For Teaching

Jeremiah 49: What the Passage Says

164 claims across 39 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Jeremiah 49 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter continues Jeremiah's messages about foreign nations, taking up Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, and Elam in turn. Each nation is told of coming attack and loss, with exile for Ammon's king, priests and officials, and reasons given for Ammon's seizure of Israelite land and for Edom's pride and false sense of safety. The messages against Ammon and Elam each end with a promise that the LORD will one day bring their captives back.

Claim by Claim

49:1
- This message concerns the Ammonites.
- The LORD speaks the following words.
- The LORD asks whether Israel has no sons.
- The LORD asks whether Israel has no heir.
- The LORD asks why their king: the word may mean their king or the god Milcom, has taken possession of Gad.
- The LORD asks why that king's people dwell in Gad's cities.
49:2
- Therefore days are coming, declares the LORD.
- The LORD will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites.
- Rabbah will become a desolate heap of ruins.
- Rabbah's daughter-villages will be burned with fire.
- Then Israel will dispossess those who dispossessed him.
- The LORD says this.
49:3
- Heshbon is commanded to wail.
- Ai has been destroyed.
- The daughters of Rabbah are commanded to cry out.
- They are commanded to gird themselves with sackcloth.
- They are commanded to lament.
- They are commanded to run to and fro among the enclosures.
- Their king, the word may mean their king or the god Milcom, will go into exile.
- His priests and his officials will go into exile with him.
49:4
- The LORD asks why she boasts in the valleys.
- Her valley is flowing or fruitful.
- She is called a backsliding, faithless daughter.
- She trusts in her treasures.
- She says, Who will come against me?
49:5
- The LORD is about to bring terror upon her.
- The Lord GOD of hosts declares this.
- The terror will come from all those around her.
- Each of them will be driven headlong before him.
- There will be no one to gather up the wanderer.
49:6
- Afterward the LORD will restore the fortunes of the children of Ammon.
- The LORD declares this.
49:7
- This message concerns Edom.
- The LORD of hosts speaks the following words.
- The LORD asks whether wisdom is no longer in Teman.
- The LORD asks whether counsel has perished from the prudent.
- The LORD asks whether their wisdom has decayed.
49:8
- The inhabitants of Dedan are commanded to flee.
- They are commanded to turn back.
- They are commanded to dwell deep, in hiding.
- The LORD will bring the calamity of Esau upon him.
- The LORD will do this at the time he punishes him.
49:9
- If grape gatherers came to you, they would leave some gleanings.
- If thieves came by night, they would destroy only until they had enough.
49:10
- The LORD has stripped Esau bare.
- The LORD has uncovered Esau's hiding places.
- Esau will not be able to hide himself.
- Esau's offspring is destroyed.
- His brothers and his neighbors are destroyed also.
- He is no more.
49:11
- The LORD says to leave the fatherless children.
- The LORD will keep them alive.
- The LORD says to let the widows trust in him.
49:12
- The LORD speaks the following words.
- Those whose judgment was not to drink the cup have certainly drunk it.
- The LORD asks whether Edom is the one who will go entirely unpunished.
- Edom will not go unpunished.
- Edom will surely drink the cup.
49:13
- The LORD has sworn by himself.
- The LORD declares this.
- Bozrah will become a desolation.
- Bozrah will become a reproach.
- Bozrah will become a waste.
- Bozrah will become a curse.
- All Bozrah's cities will become perpetual ruins.
49:14
- The speaker has heard a report from the LORD.
- An envoy has been sent among the nations.
- The message says to gather together.
- The message says to come against her.
- The message says to rise up for battle.
49:15
- The LORD will make Edom small among the nations.
- Edom will be despised among men.
49:16
- Edom's terribleness has deceived her.
- The pride of Edom's heart has deceived her.
- Edom dwells in the clefts of the rock.
- Edom holds the height of the hill.
- Even if Edom makes her nest as high as the eagle's, the LORD will bring her down from there.
- The LORD declares this.
49:17
- Edom will become a desolation.
- Everyone who passes by it will be appalled.
- Everyone who passes by will hiss at all its wounds.
49:18
- The overthrow will be like that of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities.
- The LORD says this.
- No man will live there.
- No son of man will sojourn in it.
49:19
- One will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against the strong pasture.
- The LORD will in an instant chase him away from her.
- The LORD asks who is the chosen one he will appoint over her.
- The LORD asks who is like him.
- The LORD asks who will summon him to account.
- The LORD asks what shepherd can stand before him.
49:20
- Hear the counsel the LORD has taken against Edom.
- Hear the purposes he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman.
- Surely the least of the flock will drag them away.
- Surely their pasture will be made desolate over them.
49:21
- The earth quakes at the sound of their fall.
- The sound of their cry is heard at the Red Sea.
49:22
- One will come up and soar like an eagle.
- He will spread his wings over Bozrah.
- In that day the heart of Edom's mighty men will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
49:23
- This message concerns Damascus.
- Hamath is put to shame.
- Arpad is put to shame.
- They have heard bad news.
- They melt with fear.
- There is anxiety like the sea.
- It cannot be quiet.
49:24
- Damascus has grown feeble.
- Damascus has turned to flee.
- Trembling has seized her.
- Anguish and pains have taken hold of her, like a woman in labor.
49:25
- It is asked how the city of praise is not forsaken.
- It is called the town of my joy.
49:26
- Therefore her young men will fall in her streets.
- All the men of war will be silenced in that day.
- The LORD of hosts declares this.
49:27
- The LORD will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus.
- The fire will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.
49:28
- This message concerns Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor.
- Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck them.
- The LORD speaks the following words.
- The LORD commands them to arise and go up against Kedar.
- The LORD commands them to destroy the people of the east.
49:29
- They will take their tents and their flocks.
- They will carry off for themselves their tent curtains, all their goods, and their camels.
- They will cry out to them, Terror on every side.
49:30
- The inhabitants of Hazor are commanded to flee.
- They are commanded to wander far away.
- They are commanded to dwell deep, in hiding.
- The LORD declares this.
- Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against them.
- He has devised a plan against them.
49:31
- The LORD commands them to arise and go up against a nation at ease.
- That nation dwells securely.
- The LORD declares this.
- That nation has neither gates nor bars.
- They dwell alone.
49:32
- Their camels will become plunder.
- The multitude of their livestock will become spoil.
- The LORD will scatter to every wind those who clip the hair at their temples.
- The LORD will bring their calamity from every side.
- The LORD declares this.
49:33
- Hazor will become a haunt of jackals.
- Hazor will be a desolation forever.
- No man will live there.
- No son of man will sojourn in it.
49:34
- The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam.
- This happened at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.
49:35
- The LORD of hosts speaks the following words.
- The LORD will break the bow of Elam.
- The bow is the chief part of their might.
49:36
- The LORD will bring the four winds upon Elam from the four quarters of heaven.
- The LORD will scatter Elam toward all those winds.
- There will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not come.
49:37
- The LORD will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies.
- The LORD will cause Elam to be dismayed before those who seek their life.
- The LORD will bring evil upon them, his fierce anger.
- The LORD declares this.
- The LORD will send the sword after them until he has consumed them.
49:38
- The LORD will set his throne in Elam.
- The LORD will destroy from there the king and the officials.
- The LORD declares this.
49:39
- In the latter days the LORD will restore the fortunes of Elam.
- The LORD declares this.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

49:1: The Ammonites lived east of the Jordan River, in what is now central Jordan; Israel had regarded them as long-standing rivals. Gad was the territory of one of Israel's tribes, on the same eastern side of the Jordan and next to Ammonite land; when Assyria deported the tribes east of the Jordan in the eighth century BC, Ammon moved in. "Their king" translates a Hebrew word (malkam) that can equally be read as Milcom, the name of Ammon's national god, the same consonants serve for both, and translators differ. LORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, which the Hebrew text writes but does not pronounce.
49:2: Rabbah was the Ammonite capital, on the site of modern Amman. In Hebrew idiom the "daughters" of a city are the smaller settlements dependent on it. The closing line is a deliberate reversal that is hard to carry over: literally, "Israel will take possession of those who took possession of him", the dispossessor becomes the dispossessed.
49:3: Heshbon was a town in the disputed border country between Moab and Ammon. This Ai is not the well-known town near Bethel in Israel; it is otherwise unrecorded and its location is unknown. Sackcloth was coarse goat-hair cloth worn next to the skin as a public sign of grief. "Their king" is again the ambiguous malkam: either the human ruler led away captive, or the image of the god Milcom carried off as plunder, which is why priests are mentioned alongside officials.
49:4: Speaking of a city or nation as a "daughter" is standard Hebrew personification, not a reference to any individual. The Hebrew word rendered "unfaithful" carries the sense of turning away or backsliding.
49:5: "The LORD of hosts" means the LORD commanding armies, usually understood as the heavenly armies, sometimes as Israel's fighting forces. The phrase is a title of overwhelming power, not a statement about any particular battle.
49:6: To be taken "captive" meant an army carried you off to live in its own country. Bringing people back from captivity meant letting them go home again.
49:7: Edom lay south of the Dead Sea, in the rocky highlands of southern Jordan. Its people were traced back to Esau, Jacob's twin brother, so Israel and Edom were spoken of as estranged brothers. Teman was a district or town of Edom with an old reputation for wise men and advisers, hence the taunt.
49:8: Dedan was a caravan oasis in northwest Arabia, on the trade route south of Edom; its merchants did business through Edomite territory. "Hide deep" means take refuge in the caves and rock crevices of the region.
49:9: Pickers working a vineyard by law and custom left behind whatever they missed on the first pass, for the poor to gather; even thieves stop when they have what they came for. The point of the comparison is that this stripping will leave nothing at all.
49:11: Orphans and widows had no male relative to hold property or press their case in court, and were the standard example of people with no protection. The line is bitter in context: it is addressed to men about to die, telling them what will be left of their households.
49:12: A cup that must be drunk is a stock image in the prophets for a share of punishment handed out and forced down. "Those who did not deserve to drink" points to Judah, already punished; the argument is that if they had to drink, Edom certainly will.
49:13: Bozrah was Edom's principal city, in the highlands south of the Dead Sea. "A name used in curses" means its fate would become the standard comparison in curse formulas, "may you end up like Bozrah."
49:14: The messenger is a herald carrying a summons to war between states; "the nations" translates the word the King James Version renders "the heathen," which simply means the non-Israelite peoples, with no comment on their beliefs.
49:16: Edom's towns were built on cliff ledges and in sandstone crevices in country so steep it was thought impossible to attack, the same region as the later rock city of Petra. "The terror you spread" renders a Hebrew word for the dread others felt at Edom, which is presented as the source of its own overconfidence.
49:17: Jeering here translates a word meaning to hiss or whistle, the noise a passer-by makes at a shocking sight, part disgust and part amazement.
49:18: Sodom and Gomorrah were the cities destroyed in Genesis 19; by Jeremiah's time they were the standard byword for total and permanent ruin, a place never rebuilt or resettled.
49:19: The Jordan's banks were dense scrub that flooded every spring, driving out the lions that lived there into the open grazing land, a familiar image of sudden, unstoppable attack. The attacker is unnamed in the Hebrew, which is why the rendering says "someone." "Shepherd" was ordinary Near Eastern language for a ruler; the last three questions are the challenge of an overlord who cannot be summoned to court or called to account by anyone.
49:20: The flock-and-pasture picture continues from verse 19: even the smallest and least valuable animals will be hauled off, meaning nothing is left behind.
49:21: "The Red Sea" translates a Hebrew name that here means the Gulf of Aqaba, the arm of water at Edom's southern edge, the sound carries the length of the country.
49:22: The bird named is a large raptor, eagle or griffon vulture; the Hebrew does not distinguish them. Comparing terrified soldiers to a woman in labor was a conventional way of describing helpless, gripping pain, not a comment on women.
49:23: Damascus was the chief city of Aram (Syria). Hamath and Arpad were major Syrian cities further north, on the road an invader from Mesopotamia would take first, bad news from them meant the danger was coming south.
49:25: The Hebrew of this verse is broken and much disputed. It can be read as a lament ("how the famous city is abandoned"), as a question, or as words spoken by the city's own people; the rendering keeps the puzzle rather than smoothing it out.
49:27: Ben-hadad was the name borne by several kings of Damascus, used here for the royal house in general. The "strong buildings" are the fortified palaces and towers inside the city wall.
49:28: Kedar was a confederation of Arab tribes who lived in tents and herded sheep and camels in the Syrian desert. This Hazor is not the famous Canaanite city in northern Israel but a name for desert settlements, unwalled encampments, east of Palestine. Nebuchadnezzar (the King James spells it Nebuchadrezzar, closer to the Babylonian form) ruled Babylon from 605 to 562 BC.
49:29: "Tent cloths" are the woven panels that make the tent itself; for nomads, the tents, herds and camels were the whole of their wealth. "Terror is all around" is a phrase Jeremiah uses repeatedly, both as a war cry and as a nickname for doom.
49:31: Gates and bars belong to a walled town. The point is that these people live in open camps with nothing to besiege and nothing to defend, normally a sign of safety in remote desert, here a sign of easy prey.
49:32: The Hebrew phrase means those who trim or shave the hair at their temples, a distinctive grooming custom of certain Arab tribes; Israelite law forbade it, and Jeremiah elsewhere uses the phrase as a shorthand for these desert peoples. "To every wind" means in all directions at once.
49:33: The animal is the jackal, a scavenger whose presence marked a site as abandoned; the King James "dragons" reflects an older guess at the word.
49:34: Elam lay far east of Babylon, in what is now southwestern Iran, with its capital at Susa. Zedekiah was installed as king of Judah by Babylon in 597 BC, so this dates the message to about that year, roughly a decade before Jerusalem fell.
49:35: Elamite archers were famous throughout the ancient Near East; breaking the bow means destroying the arm of the military the nation depended on.
49:36: The four winds blowing from the four corners of the sky is a standard picture of forces converging from every direction, here, scattering a population to every country there is.
49:37: "The sword" is a short way of saying war. It means enemy soldiers coming after them.
49:38: Setting up a throne in a conquered place was what a victorious king did: the seat is a judgment seat, planted in the defeated capital to pass sentence on its rulers.
49:39: "Days to come" translates a Hebrew phrase for an indefinite later time, the far end of the future, without a date attached.

Read Jeremiah 49