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Jeremiah 49-50    Listen Podcast

Judgment on the Ammonites (Jeremiah 49:1-6)

1 Against the Ammonites. ¶ Thus says the LORD:
“Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does Milcom inherit Gad,
And his people dwell in its cities?
2 Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,
“That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war
In Rabbah of the Ammonites;
It shall be a desolate mound,
And her villages shall be burned with fire.
Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance,” says the LORD.
3 “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah,
Gird yourselves with sackcloth!
Lament and run to and fro by the walls;
For Milcom shall go into captivity
With his priests and his princes together.
4 Why do you boast in the valleys,
Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?
Who trusted in her treasures, saying,
“Who will come against me?’
5 Behold, I will bring fear upon you,”
Says the Lord GOD of hosts,
“From all those who are around you;
You shall be driven out, everyone headlong,
And no one will gather those who wander off.
6 But afterward I will bring back
The captives of the people of Ammon,” says the LORD.

The Ammonites (descendants of Lot) were the neighbors of Israel that lived on the east side of the Jordan next door to the tribe of Gad, and through the centuries they had not been very good neighbors. Apparently after the Jews in Gad had been deported under Assyrian rule (after 721 B.C.), the Ammonites moved into their cities. This prophecy declares that the Ammonites will fall to the Babylonians. According to the Jewish historian Josephus (Antiq. X, 181 [ix.7]), Nebuchadnezzar conquered Ammon in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem.

For additional background information regarding the Ammonites, see the notes on II Samuel 10/I Chronicles 19.

Judgment on the Edomites (Jeremiah 49:7-22)

7 ¶ Against Edom. ¶ Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Is wisdom no more in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom vanished?
8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,
The time that I will punish him.
9 If grape-gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?
If thieves by night,
Would they not destroy until 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 descendants are plundered,
His brethren 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 the LORD: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.
13 For I have sworn by Myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.”
14 I have heard a message from the LORD,
And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:
“Gather together, come against her,
And rise up to battle!
15 “For indeed, I will make you small among nations,
Despised among men.
16 Your fierceness has deceived you,
The pride of your heart,
O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Who hold the height of the hill!
Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,
I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.
17 “Edom also shall be an astonishment;
Everyone who goes by it will be astonished
And will hiss at all its plagues.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the LORD,
“No one shall remain there,
Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.
19 “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place 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?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Edom,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.
21 The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;
At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.
22 Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle,
And spread His wings over Bozrah;
The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be
Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

These are Esau's descendants. They lived southeast of Israel with a long history of hatred toward Israel. Edom had a long, colorful history with Israel going all the way back to Jacob and Esau. Edom was Esau's nickname, and the very way he came by this nickname was a sore subject found in Numbers 24:15-19, see notes).

Note these other conflicts with the Edomites:

Other prophets also prophesied concerning Edom:

The prophet Obadiah prophesies against these people in his one chapter. There is no promise of restoration after Nebuchadnezzar ransacks them. Click here to see the summary on the Book of Obadiah regarding Edom's prospects.

The Syrians...they'll fall too (Jeremiah 49:23-27)

23 ¶ Against Damascus.
“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,
For they have heard bad news.
They are fainthearted;
There is trouble on the sea;
It cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus has grown feeble;
She turns to flee,
And fear has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.
25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, 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,” says the LORD of hosts.
27 “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.”

Damascus was the capital city of Syria just northeast of Israel. In verse 27, Benhadad was the general designation for the kings of Syria; it meant "Son of Hadad." Hadad is a name with several notorious Syrian roots. First of all, it was the name of one of the supreme gods in Syria. Benhadad (prefix "Ben" means "son") was also the name of a dynasty that ruled Damascus in the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. If that's not confusing enough, it was also the name of some individual Syrian kings (II Kings 13:24, see notes). Nebuchadnezzar took his army through Syria in 605 B.C.

Kedar and Hazor fall (Jeremiah 49:28-33)

28 ¶ Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike. ¶ Thus says the LORD:
“Arise, go up to Kedar,
And devastate the men of the East!
29 Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.
They shall take for themselves their curtains,
All their vessels and their camels;
And they shall cry out to them,
“Fear is on every side!’
30 “Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,
O inhabitants of Hazor!” says the LORD.
“For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,
And has conceived a plan against you.
31 “Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the LORD,
“Which has neither gates nor bars,
Dwelling alone.
32 Their camels shall be for booty,
And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.
I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners,
And I will bring their calamity from all its sides,” says the LORD.
33 “Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;
No one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.”

Not much is known about these tribes. Their fall is prophesied. They inhabited the desert between Babylon and Israel.

Elam's fall (Jeremiah 49:34-39)

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 says the LORD of hosts:
‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,
The foremost of their might.
36 Against Elam I will bring the four winds
From the four quarters of heaven,
And scatter them toward all those winds;
There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies
And before those who seek their life.
I will bring disaster upon them,
My fierce anger,’ says the LORD;
“And I will send the sword after them
Until I have consumed them.
38 I will set My throne in Elam,
And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the LORD.
39 “But it shall come to pass in the latter days:
I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the LORD.”

Ancient Elam was located east of the Tigris River in Mesopotamia. The Assyrians sacked Susa, Elam's capital, in 646 B.C. This prophecy during King Zedekiah's reign would appear to be a second round by the conquering Babylonians.

And finally...Babylon will get their judgment too (Jeremiah 50)

1 The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
2 “Declare among the nations,
Proclaim, and set up a standard;
Proclaim—do not conceal it—
Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.
Merodach is broken in pieces;
Her idols are humiliated,
Her images are broken in pieces.’
3 For out of the north a nation comes up against her,
Which shall make her land desolate,
And no one shall dwell therein.
They shall move, they shall depart,
Both man and beast.
4 “In those days and in that time,” says the LORD,
“The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
With continual weeping they shall come,
And seek the LORD their God.
5 They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
“Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.’
6 “My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, “We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,
The LORD, the hope of their fathers.’
8 “Move from the midst of Babylon,
Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;
And be like the rams before the flocks.
9 For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country,
And they shall array themselves against her;
From there she shall be captured.
Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;
None shall return in vain.
10 And Chaldea shall become plunder;
All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the LORD.
11 “Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,
You destroyers of My heritage,
Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,
And you bellow like bulls,
12 Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;
She who bore you shall be ashamed.
Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,
A dry land and a desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the LORD
She shall not be inhabited,
But she shall be wholly desolate.
Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified
And hiss at all her plagues.
14 “Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,
All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, spare no arrows,
For she has sinned against the LORD.
15 Shout against her all around;
She has given her hand,
Her foundations have fallen,
Her walls are thrown down;
For it is the vengeance of the LORD.
Take vengeance on her.
As she has done, so do to her.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.
For fear of the oppressing sword
Everyone shall turn to his own people,
And everyone shall flee to his own land.
17 “Israel is like scattered sheep;
The lions have driven him away.
First the king of Assyria devoured him;
Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”
18 ¶ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,
As I have punished the king of Assyria.
19 But I will bring back Israel to his home,
And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;
His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and in that time,” says the LORD,
“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;
And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;
For I will pardon those whom I preserve.
21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,
And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the LORD,
“And do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 A sound of battle is in the land,
And of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!
How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
I have laid a snare for you;
24 You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,
And you were not aware;
You have been found and also caught,
Because you have contended against the LORD.
25 The LORD has opened His armory,
And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;
For this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts
In the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from the farthest border;
Open her storehouses;
Cast her up as heaps of ruins,
And destroy her utterly;
Let nothing of her be left.
27 Slay all her bulls,
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them!
For their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28 The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon
Declares in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,
The vengeance of His temple.
29 “Call together the archers against Babylon.
All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;
Let none of them escape.
Repay her according to her work;
According to all she has done, do to her;
For she has been proud against the LORD,
Against the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,
And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the LORD.
31 “Behold, I am against you,
O most haughty one!” says the Lord GOD of hosts;
“For your day has come,
The time that I will punish you.
32 The most proud shall stumble and fall,
And no one will raise him up;
I will kindle a fire in his cities,
And it will devour all around him.”
33 ¶ Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“The children of Israel were oppressed,
Along with the children of Judah;
All who took them captive have held them fast;
They have refused to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong;
The LORD of hosts is His name.
He will thoroughly plead their case,
That He may give rest to the land,
And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 “A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the LORD,
“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,
And against her princes and her wise men.
36 A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.
A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
37 A sword is against their horses,
Against their chariots,
And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;
And they will become like women.
A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.
38 A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.
For it is the land of carved images,
And they are insane with their idols.
39 “Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,
And the ostriches shall dwell in it.
It shall be inhabited no more forever,
Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
And their neighbors,” says the LORD,
“So no one shall reside there,
Nor son of man dwell in it.
41 “Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
43 “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.
44 “Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan
Against the dwelling place of the strong;
But I will make them suddenly run away from her.
And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?
For who is like Me?
Who will arraign Me?
And who is that shepherd
Who will withstand Me?”
45 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon,
And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;
Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon
The earth trembles,
And the cry is heard among the nations.

And finally, Jeremiah turns to the fall of Babylon itself in chapters 50-51.

Following is an entry in the Columbia Encyclopedia regarding the city of Babylon:

One of the most important cities of the ancient Middle East, it was on the Euphrates River and was north of the cities that flourished in S Mesopotamia in the 3d millennium B.C. It became important when Hammurabi made it the capital of his kingdom of Babylonia. The patron god of Babylon, Marduk (identical with Bel), became a leading deity in the Neo-Babylonian pantheon. The city was destroyed (c.689 B.C.) by the Assyrians under Sennacherib, and its real splendor belongs to the later period of Babylonia after the city was rebuilt. The brilliant color and luxury of Babylon became legendary from the days of Nebuchadnezzar (d. 562 B.C.). The Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The walls of Babylon, its palace, and the processional way with the famous Ishtar Gate were decorated with colorfully glazed brick. Among the Hebrews (who suffered the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar) and the later Greeks the city was famed for its sensual living. Under the rule of Nabonidus the city was captured (538 B.C.) by Cyrus the Great and was used as one of the administrative capitals of the Persian Empire. In 275 B.C. its inhabitants were removed to Seleucia, which replaced Babylon as a commercial center.

Today, Babylon's ruins are south of Baghdad, Iraq about 55 miles. Saddam Hussein started restoration of Babylon and even built one of his palaces there. It would appear that the project will never be completed.

Note the demise of Babylon in verse 3, "For out of the north a nation comes up against her, Which shall make her land desolate." The city was captured by the Medes/Persians in 538 B.C. under Cyrus the Great, just as Jeremiah prophesied. Beginning in verse 4 we see the return of the Jews prophesied. This happened under Cyrus the Great as well.

In verses 17-18 Jeremiah references the one-two punch, the deportation of Israel/Judah at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. He prophesies that the Babylonians will be punished just as the Assyrians had been by the Babylonians. He prophesies in verse 18, "Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, As I have punished the king of Assyria."

Jeremiah speaks of a return to the land by Israel beginning in verse 20. The Jews did return under Cyrus, but the stipulations of verse 20 weren't technically fulfilled at that time. Notice verse 20, "In those days and in that time,” says the LORD, “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; For I will pardon those whom I preserve." This spiritual (no iniquity found) condition of Israel will not be seen until the Messianic Kingdom beginning with the Millennium. Jeremiah spoke of this spiritual renewal in Hebrews 8:8-12 (see notes). If it were not for the specifications of verse 20, we might assume this to be a prophecy regarding the return of Israel/Judah to their land beginning in 535 B.C. The returning exiles were very zealous toward God when they began their return in 535 B.C., but to say that they were without "iniquity" would certainly overstate their condition. It is for that reason that most Bible expositors place this complete fulfillment at the yet-future millennium, the Messianic age.

It seems fitting that Jeremiah spends so much time speaking of the demise of Babylon. This detailed prophecy continues on into Jeremiah 51 (see notes).