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49. Message About Ammon, Damascus

¹ Concerning the Ammonites:

This is what the LORD says:

   “Has Israel no sons?
   Has Israel no heir?
Why then has Molek Or their king; also in verse 3 taken possession of Gad?
   Why do his people live in its towns?
² But the days are coming,”
   declares the LORD,
“when I will sound the battle cry
   against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
it will become a mound of ruins,
   and its surrounding villages will be set on fire.
Then Israel will drive out
   those who drove her out,” says the LORD.
³ “Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is destroyed!
   Cry out, you inhabitants of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth and mourn;
   rush here and there inside the walls,
for Molek will go into exile,
   together with his priests and officials.
⁴ Why do you boast of your valleys,
   boast of your valleys so fruitful?
Unfaithful Daughter Ammon,
   you trust in your riches and say,
   ‘Who will attack me?’
⁵ I will bring terror on you
   from all those around you,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
“Every one of you will be driven away,
   and no one will gather the fugitives.

⁶ “Yet afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites,” declares the LORD.

A Message About Edom

⁷ Concerning Edom:

This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?
   Has counsel perished from the prudent?
   Has their wisdom decayed?
⁸ Turn and flee, hide in deep caves,
   you who live in Dedan,
for I will bring disaster on Esau
   at the time when I punish him.
⁹ If grape pickers came to you,
   would they not leave a few grapes?
If thieves came during the night,
   would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
¹⁰ But I will strip Esau bare;
   I will uncover his hiding places,
   so that he cannot conceal himself.
His armed men are destroyed,
   also his allies and neighbors,
   so there is no one to say,
¹¹ ‘Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive.
   Your widows too can depend on me.’”

¹² This is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it. ¹³ I swear by myself,” declares the LORD, “that Bozrah will become a ruin and a curse, That is, its name will be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, others will see that it is cursed. an object of horror and reproach; and all its towns will be in ruins forever.”

    ¹⁴ I have heard a message from the LORD;
   an envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Assemble yourselves to attack it!
   Rise up for battle!”

    ¹⁵ “Now I will make you small among the nations,
   despised by mankind.
¹⁶ The terror you inspire
   and the pride of your heart have deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks,
   who occupy the heights of the hill.
Though you build your nest as high as the eagle’s,
   from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
¹⁷ “Edom will become an object of horror;
   all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff
   because of all its wounds.
¹⁸ As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown,
   along with their neighboring towns,” says the LORD,
“so no one will live there;
   no people will dwell in it.

    ¹⁹ “Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets
   to a rich pastureland,
I will chase Edom from its land in an instant.
   Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?
Who is like me and who can challenge me?
   And what shepherd can stand against me?”

    ²⁰ Therefore, hear what the LORD has planned against Edom,
   what he has purposed against those who live in Teman:
The young of the flock will be dragged away;
   their pasture will be appalled at their fate.
²¹ At the sound of their fall the earth will tremble;
   their cry will resound to the Red Sea. Or the Sea of Reeds
²² Look! An eagle will soar and swoop down,
   spreading its wings over Bozrah.
In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors
   will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

A Message About Damascus

²³ Concerning Damascus:

   “Hamath and Arpad are dismayed,
   for they have heard bad news.
They are disheartened,
   troubled like Hebrew on or by the restless sea.
²⁴ Damascus has become feeble,
   she has turned to flee
   and panic has gripped her;
anguish and pain have seized her,
   pain like that of a woman in labor.
²⁵ Why has the city of renown not been abandoned,
   the town in which I delight?
²⁶ Surely, her young men will fall in the streets;
   all her soldiers will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD Almighty.
²⁷ “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;
   it will consume the fortresses of Ben-Hadad.”

A Message About Kedar and Hazor

²⁸ Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked:

This is what the LORD says:

   “Arise, and attack Kedar
   and destroy the people of the East.
²⁹ Their tents and their flocks will be taken;
   their shelters will be carried off
   with all their goods and camels.
People will shout to them,
   ‘Terror on every side!’

    ³⁰ “Flee quickly away!
   Stay in deep caves, you who live in Hazor,” declares the LORD.
“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has plotted against you;
   he has devised a plan against you.

    ³¹ “Arise and attack a nation at ease,
   which lives in confidence,” declares the LORD,
“a nation that has neither gates nor bars;
   its people live far from danger.
³² Their camels will become plunder,
   and their large herds will be spoils of war.
I will scatter to the winds those who are in distant places Or who clip the hair by their foreheads
   and will bring disaster on them from every side,” declares the LORD.
³³ “Hazor will become a haunt of jackals,
   a desolate place forever.
No one will live there;
   no people will dwell in it.”

A Message About Elam

³⁴ This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah:

³⁵ This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “See, I will break the bow of Elam,
   the mainstay of their might.
³⁶ I will bring against Elam the four winds
   from the four quarters of heaven;
I will scatter them to the four winds,
   and there will not be a nation
   where Elam’s exiles do not go.
³⁷ I will shatter Elam before their foes,
   before those who want to kill them;
I will bring disaster on them,
   even my fierce anger,” declares the LORD.
“I will pursue them with the sword
   until I have made an end of them.
³⁸ I will set my throne in Elam
   and destroy her king and officials,” declares the LORD.

³⁹ “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam
in days to come,” declares the LORD.

He expresses more at large what he had briefly included in one word: he had said, that Edom would become a waste; but he now shews what sort of waste it would be, even such as that of Sodom and Gomorrah, and other cities; for God, as it is well known, destroyed the five cities against which he fulminated.

And hence again we learn, that there was no hope left for the Idumeans; as though the Prophet had said, that their final overthrow was inevitable, because God would have them wholly destroyed, and their memory obliterated. It is yet probable that there were some remnant of the nation; but this was not inconsistent with this prophecy, because they who remained alive became so scattered, that they never formed one people, nor had any name. And though God might have chosen some from that nation, yet this favor remained hid, and, as it was unknown to men, it can hardly be taken to the account. However this may have been, we must bear in mind what I have before briefly referred to, — that the Idumeans were so accursed, that their calamity was much severer than that of other nations; and this they had deserved by their unnatural cruelty and many contumelies towards the miserable Israelites, their own relatives. This, then, was the reason why Jeremiah compared the land to, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities; no man shall dwell there, that is, the country shall be desolate.

And yet it appears, from history, that that country was afterwards inhabited, for even the Romans placed there a garrison. But the Prophet, as I have already said, meant that none of the Idumeans would survive to possess the land, so as to become a nation. Though, then, other inhabitants might have afterwards possessed the land, this was nothing to the Idumeans; for that people had perished, and from that time no restoration followed: this was sufficient as a fulfillment of this prophecy. Nay, it was a harder thing, that their land should receive aliens and strangers, than if it had been left desolate.

But we must also bear in mind the common mode of speaking adopted by the Prophets; for when they adduce Sodom and Gomorrah as examples, they speak hyperbolically; and there is no need here to accumulate passages to prove this; for they who are in any tolerable measure acquainted with Scripture, must know that whenever mention is made of Sodom and Gomorrah, all pardon and alleviation of punishment are excluded. Isaiah, extolling God’s mercy towards his chosen people, says,

“Had not God left us a very small seed, we must have been as Sodom and like to Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9)

And this mode of speaking, as I have said, often occurs in Scripture; yea, even our Prophet threatened the Israelites with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Jeremiah 23:14.) The words, no doubt, are used hyperbolically; for God had not fulminated against other lands or nations and sunk them in the deep, as he had done to Sodom and Gomorrah. But in comparisons all parts do not correspond.

Now, some one may ask, Why does God thus exceed due limits in speaking? To this I answer, that it is not done without just reason and necessity. We indeed see that men are indifferent to God’s judgments; for such is their sloth and insensibility, that they disregard as a light thing, or deem as nothing, what God threatens. As then men are so brutish, being unmoved by God’s threatenings, it is necessary that such indifference should be roused and awakened. He therefore sets Sodom and Gomorrah before their eyes; and as Jude also says, there an example of all the punishments which await the reprobate has been exhibited. (Jude 7.) God therefore designed to represent once for all, as in a mirror, how dreadful will be his vengeance on all the wicked. Since it is so, to the same end is this threatening, that God would destroy the Idumeans and all like them, as he did Sodom and Gomorrah, so that none would survive, though aliens might come and succeed the Idumeans and occupy their inheritance. I cannot now finish; we shall leave the other comparison.