Day 234. Jeremiah 49

Chapter 49 contains a list of the nations that surrounded the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Sometimes they had allied themselves with these ancient states, more often they made war. Now they all face the might of the Babylonian war-machine.
The territory of the Ammonites, traditional enemies of Israel since the time of the Conquest, lay in Transjordan, north of Moab. The Ammonites were worshippers of the fierce god Milcom—sometimes called Molech--who demanded that infant children be sacrificed to propitiate his anger and procure his blessing. After the fall of the northern kingdom the Ammonites had absorbed the territory of the Israelite tribes Reuben and Gad. But the LORD, through the prophet, promises that "the time is surely coming . . . when Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him" (49:2). God the warrior will make war on the Ammonites and "Milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and his attendants" (49:3).
The land of Edom was south of Moab on the fringes of the great Arabian desert. According to Genesis (chapter 36) the Edomites were descendents of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (Israel). But in spite of their common ancestry, there was never much love lost between the two peoples. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C. the Edomites stood by and cheered. Now they too face the menace of Babylon.
"Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?" asks the LORD (49:7). The principle city of Edom, Temam, had had a reputation for wisdom and prudence—one of Job's "friends" was Eliphaz the Temanite (Job 2:11). "Get down low, inhabitants of Dedan," says the LORD—these were a people who lived on the borders of Edom, famous in the ancient world as caravan traders. God is about to bring calamity on the whole land of Edom and Dedan. Nothing will be left. "I have stripped Esau bare," says the LORD (49:10). The LORD offers his cup of wrath; if others have been forced to drink it, so also will Edom. The Babylonians will do actual slaughtering and pillaging, but it is the LORD who will "mount up and sweep down like an eagle and spread his wings against Bozrah"—a Edomite city southeast of the Dead Sea renowned for his fortifications—"and the heart of the warriors of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in labor" (49:22).
The "famous" city, "the joyful town" of Damascus, also will not escape. The capital of the powerful Aramean kingdom, which often allied itself with the northern kingdom of Israel against Judah, will not be spared the cup of wrath others have drunk. Damascus is doomed-- "anguish and fear have taken hold of her, as of a woman in labor" (49:24).
In fact, the whole earth is unhinged by fear of what is coming upon it. Even the nomadic peoples of Kedar and Hazor will not escape. These powerful Bedouin tribes, the people of the black tents, lived on the fringes of the Arabian desert south of Moab and Dedan. They believed themselves safe behind a wall of sand, but the LORD says—"King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you" (49:30). The king will make their camels his spoil and their herds his spoil, and their land shall be "an everlasting waste; no one shall live there" (49:33).
The country of Elam lay far to the east, beyond the Babylonian homeland in Mesopotamia, in what is today modern Iran. Elam's mounted archers, like those of nearby Parthia, were renowned throughout the ancient world for their deadly skill. But the inhabitants of Elam shall also be scattered to the winds like dust; "there shall be no nation in which the exiles from Elam shall not come" (49:36), writes the prophets. The LORD God will himself dispossess its "king and officials" of their power, and set his "throne in Elam" (49:38). But despite all this, "in the latter days" the far-off kingdom Elam will be re-established, and its fortunes, like the fortunes of Israel and Judah, will be restored and its widely dispersed people brought home (49:39). A human empire scattered them, but the LORD will gather them up.