Discovery BoxJeremiah 49:21-39
Context49:21 The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. 1
Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. 2
49:22 Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings,
a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah.
At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful
as a woman in labor.” 3
49:23 The Lord spoke 4 about Damascus. 5
“The people of Hamath and Arpad 6 will be dismayed
because they have heard bad news.
Their courage will melt away because of worry.
Their hearts will not be able to rest. 7
49:24 The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee.
Panic will grip them.
Pain and anguish will seize them
like a woman in labor.
49:25 How deserted will that once-famous city 8 be,
that city that was once filled with 9 joy! 10
49:26 For her young men will fall in her city squares.
All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”
says the Lord who rules over all. 11
49:27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
it will burn up the palaces of Ben Hadad.” 12
49:28 The Lord spoke about Kedar 13 and the kingdoms of Hazor 14 that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered.
“Army of Babylon, 15 go and attack Kedar.
Lay waste those who live in the eastern desert. 16
49:29 Their tents and their flocks will be taken away.
Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off.
People will shout 17 to them,
‘Terror is all around you!’” 18
49:30 The Lord says, 19 “Flee quickly, you who live in Hazor. 20
Take up refuge in remote places. 21
For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has laid out plans to attack you.
He has formed his strategy on how to defeat you.” 22
49:31 The Lord says, 23 “Army of Babylon, 24 go and attack
a nation that lives in peace and security.
They have no gates or walls to protect them. 25
They live all alone.
49:32 Their camels will be taken as plunder.
Their vast herds will be taken as spoil.
I will scatter to the four winds
those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples. 26
I will bring disaster against them
from every direction,” says the Lord. 27
49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,
a place where only jackals live. 28
No one will live there.
No human being will settle in it.” 29
49:34 Early in the reign 30 of King Zedekiah of Judah, the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam. 31
49:35 The Lord who rules over all said,
“I will kill all the archers of Elam,
who are the chief source of her military might. 32
49:36 I will cause enemies to blow through Elam from every direction
like the winds blowing in from the four quarters of heaven.
I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds.
There will not be any nation where the refugees of Elam will not go. 33
49:37 I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies,
who are seeking to kill them.
I will vent my fierce anger
and bring disaster upon them,” 34 says the Lord. 35
“I will send armies chasing after them 36
until I have completely destroyed them.
49:38 I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. 37
I will destroy their king and their leaders,” 38 says the Lord. 39
49:39 “Yet in days to come
I will reverse Elam’s ill fortune.” 40
says the Lord. 41
[49:21] 1 tn Heb “The earth will quake when at the sound of their downfall.” However, as in many other places “earth” stands here metonymically for the inhabitants or people of the earth (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 578-79, and compare usage in 2 Sam 15:23; Ps 66:4).
[49:21] 2 tn Heb “the Red Sea,” of which the Gulf of Aqaba formed the northeastern arm. The land of Edom once reached this far according to 1 Kgs 9:26.
[49:22] 3 sn Compare Jer 48:40-41 for a similar prophecy about Moab. The parallelism here suggests that Bozrah, like Teman in v. 20, is a poetic equivalent for Edom.
[49:23] 4 tn The words “The
[49:23] 5 sn Damascus is a city in Syria, located below the eastern slopes of the Anti-lebanon Mountains. It was the capital of the Aramean state that was in constant hostility with Israel from the time of David until its destruction by the Assyrians in 732
[49:23] 6 tn Heb “Hamath and Arpad.” There is no word for people in the text. The cities are being personified. However, since it is really the people who are involved and it is clearer for the modern reader, the present translation supplies the words “people of” both here and in v. 24. The verbs in vv. 23-25 are all to be interpreted as prophetic perfects, the tense of the Hebrew verb that views an action as though it were as good as done. The verbs are clearly future in vv. 26-27 which begin with a “therefore.”
[49:23] 7 tc The meaning of this verse is very uncertain. The Hebrew text apparently reads “Hamath and Arpad are dismayed. They melt away because they have heard bad news. Anxiety is in the sea; it [the sea] cannot be quiet.” Many commentaries and English versions redivide the verse and read “like the sea” for “in the sea” (כַּיָּם [kayyam] for בַּיָּם [bayyam]) and read the feminine singular noun דְּאָגָה (dÿ’agam) as though it were the third masculine plural verb דָּאֲגוּ (da’agu): “They are troubled like the sea.” The translation follows the emendation proposed in BHS and accepted by a number of commentaries (e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 333; J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 723, n. 1). That emendation involves reading נָמֹג לִבָּם מִדְּאָגָה (namog libbam middÿ’agah) instead of נָמֹגוּ בַּיָּם דְּאָגָה (namogu bayyam dÿ’agah). The translation also involves a double reading of “heart,” for the sake of English style, once in the sense of courage (BDB 525 s.v. לֵב 10) because that is the nuance that best fits “melts” in the English idiom and once in the more general sense of hearts as the seat of fear, anxiety, worry. The double translation is a concession to English style.
[49:25] 8 tn Heb “city of praise.”
[49:25] 9 tn Heb “city of joy.”
[49:25] 10 tc Or “Why has that famous city not been abandoned, that city I once took delight in?” The translation follows the majority of modern commentaries in understanding לֹא (lo’, “not”) before “abandoned” as a misunderstanding of the emphatic ל (lamed; so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 723, n. 3, and J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 333, n. c; see also IBHS 211-12 §11.2.10i and HALOT 485-86 s.v. II לְ for the phenomenon). The particle is missing from the Vulgate. The translation also follows the versions in omitting the suffix on the word “joy” that is found in the Hebrew text (see BHS note b for a listing of the versions). This gives a better connection with the preceding and the following verse than the alternate translation.
[49:26] 11 tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” For this title for God see the study note on 2:19.
[49:27] 12 sn Ben-Hadad was a common name borne by a number of the kings of Damascus, e.g., one during the time of Asa around 900
[49:28] 13 sn Kedar appears to refer to an Arabic tribe of nomads descended from Ishmael (Gen 25:13). They are associated here with the people who live in the eastern desert (Heb “the children of the east”; בְּנֵי־קֶדֶם, bÿne-qedem). In Isa 21:16 they are associated with the Temanites and the Dedanites, Arabic tribes in the north Arabian desert. They were sheep breeders (Isa 60:7) who lived in tents (Ps 120:5) and unwalled villages (Isa 42:11). According to Assyrian records they clashed with Assyria from the time of Shalmaneser in 850 until the time of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal in the late seventh century. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, Nebuchadnezzar defeated them in 599
[49:28] 14 sn Hazor. Nothing is know about this Hazor other than what is said here in vv. 28, 30, 33. They appear to also be nomadic tent dwellers who had a loose association with the Kedarites.
[49:28] 15 tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[49:28] 16 sn Heb “the children of the east.” Nothing much is known about them other than their association with the Midianites and Amalekites in their attack on Israel in the time of Gideon (Judg 6:3, 33) and the fact that God would let tribes from the eastern desert capture Moab and Ammon in the future (Ezek 25:4, 10). Midian and Amalek were consider to be located in the region in north Arabia east of Ezion Geber. That would put them in the same general locality as the region of Kedar. The parallelism here suggests that they are the same as the people of Kedar. The words here are apparently addressed to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.
[49:29] 17 tn Or “Let their tents…be taken….Let their tent…be carried…. Let people shout….”
[49:29] 18 sn This expression is a favorite theme in the book of Jeremiah. It describes the terrors of war awaiting the people of Judah and Jerusalem (6:25), the Egyptians at Carchemish (46:5), and here the Kedarites.
[49:30] 19 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[49:30] 20 map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.
[49:30] 21 tn Heb “Make deep to dwell.” See Jer 49:8 and the translator’s note there. The use of this same phrase here argues against the alternative there of going down from a height and going back home.
[49:30] 22 tn Heb “has counseled a counsel against you, has planned a plan against you.”
[49:31] 23 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[49:31] 24 tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[49:31] 25 tn Heb “no gates and no bar,” i.e., “that lives securely without gates or bars.” The phrase is used by the figure of species for genus (synecdoche) to refer to the fact that they have no defenses, i.e., no walls, gates, or bars on the gates. The figure has been interpreted in the translation for the benefit of the average reader.
[49:32] 26 tn See the translator’s note at Jer 9:26 and compare the usage in 9:26 and 25:23.
[49:32] 27 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[49:33] 28 sn Compare Jer 9:11.
[49:33] 29 sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.
[49:34] 30 tn Or “In the beginning of the reign.” For a discussion of the usage of the terms here see the translator’s note on 28:1. If this refers to the accession year the dating would be 598/97
[49:34] 31 tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the
[49:35] 32 tn Heb “I will break the bow of Elam, the chief source of their might.” The phrase does not mean that God will break literal bows or that he will destroy their weapons (synecdoche of species for genus) or their military power (so Hos 1:5). Because of the parallelism, the “bow” here stands for the archers who wield the bow, and were the strongest force (or chief contingent) in their military.
[49:36] 33 tn Or more simply, “I will bring enemies against Elam from every direction. / And I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds. // There won’t be any nation / where the refugees of Elam will not go.” Or more literally, “I will bring the four winds against Elam / from the four quarters of heaven. / I will scatter….” However, the winds are not to be understood literally here. God isn’t going to “blow the Elamites” out of Elam with natural forces. The winds must figuratively represent enemy forces that God will use to drive them out. Translating literally would be misleading at this point.
[49:37] 34 tn Heb “I will bring disaster upon them, even my fierce anger.”
[49:37] 35 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[49:37] 36 tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.”
[49:38] 37 tn Or “I will sit in judgment over Elam”; Heb “I will set up my throne in Elam.” Commentators are divided over whether this refers to a king sitting in judgment over his captured enemies or whether it refers to formally establishing his rule over the country. Those who argue for the former idea point to the supposed parallels in 1:15 (which the present translation understands not to refer to this but to setting up siege) and 43:8-13. The parallelism in the verse here, however, argues that it refers to the
[49:38] 38 tn Heb “I will destroy king and leaders from there.”
[49:38] 39 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[49:39] 40 tn See Jer 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.
