Jeremiah 49

Thou Shalt Surely Drink of It

Five neighbors of Judah, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, the desert tribes, and Elam, are told that the cup of the Lord's wrath passes to them too, and that two of them will one day be brought back.

Only the last oracle is dated: Elam, “in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah” (597 B.C.). The others carry no date, though the word to Ammon “is believed” to have come after Jerusalem fell. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 49 belongs to the book's block of prophecies against foreign nations (chapters 46–51 in the Bible Dictionary's outline).

Chapter 49 belongs to the book's block of prophecies against foreign nations (chapters 46–51 in the Bible Dictionary's outline). The chapter heading sums it up: “Judgment and destruction will come upon the people of Ammon, Edom, Kedar, Hazor, and Elam.” Jeremiah was told at his call that he was appointed over “nations” (Jer. 1:10), and the nations here are the ones who share Judah's world: Ammon and Edom, its eastern and southern neighbors; Damascus to the north; the desert tribes of Kedar and Hazor; and Elam, a mountain country east of Babylonia.

Ammon, Edom, and Elam also appear in the list of those who must drink “the wine cup of this fury” in Jer. 25:15–26, and verse 12 takes up that cup. Only the last oracle, to Elam, carries a date. The word to Ammon “is believed” to have come after Jerusalem was captured, when Ammon had moved into Israelite land.

The thread through the chapter

Most of the oracles in chapter 49 name what a nation trusted in, and then take it away.

Most of the oracles in chapter 49 name what a nation trusted in, and then take it away. Ammon trusted in “her treasures” and asked, “Who shall come unto me?” (verse 4). Edom trusted in the rock and the height: “though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down” (verse 16). The nation in verse 31 is “the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care.” Elam's strength was its bow (verse 35). The wisdom of Teman (verse 7) and the warriors of Damascus (verse 26) fare no better.

Under that runs a second question: who is exempt? Verse 12 gives the answer in a line: the cup goes to those who did not expect to drink it, and “art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished.” Nobody is beneath the Lord's notice because they are not Israel, and Israel is not exempt because it is Israel (Jer. 25:18).

The chapter ends on a note that is easy to miss. Of the five oracles, Ammon's and Elam's close with “I will bring again the captivity” (verses 6, 39). Edom's, Damascus's and Kedar's do not.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–6

Ammon

In plain words

About the Ammonites. “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has their king taken over Gad, and his people settled in its cities? So the days are coming when I will sound a battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will be a ruined mound, its daughter towns burned, and Israel will take back the land of those who took his. Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste. Cry out, daughters of Rabbah, put on sackcloth, lament and rush about among the walls, for Milcom will go into exile with his priests and princes. Why do you boast of your valleys, your overflowing valley, faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures and said, ‘Who will come against me?’ I will bring terror on you from all around, and you will be driven out, each straight ahead, with no one to gather the wanderers. But afterward I will bring back the captives of Ammon.”

1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

Context #

Ammon in Gad's land

The charge against Ammon is that it moved into land that belonged to Israel's tribe of Gad.

The charge against Ammon is that it moved into land that belonged to Israel's tribe of Gad. Tiglath-pileser of Assyria carried Gilead's people off (2 Kgs. 15:29), and the Reubenites and Gadites with them (1 Chr. 5:26), and the land was left open. The Ammonites “had taken advantage of the depressed condition of Israel and invaded their territories, hoping to make them their own.” The two questions in the verse are a rebuke: Israel still has sons and an heir, even if they are in exile, so the land is not Ammon's to take.

Ammon was a people descended from Lot, settled east of the Jordan, and “bitter enemies of Israel” for much of its history. Verse 2 turns the claim around: “then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs.” It is a promise that “God would preserve the descendants of Israel and bring them home again one day to their inheritances.”

Sources: Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). “Ammon, Ammonites”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.

Context #

Rabbah, Ammon's capital

Rabbah was Ammon's chief city, in the valley of the upper Jabbok, and “there are still extensive ruins at the modern Amman.”

Rabbah was Ammon's chief city, in the valley of the upper Jabbok, and “there are still extensive ruins at the modern Amman.” The Lord had said much the same through an earlier prophet: “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof… And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together” (Amos 1:14–15). The words about the king's captivity are close to Jeremiah's in verse 3.

Sources: “Rabbah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

Language #

Which Ai?

This Ai is probably not the city Joshua took, and where it lay is unknown.

This Ai is probably not the city Joshua took, and where it lay is unknown. The Hebrew is a place name, Ai (ʿay), but no city of that name is known in Ammon or east of the Jordan, and the Ai of Joshua 7 lay west of the river. Heshbon, named in the same line, lay on the border of Reuben and Gad. One reading takes the word as “the name of an important Ammonite city” otherwise unknown; the verse's sense does not depend on it, since the line only says that Ammon's cities are to mourn.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.

Language #

The king who is a god

“Their king” is the Hebrew malkam, and in verse 3 it names Ammon's god Milcom, who goes into exile with his priests and princes.

“Their king” is the Hebrew malkam, and in verse 3 it names Ammon's god Milcom, who goes into exile with his priests and princes. Translations that print it as a name read “Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials,” and some read verse 1 the same way: “Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad?” The Bible Dictionary describes him as “the abomination of the children of Ammon, a fire god,” and Solomon himself “went after… Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites” (1 Kgs. 11:5).

The judgment falls on the nation's god as well as its people: Milcom goes into captivity with the priests who served him.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. “Molech, or Milcom”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come unto me?

5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.

6 And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the LORD.

Related Scriptures #

Judgment, then return

The Lord ends the judgment on Ammon with a promise to bring its people back.

The Lord ends the judgment on Ammon with a promise to bring its people back. The same promise closes the word to Moab, “in the latter days” (Jer. 48:47), and the word to Elam (verse 39). The promise to Ammon “was fulfilled when they returned with the Moabites and Israelites with permission given the edict of Cyrus.” The verse itself says only “afterward,” and puts no date on it.

Sources: Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 7–22

Edom

In plain words

About Edom. “Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from those who understand? Flee, turn back, hide deep, you people of Dedan, for I will bring Esau's ruin on him at the time I punish him. Grape-gatherers would leave some gleanings; thieves in the night would destroy only until they had enough. But I have stripped Esau bare and uncovered his hiding places; he cannot hide, and his children, brothers and neighbors are destroyed, and he is no more. Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive. Let your widows trust in me. Those who did not deserve the cup have drunk it; will you go unpunished? You will drink it. I have sworn by myself that Bozrah will become a horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse, and all its cities everlasting ruins.” A messenger is sent among the nations: gather against her. “I will make you small among the nations. Your terror and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock; though you build your nest as high as the eagle's, I will bring you down.” Edom will be a horror, like Sodom and Gomorrah; no one will live there. Like a lion from the Jordan's thickets the enemy will come against a strong pasture, and the Lord will drive Edom out at once. Who is like Him? What shepherd can stand before Him? The least of the flock will drag them off. The earth shakes at the noise of their fall, and the cry is heard at the Red Sea. The enemy will fly like an eagle over Bozrah, and Edom's warriors will be like a woman in labor.

7 Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

Context #

Edom, Judah's relative

Edom was the land of Esau's descendants, south of the Dead Sea, and the people were Judah's kin: “Edom” (“red”) was Esau's own name.

Edom was the land of Esau's descendants, south of the Dead Sea, and the people were Judah's kin: “Edom” (“red”) was Esau's own name. “In spite of the kinship there seems to have been great mutual hatred” between Israel and Edom, “and wars were of constant occurrence.” Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob and settled in Mount Seir.

Jeremiah's oracle names Edom's pride (verse 16). Obadiah, whose oracle against Edom runs closely parallel, adds “thy violence against thy brother Jacob” and gloating: “neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction” (Obad. 1:10, 12). And the book of Lamentations tells Edom, “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom… the cup also shall pass through unto thee” (Lam. 4:21), a line this chapter's verse 12 echoes.

Sources: “Edom”, Bible Dictionary. “Esau”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

8 Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

9 If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.

Related Scriptures #

Jeremiah and Obadiah

Verses 9–10 closely parallel Obadiah's oracle against Edom. Obadiah has “If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night… would they not have stolen till they had enough?

Verses 9–10 closely parallel Obadiah's oracle against Edom. Obadiah has “If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night… would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?” and then “How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!” (Obad. 1:5–6). Jeremiah has the thieves and grape gatherers too, and the same line about Esau's hidden places: “I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself” (verse 10).

In verse 10 the Lord “had uncovered all her hiding places and made them known to her enemies.” In verse 9 even thieves and grape gatherers stop when they have enough; verse 10 says Edom's hidden places will be opened, which seems to mean that Edom's loss will be worse than theirs.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is spoiled, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he is not.

11 Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.

Related Scriptures #

The Lord and the orphans

In the middle of the sentence on Edom, the Lord says He will look after the fatherless and widows left behind.

In the middle of the sentence on Edom, the Lord says He will look after the fatherless and widows left behind. “The widows and orphans of Esau would be cared for by the Lord, who is the best of husbands to the one and the most loving father to the other.” The Psalms say the same of Him: “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation” (Ps. 68:5). The judgment falls on Edom's pride, and the people who suffer for it are not forgotten.

12 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

Related Scriptures #

The cup that goes to every nation

The cup is the one the Lord handed Jeremiah to give to all nations. “Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it,” he…

The cup is the one the Lord handed Jeremiah to give to all nations. “Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it,” he was told (Jer. 25:15), and the first to drink were “Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah” (Jer. 25:18). Edom, Moab, Ammon, Dedan, Tema, and Elam follow in the list (Jer. 25:21–25).

The verse does not name “they whose judgment was not to drink.” One reading takes them as the Israelites, who “as the people of God, ought to have been free from the penal judgment with which the Lord visits the nations”: if they have drunk it, Edom has no reason to think it will pass. Lamentations says the same to Edom: “the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken” (Lam. 4:21). On that reading the argument has two steps: if the people of the covenant were not spared, “still less can Edom, as a heathen nation, lay claim to exemption.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.

Witness of Christ #

Bozrah and the coming of the Lord

Bozrah was a city of Edom, and Edom's name came to stand for the world.

Bozrah was a city of Edom, and Edom's name came to stand for the world. Isaiah asks, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?” and the answer is “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save” (Isa. 63:1). The Lord's revelation in D&C 133:46–48 asks the same question about His coming without naming Edom: “Who is this that cometh down from God in heaven with dyed garments?” He answers, “I am he who spake in righteousness, mighty to save,” and He will be “red in his apparel.” The Isaiah chapter on this site gives the fuller reading (Isa. 63:1–6).

“In D&C 1:36 Idumea is used to represent the world”: the Lord “shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world.” Edom, “like Babylon, became a symbol of the world.” Jeremiah does not make that move in this chapter; the connection to the Lord's coming is made by Isaiah 63 and the revelations that take up its question.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Idumea”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

14 I have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

15 For, lo, I will make thee small among the heathen, and despised among men.

16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

Context #

A nest in the rock

Edom's confidence was its mountain stronghold. Obadiah has almost the same words: “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high… Though thou exalt…

Edom's confidence was its mountain stronghold. Obadiah has almost the same words: “thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high… Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down” (Obad. 1:3–4). At Petra “a whole city was carved out of rock cliffs,” which “could be entered only through a narrow gorge,” and “many scholars think” it was the capital of Idumea, though “many of the ruins now visible at Petra date from a later period.”

The verse after next compares the fall to Sodom and Gomorrah: “no man shall abide there” (verse 18). A place that felt unreachable becomes one where no one lives.

17 Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.

18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.

19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation 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? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

Language #

The lion and the shepherd

The lion is the one sent to carry out the judgment, and the text does not say who he is.

The lion is the one sent to carry out the judgment, and the text does not say who he is. One reading notes that the executor is “merely set forth as a lion,” and in verse 22 as an eagle darting on its prey. Verses 19–21 are one of the book's repeated passages: the same lion, chosen man, shepherd and least of the flock appear almost word for word against Babylon (Jer. 50:44–45). In both places the closing questions, “who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?”, say that no one can call the Lord to account or stand against Him.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.

21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red sea.

22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Verses 23–27

Damascus

In plain words

About Damascus. Hamath and Arpad are shamed, for they have heard bad news; there is anxiety like a restless sea. Damascus is weak and turns to flee; panic has seized her, with anguish like a woman in labor. How is the city of praise not forsaken, the town of my joy? Her young men will fall in her streets, and all her warriors will die that day. “I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it will burn the palaces of Ben-hadad.”

23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

Language #

A hard line about Damascus

The sentence is obscure, and commentators explain it differently. In the KJV it asks “how is the city of praise not left,” as if wondering why Damascus has not been abandoned.

The sentence is obscure, and commentators explain it differently. In the KJV it asks “how is the city of praise not left,” as if wondering why Damascus has not been abandoned. One reading takes it as sorrow that its people did not flee and save their lives: verse 24 says they tried to flee and panic seized them, and verse 26 says her young men will fall in the streets. On that reading “my joy” expresses the prophet's own sympathy for the fall of a glorious city. The sense in the context is not in doubt: the city is doomed.

26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

Context #

Damascus and Ben-hadad's house

Damascus was the capital of the Syrian kingdom, and it had already suffered a great blow: it was “conquered by Tiglath-pileser and its inhabitants carried captive about 733 B.C.”

Damascus was the capital of the Syrian kingdom, and it had already suffered a great blow: it was “conquered by Tiglath-pileser and its inhabitants carried captive about 733 B.C.” Hamath, named in verse 23, was “an important city of Syria, in the valley of the Orontes,” taken by the Assyrians.

One reading takes Ben-hadad as a royal name rather than one king: “three kings of Damascus bore this name,” so “the palaces of Benhadad” are the Syrian kings' palaces in general. How and when this oracle was fulfilled is uncertain. The same reading holds that the prophecy is “so general in its statement” that it need not be tied only to Nebuchadnezzar's conquest, and that its fulfilment “cannot be proved historically, from want of information.”

Sources: “Damascus”, Bible Dictionary. “Hamath”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

Verses 28–33

Kedar and Hazor

In plain words

About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck. “Arise, go up against Kedar and plunder the people of the east. They will take their tents and flocks, their curtains and goods and camels, and men will shout, ‘Terror on every side!’ Flee, go far away, hide deep, people of Hazor, for Nebuchadrezzar has planned and plotted against you. Go up against a nation at ease, living without care, with no gates or bars, living alone. Their camels will be plunder and their herds spoil. I will scatter to every wind those at the farthest edges, and bring disaster on them from every side. Hazor will be a jackals' den, a desolation forever, and no one will live there.”

28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil the men of the east.

Context #

Kedar and Hazor

Kedar was a desert people, descended from Ishmael's son of that name (Gen. 25:13), and Isaiah says of it that “all the glory of Kedar shall fail” (Isa. 21:16–17).

Kedar was a desert people, descended from Ishmael's son of that name (Gen. 25:13), and Isaiah says of it that “all the glory of Kedar shall fail” (Isa. 21:16–17). The verse says Nebuchadrezzar (the same king as Nebuchadnezzar) is the one who will strike them.

Hazor here is not the city in Galilee that the Assyrians took (2 Kgs. 15:29). One reading takes “the kingdoms of Hazor” as the Arabs who lived in settled villages as opposed to the tent-dwelling Bedouin, since no Arabian place of that name is known. That is why verse 31 speaks of a nation “that dwelleth without care… which have neither gates nor bars”: they had no walls to hold an attacker.

29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.

30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.

31 Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the LORD.

33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

Verses 34–39

Elam

In plain words

The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. “I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their strength. I will bring the four winds on Elam from the four corners of heaven and scatter them to every wind, so that no nation will be without Elamite exiles. I will terrify Elam before their enemies, and send the sword after them till I have finished them. I will set my throne in Elam and destroy its king and officials from there. But in the latter days I will bring back the captives of Elam.”

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,

Context #

Elam, far to the east

Elam is the only nation in this chapter whose oracle is dated: the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, which began in 597 B.C.

Elam is the only nation in this chapter whose oracle is dated: the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, which began in 597 B.C. It was “a mountainous country to the east of Babylonia,” with Shushan as its chief town. It also appears in the list of nations that drink the cup (Jer. 25:25).

The oracle gives no reason for the judgment; it says only that the Lord will break “the bow of Elam, the chief of their might” (verse 35) and scatter them to “the four winds.”

Sources: “Elam”, Bible Dictionary. “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:

38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.

39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

Related Scriptures #

Elam in the latter days

The chapter closes with a promise that Elam will be brought back “in the latter days.”

The chapter closes with a promise that Elam will be brought back “in the latter days.” The verse “speaks of the Lord's bringing again the captivity of Elam in the latter days,” and “it is supposed that this passage means their conversion, as with the Moabites.” The Moabite promise is Jer. 48:47. Isaiah also names Elam among the places from which the Lord will recover the remnant of His people a second time (Isa. 11:11).

That reading is offered as a supposition, and the verse does not say how Elam is brought back. What it does say is that the end of the oracle is not destruction.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 49

The chapter shows the Lord of all nations. The one who judges Edom is the one who preserves its orphans and invites its widows to trust in Him (Jer. 49:11), who promises return to Ammon and Elam as well as to Israel (verses 6, 39), and who says of Himself, “who is like me?” (verse 19). Isaiah's Bozrah is the place from which a figure in red says He is “mighty to save” (Isa. 63:1), and the revelations given through Joseph Smith speak of the Lord who will “come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world” and who “shall be red in his apparel” (D&C 1:36; D&C 133:46–48).

Worth exploring next

The cup of the Lord's fury and the nations that drink it is in Jer. 25:15–29, and the other oracles against the nations are Jer. 46, Jer. 47, Jer. 48, Jer. 50, and Jer. 51. Edom's fall is also told in Obadiah, which Jeremiah 49:9–10 closely parallels; the Church's student manual treats Jeremiah 46–51 and Obadiah in one chapter. For the Lord who comes from Bozrah and the world as Idumea, read Isa. 63:1–6, D&C 1:36, and D&C 133:46–51.

Sources & further reading

Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Ammon, Ammonites”, Bible Dictionary.
“Rabbah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Molech, or Milcom”, Bible Dictionary.
“Edom”, Bible Dictionary.
“Esau”, Bible Dictionary.
“Idumea”, Bible Dictionary.
“Damascus”, Bible Dictionary.
“Hamath”, Bible Dictionary.
“Elam”, Bible Dictionary.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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