these warriors to end them.
38When the battle’s over
I’ll set my throne up in Edom
And kill their kings and officials.
39Later, I’ll bring the remnant back home
And restore what they lost.
So says the LORD.
Footnotes
“Milcom,” god of Ammon, seems to be an alternate spelling of Molech. Scholars debate who or what Molech was and whether children were literally sacrificed or perhaps figuratively presented to Molech and dedicated to him. Many scholars say Molech was a god, because of the way Bible writers describe people prostituting themselves to Molech (Leviticus 20:5). Many scholars seem to agree that some people of Israel built shrines to Baal where they burned their sons and daughters as sacrifices to Molech (Jeremiah 32:35).
Rabbah was the capital of Ammon. It’s now within the city limits of Amman, capital of Jordan.
Okay this sounds odd. God essentially says, “I’ll kill you and deport survivors. But later I’ll bring you home.” The idea is the nation is being punished for sins, as though being put in timeout. In time, they’ve done their time and it’s back to life as usual but hopefully devoted to God. This is a formula the prophets use in their warnings to many nations, including Judah.
Dedan was probably southeast of Edom in Saudi Arabia. It’s usually associated with an oasis called el Ula, roughly 400 miles (650 km) southeast of Jerusalem.
Jacob’s older brother Esau settled in Edom, south and southeast of the Dead Sea. It was protected by natural rock barriers and remained a safe and prosperous place to live from the 1200s-700s BC. Archaeology suggests it encountered a period of decline which ended with Babylonians invading them in the 500s BC and defeating them.
Kedar was a nomadic tribe, descended from a son of Ishmael, son of Abraham. They lived in the far north of Arabia. They traded with people of Edom and others east of the Jordan River and west of the Euphrates in Iraq.
This Hazor wasn’t likely the important town just north of the Sea of Galilee. It may refer to a group of communities and villages without city walls, yet each with a village chief. Other Old Testament writers refer to hostile tribes living in the east, including Midianites and Amalekites. They were nomadic groups that raided Israel at harvest time in the days of the Judges (Judges 7:12).
Some people, in expressions of grief or extreme urgency, cut their hair and beards. For some people, and apparently the people of Hazor, it was a way of calling out to the gods for help or for conjuring up spirits of the dead. That may have been part of the reason for this rule: “Don’t use sorcery or interpret signs to predict the future. Don’t trim your hair at the sides and don’t cut your beard” (Leviticus 19:26-27).
Discussion Questions
- Sorry, there are currently no questions for this chapter.
Maps/Guides
