Jeremiah against the nations;- The eastern lands

Jeremiah and Ezekiel are the prophets of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. To balance out their prophesies of judgement, both prophets have a collection of compensating prophesies against the enemies of Israel, with promises of hope for the future. Jeremiah ch49 covers a variety of peoples on the eastern side of Israel and Judah who exploited the weakness of those kingdoms.

The Ammonites, vv1-6
The Ammonites were based east of Gilead, on the eastern side of the Jordan. After the fall of Jerusalem, they began pushing their influence across to the west bank. When Ishmael killed the Babylonian governor, Gedaliah, he was acting as an Ammonite agent.(ch40 v14). In the time of Nehemiah, Tobiah the Ammonite had allies among the nobility of Jerusalem and a large guest chamber in the temple (Nehemiah ch13 vv4-5).

In this chapter, the Lord is complaining that Milcom, god of the Ammonites, has moved into the cities of Gilead and replaced the tribe of Dan. “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir?” This appears to relate to the Assyrian era. Gilead was taken into exile along with Galilee in 2 Kings ch15 v29. Therefore the towns of the Ammonites, like Rabbah, Heshbon and Aii, will themselves be made desolate. Milcom and his priests will go into exile in their turn. Yet v6 has the compensating promise, available to some of the hostile peoples, that “afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites”. And indeed the Ammonites had recovered by Jeremiah’s time.

Edom, vv7-22.
Edom was made subject to David, but regained independence later. They became fundamental enemies of the Jews after the fall of Jerusalem. Their behaviour then is fully described by Obadiah, and in Ezekiel ch35. “You said; these two nations and these two countries [Israel and Judah] will be mine, and we will take possession of them” (Ezekiel ch35 v10). In the maps at the back of Bibles, it is normally possible to see the difference between the shape of ancient Edom and the northern expansion of the Roman province of Idumaea. That’s how far they got, and it is the reason why Malachi ch1 v2 says “I have loved Jacob but I have hated Esau”. The Idumaeans were forcibly converted to Judaism under the Hasmonean kings of Judah, but they achieved a “reverse take-over” by producing the Herodian family.

In vv7-11, we are told that wisdom has vanished from Edom. They have been stripped like a vineyard beset by thieves. Except that thieves would take only the grapes they were consuming. Whereas the Lord has uncovered their hiding-places and will strip them bare.

Vv12-13 return to the image of “drinking the cup of wrath”, which Jeremiah threatened in ch25 against all the nations who would be victims of Babylon.

Vv13-16 The Lord has sent a messenger around the nations to gather them to battle against Edom. He will bring them down from the “eagle’s nest” of their high mountains.

Vv17-22 The Lord will overthrow Edom as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. He will come up against them as a lion comes up against a sheepfold. “I will appoint over her whomever I choose.” He will drag them all away, and the earth will tremble at the sound of Edom’s fall. The heart of her warriors will be like the heart of a woman in the middle of childbirth.

Damascus, vv23-27
Syria was in perennial warfare with the two kingdoms. It was the Syrians who killed Ahab (1 Kings ch22). Amos threatens judgement against them; “I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad” (Amos ch1 v4). In Isaiah’s time, Syria and the kingdom of Israel (“Damascus and Ephraim”) combined to attack Jerusalem (Isaiah ch6). One of Isaiah’s prophecies against the pair of them can be found in ch17 vvv1-3; “The fortress will disappear from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus”. This warning was fulfilled when Ahaz called in the Assyrians. Tiglath-pileser marched up against Damascus, taking the people in captivity to Kir, a destruction which was pretty final at the time (2 Kings ch16 v9). The previous chapter of 2 Kings describes how the same king began to demolish the kingdom of Israel, and the next chapter shows how Shalmaneser finished the job.

V23 begins by saying that Hamath and Arpad are “confounded”. Here is another reference to the Assyrian campaigns of Isaiah’s time. When the Rabshakeh was speaking to the leaders of Jerusalem, he asked them “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad?” The point of the question was that he had taken those two cities into captivity, which should be a warning to Jerusalem. The message for us is that this chapter’s prophecy comes from the Assyrian period, when Damascus, Hamath and Arpad were all in trouble. V27 is a slightly modified version of the previously quoted Amos ch1 v4.,

Kedar and Hazor, vv28-33.
Both coming under attack from Nebuchadnezzar. Kedar (vv28-29) was a tribe of the Syrian desert. “Black like the tents of Kedar” (Song of Solomon ch1 v5). They are to be nicknamed “Terror on every side”, which was evidently a catchphrase of the time (Jeremiah has used it before). As far as I can tell from the other examples, the label is about being victims of terror, not about causing it. Hazor (vv30-33) must be a similar tribe, rather than the town mentioned in Joshua (which was taken into captivity by the Assyrians, 2 Kings ch15 v29). Jeremiah’s Hazor is a people who keep cattle and camels and have no gates or bars. Incidentally, they are the kind of people who “cut the corners of their hair”, a practice banned to the Israelites (Leviticus ch19 v27). The purpose of the ban will have been to keep Israel distinct. To the Babylonian empire and other settled peoples, both sets of tribes are bandits.

Elam, vv34-39
Elam was a comparatively barbarian people on the eastward side of Mesopotamia. Looking at the map, it is not immediately obvious why Judah should have any grievance against them. But this prophecy is dated to the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. So my best guess is that there was an Elamite contingent in the great army which Nebuchadnezzar brought up to Jerusalem against his predecessor Jehoiakim, and they may have been particularly brutal. Jeremiah may also be remembering that Chedorlaomer king of Elam was the tyrant who led the great raid of Genesis ch14, when Abraham had to rescue Lot (father of the Ammonites and Moabites who were so ungrateful later).

“I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven” (v36). This concept of the four destructive winds (from all four directions) is the source of the image in Revelation ch7 v1, when the four angels are holding back the same winds in order to give the earth a period of peace. So “the four winds” is another way of describing the destructive force of the four horsemen.

Yet Elam too is given a promise that her fortunes will be restored.