Jer 49.1-39 continues with prophecies about the nations, and this one is about Ammon, Edom, Syria, the Arabians and the Elamites, or Persians. Nebuchadnezzar attacked Ammon first, then Moab. This area is northern Jordan, and other prophecies about Ammon can be seen in Ezek 25.1-7 and Amos 1.13-15. Eschatologically this alludes to the judgment on Islam and their false god in the birth-pains.
v 1…Concerning the sons of Ammon (“of the peoples””), thus says the Lord: “Does Israel have no sons (to inherit the land)? Or has he no heirs (but he does)? Why then has Malcom (“their king”) taken possession of Gad (Ammorites took over their territory) and his people settled in its cities (Malcom is related to “Milcom” or “Molech” their god).
v 2…Therefore behold (take note of), the days are coming (yamim ba’im),” declares the Lord, “that I shall cause a trumpet (Hebrew “teruah” or shout/noise) blast of war to be heard against Rabbah (‘great”) of the sons of Ammon (the capital and royal city-1 Kings 11.1); and it will become a desolate heap (by Babylon), and her towns will be set on fire.
v 3…Wail, O Heshbon (on the east bank of the Dead Sea), for Ai (not the one in Canaan) has been destroyed (Babylon attacked this city first)! Cry out, O daughters (suburbs) of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament (in mourning), and rush back and forth inside the walls; for Malcom will go into captivity (exile) together with his priests and princes (their idol will be taken away with the people).
v 4…How boastful you are about the valleys (they were well watered and fruitful)! Your valley (Jordan Valley) is flowing, O backsliding (careless) daughter (they descended from Lot) who trusts in her treasures (saying), “Who will come against me (confident that their wealth could buy men and weapons to defend themselves)?”
v 5…Behold (take note), I am going to bring terror on you, (Babylon),” declares the Lord of hosts (the armies), “from all around you (directions); and each of you (the neighboring nations, but later the Saudis, Iraq, Syria and Amalek during the birth-pains) will be driven out headlong (each one before him), with no one to gather the fugitives together (to take them under their care-no leader).
v 6…But afterward I will restore the fortunes (captives) of the sons of Ammon (some would return under Cyrus).”
v 7…Concerning Edom (descended from Esau and were south of the Dead Sea. They competed with Israel, and today this area is Muslim. Other references to Edom are Isa 21.11-17; Ezek 25. 12-14; Amos 1.11; Oba 1-21; Psa 83.1-8; Psa 137.7), thus says the Lord of hosts (Yehovah of the armies, all armies in heaven and earth; when this is said Yehovah is coming from a military position of power), “Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman (geographically this is Saudi Arabia, but in the hidden level this may allude to Rome and eventually the religion of Rome, Christianity, because it was seen as the kingdom of the False Messiah in the Jewish midrashim. The book of Job occurs in Edom. Gen 22.21 refers to Uz, a son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Gen 36.11,40-42 tells us it was founded after Esau. In Gen 46.13 we have a “Iyov” (Job) with Jacob and was the grandson of Jacob, a son of Isaachar. Lam 4.21 tells us Edom and Uz are the same. Gen 47.6 may allude to the fact that Job left Egypt prior to the Exodus and was an administrator for Pharaoh)? Has good counsel been lost to the prudent (when Yehovah plans for such a people to be destroyed, he takes away common sense and foresight to properly manage affairs)? Has their wisdom decayed (or departed-Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup, and his descendants were unfaithful to Yehovah, but not as hostile as the Ammonites).
v 8…Flee away, turn back and dwell in the depths (low country-they would try to find safety in caves or in the wilderness), O inhabitansts of Dedan. For I will be bring the disaster of Esau upon them at the time I punish him (cursed for not holding God’s ways as important).
v 9…If grape gatherers came to you (to gather) would they not leave their gleanings (yes)? If thieves come by night, they would destroy until they had enough(leaving some things behind).
v 10…But I have stripped Esau bare, I have uncovered his hiding places (to the invaders) so that he will not be able to conceal himself (they will be politically extinct by the time of the Romans. In God’s judgment of them, their old hiding places will be revealed by Yehovah to the Babylonians, who will leave nothing); his seed has been destroyed along with his relatives and his neighbors, and he is no more.
v 11…Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive (because the adult males will not be there to care for them); and let your widows trust in me (Yehovah will take care of the widows and the orphans if they leave the cities because they will be destroyed).”
v 12…For thus says the Lord, “Behold (take note), those who were not sentenced to drink the cup (like Israel was) will certainly drink it (since Israel is to be judged and drink the cup, so will Edom), and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you (Edom) will certainly drink it.
v 13…For I have sworn (an oath) by myself (there is no one greater),” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah (“sheepfold”) will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins (Isa 63.1-6-this alludes to the coming of Yeshua in the latter days).”
v 14…I have heard a message from Yehovah (concerning the destruction of Edom), and an envoy (an ambassador) sent among the nations (to stir things up with Edom), saying, “Gather yourselves together (in this case Babylon and the other nations) and come against her (Edom), and rise up for battle (in a military manner)!
v 15…For behold, I have made you small among the nations (Babylon will reduce their population), despised among men (for their small number and desolate land).
v 16…As for the terror of you (that they put on their neighbors), the arrogance of your heart has deceived you (making them think they were in no danger-Oba 6), O you who live in the cleft of the rock (impregnable places; Hebrew “Cela” and may include Petra-Oba 3; Isa 16.1-5, 42.10), who occupy the heights of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as an eagles (there is a natural rock formation of an eagle in Petra) I will bring you down from there,” declares the Lord (no height or depth will save them; eschatologically, the Beduins and tribes will go out and battle Russia and be defeated. When they see Israel call on Yehovah and Yeshua and win, a remnant of them will believe in Yeshua and be in Petra, fleeing the False Messiah-Rev 12.13-17).
v 17…And Edom will become an object of horror; every one who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds (once great, they are now weak).
v 18…Like the overthrow of Sodom (burning) and Gomorrah (submerged) with its neighbors (the two cities of Admah and Zeboim-Deut 29.23; Jude 7; Gen 18.24),” says the Lord, “no one (ish) will live there, nor will a son of man (ben adam) reside in it (belonging to Edom, no Idumean will live there just like no Sodomite lives in Sodom anymore).
v 19…Behold, one will come up like a lion (Babylon) from the thickets of the Jordan against the pasture of the strong (Edom will be like a flock worried by an enemy as strong as a lion); for an instant I shall make him run away from it (the flock will leave the pasture), and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it (Nebuchadnezzar). For who is like me, and who will summon me into court? Who then is the shepherd who can stand against me (Yehovah is identifying himself with Nebuchadnezzar, and who would dare take him to court to question his right to do what he says he is going to do).”
v 20…Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which he has planned against Edom, and his purposes which he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman. Surely they (Babylon like wolves and dogs) will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock (least of the flock, the feeble and the helpless), surely he will make their pasture desolate because of them.
v 21…The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea (the fall was great and heard in distant places).
v 22…Behold, he (Nebuchadnezzar) will swoop like an eagle and spread out his wings against Bozrah (to seize it); and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor (weak and in pain; this sudden destruction also alludes to the coming of Messiah to Jerusalem as he comes through Edom from Sinai).
v 23…Concerning Damascus (or Aram, Syria, destroyed by Assyria but rebuilt again; Jeremiah speaks to them and God will use Babylon to further destroy its army and strongholds. This alludes to the birth-pains when Gog and Magog, or Russia, will destroy Damascus, and the kings of the east will complete its destruction as they move into Jerusalem to fight the False Messiah), Hamath and Arpad are put to shame for they have heard the bad news (of the Babylonian advance); they are disheartened (uneasy). There is anxiety by the sea, it cannot be calmed.
v 24…Damascus has become helpless (other references to Damascus being destroyed are Isa 17.1-13; Amos 1.3-5). She has turned away to flee (no match for Babylon), and panic has gripped her; distress and pangs have taken hold of her like a woman in childbirth (great sorrow, but this is also a time reference for later in the birth-pains).
v 25…How the city of praise has been deserted, the town of my joy (said by an observer who saw the city).
v 26…Therefore (since they are doomed), her young men will fall in the streets, and all the men of war will be silenced (cut off) in that day (eschatologically the time when Messiah comes, or the birth-pains), declares the Lord of hosts.
v 27…And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad (where many evils were planned against Israel, Hadad being an idol).”
v 28…Concerning Kedar (a son of Ishmael-Gen 25.13; lived in Arabia and nomads in black tents-Isa 21.17, 42.10; these Beduins were nobility, warriors and respected and are all over the Arab world. They had a system of honor and are comprised of two houses today called the house of Saud or Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan), and the kingdoms of Hazor (represents the settled Arabs north of the Sea of Galilee) which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated (God’s judgment extended to these Arabian tribes-Isa 60.7). Thus says the Lord, “Arise, go to Kedar and devastate the men of the east (Babylon will take away their life and possessions).
v 29…They (Babylon) will take away their tents and their flocks; they will carry off for themselves their tent curtains, all their goods, and their camels, and they will call out to one another, ‘Terror on every side.’
v 30…Run away, flee! Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor (in caves),” declares the Lord, “for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has formed a plan against you (again Babylon is a picture of the kings of the east) and devised a scheme against you.
v 31…Arise, go up against a nation which is at ease (wealthy), which lives securely,” declares the Lord, “it has no gates or bars; they dwell alone (these Arab Beduins had no army or walled cities. They were wealthy because they were at peace because they lived out of the way of the warring factions from Asia and Africa).
v 32…And their camels will become plunder and the multitude of their cattle for booty, and I will scatter to all the winds those who are in the utmost corners (of their land to feed their flocks); and I shall bring their disaster from every side (Babylon will surround them with no escape),” declares the Lord.
v 33…And Hazor will be a haunt for jackals, a desolation forever; no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it (utterly destroyed).”
v 34…That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam (geographically 200 miles east of Babylon and west of the Tigris River) at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah (Babylon defeated them, and later Cyrus of Persia conquered and absorbed Elam into the Persian forces that defeated Babylon. The capital was Susa or Shushan and the center of the Persian empire-Neh 1.1; Dan 8.2), saying,
v 35…”Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam (they were known as great archers in Isa 22.6), the finest of their might (but this will not save them when Yehovah turns them over to Babylon).
v 36…And I shall bring upon Elam the four winds (soldiers from the four corners of the earth were in the Babylonian army), from the four ends of heaven and shall scatter them to all the winds (all over the place); and there will be no nation to which the outcasts (refugees) of Elam will not go (dispersed among the nations).
v 37…So I shall scatter them before their enemies and before those who seek their lives; and I will bring calamity upon them, even my fierce anger,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I shall send out the sword after them until I have consumed them (we don’t know why God judged Elam, but this is for a reason).
v 38…Then I will set my throne in Elam (beginning with Nebuchadnezzar and his successors as seen in Dan 8.2; God gave these kings their throne so it can be called “my throne”), and I shall destroy from there the king and the princes (of Elam-they will reign no more),’ declares the Lord.
v 39…’But it will come about in the last days (“acharit yamim” and an eschatological term for when Messiah comes) that I shall restore the fortunes (captives) of Elam,” declares the Lord (this started in the first century-Acts 2.9).'”
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