{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JER","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jeremiah","commonName":"Jeremiah","introduction":"JEREMIAH, son of Hilkiah, one of the ordinary priests, dwelling in Anathoth of Benjamin (Jer 1:1), not the Hilkiah the high priest who discovered the book of the law (Kg2 22:8); had he been the same, the designation would have been \"the priest\", or \"the high priest\". Besides, his residence at Anathoth shows that he belonged to the line of Abiathar, who was deposed from the high priesthood by Solomon (Kg1 2:26-35), after which the office remained in Zadok's line. Mention occurs of Jeremiah in Ch2 35:25; Ch2 36:12, Ch2 36:21. In 629 B.C. the thirteenth year of King Josiah, while still very young (Jer 1:5), he received his prophetical call in Anathoth (Jer 1:2); and along with Hilkiah the high priest, the prophetess Huldah, and the prophet Zephaniah, he helped forward Josiah's reformation of religion (2Ki. 23:1-25). Among the first charges to him was one that he should go and proclaim God's message in Jerusalem (Jer 2:2). He also took an official tour to announce to the cities of Judah the contents of the book of the law, found in the temple (Jer 11:6) five years after his call to prophesy. On his return to Anathoth, his countrymen, offended at his reproofs, conspired against his life. To escape their persecutions (Jer 11:21), as well as those of his own family (Jer 12:6), he left Anathoth and resided at Jerusalem. During the eighteen years of his ministry in Josiah's reign he was unmolested; also during the three months of Jehoahaz or Shallum's reign (Jer 22:10-12). On Jehoiakim's accession it became evident that Josiah's reformation effected nothing more than a forcible repression of idolatry and the establishment of the worship of God outwardly. The priests, prophets, and people then brought Jeremiah before the authorities, urging that he should be put to death for his denunciations of evil against the city (Jer 26:8-11). The princes, however, especially Ahikam, interposed in his behalf (Jer 26:16, Jer 26:24), but he was put under restraint, or at least deemed it prudent not to appear in public. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim (606 B.C.), he was commanded to write the predictions given orally through him, and to read them to the people. Being \"shut up\", he could not himself go into the house of the Lord (Jer 36:5); he therefore deputed Baruch, his amanuensis, to read them in public on the fast day. The princes thereupon advised Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves from the king's displeasure. Meanwhile they read the roll to the king, who was so enraged that he cut it with a knife and threw it into the fire; at the same time giving orders for the apprehension of the prophet and Baruch. They escaped Jehoiakim's violence, which had already killed the prophet Urijah (Jer 26:20-23). Baruch rewrote the words, with additional prophecies, on another roll (Jer 36:27-32). In the three months' reign of Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, he prophesied the carrying away of the king and the queen mother (Jer 13:18; Jer 22:24-30; compare Kg2 24:12). In this reign he was imprisoned for a short time by Pashur (Jer. 20:1-18), the chief governor of the Lord's house; but at Zedekiah's accession he was free (Jer 37:4), for the king sent to him to \"inquire of the Lord\" when Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem (Jer 21:1-3, &c.; Jer 37:3). The Chaldeans drew off on hearing of the approach of Pharaoh's army (Jer 37:5); but Jeremiah warned the king that the Egyptians would forsake him, and the Chaldeans return and burn up the city (Jer 37:7-8). The princes, irritated at this, made the departure of Jeremiah from the city during the respite a pretext for imprisoning him, on the allegation of his deserting to the Chaldeans (Jer 38:1-5). He would have been left to perish in the dungeon of Malchiah, but for the intercession of Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian (Jer 38:6-13). Zedekiah, though he consulted Jeremiah in secret yet was induced by his princes to leave Jeremiah in prison (Jer 38:14-28) until Jerusalem was taken. Nebuchadnezzar directed his captain, Nebuzar-adan, to give him his freedom, so that he might either go to Babylon or stay with the remnant of his people as he chose. As a true patriot, notwithstanding the forty and a half years during which his country had repaid his services with neglect and persecution, he stayed with Gedaliah, the ruler appointed by Nebuchadnezzar over Judea (Jer 40:6). After the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, Johanan, the recognized ruler of the people, in fear of the Chaldeans avenging the murder of Gedaliah, fled with the people to Egypt, and forced Jeremiah and Baruch to accompany him, in spite of the prophet's warning that the people should perish if they went to Egypt, but be preserved by remaining in their land (Jer. 41:1-43:13). At Tahpanhes, a boundary city on the Tanitic or Pelustan branch of the Nile, he prophesied the overthrow of Egypt (Jer 43:8-13). Tradition says he died in Egypt. According to the PSEUDO-EPIPHANIUS, he was stoned at TaphnÃ&brvbr or Tahpanhes. The Jews so venerated him that they believed he would rise from the dead and be the forerunner of Messiah (Mat 16:14).\n\nHAVERNICK observes that the combination of features in Jeremiah's character proves his divine mission; mild, timid, and susceptible of melancholy, yet intrepid in the discharge of his prophetic functions, not sparing the prince any more than the meanest of his subjects--the Spirit of prophecy controlling his natural temper and qualifying him for his hazardous undertaking, without doing violence to his individuality. Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Daniel, and Ezekiel were his contemporaries. The last forms a good contrast to Jeremiah, the Spirit in his case acting on a temperament as strongly marked by firmness as Jeremiah's was by shrinking and delicate sensitiveness. Ezekiel views the nation's sins as opposed to righteousness--Jeremiah, as productive of misery; the former takes the objective, the latter the subjective, view of the evils of the times. Jeremiah's style corresponds to his character: he is peculiarly marked by pathos, and sympathy with the wretched; his Lamentations illustrate this; the whole series of elegies has but one object--to express sorrow for his fallen country; yet the lights and images in which he presents this are so many, that the reader, so far from feeling it monotonous, is charmed with the variety of the plaintive strains throughout. The language is marked by AramÃ&brvbrisms, which probably was the ground of JEROME'S charge that the style is \"rustic\". LOWTH denies the charge and considers him in portions not inferior to Isaiah. His heaping of phrase on phrase, the repetition of stereotyped forms--and these often three times--are due to his affected feelings and to his desire to intensify the expression of them; he is at times more concise, energetic, and sublime, especially against foreign nations, and in the rhythmical parts.\n\nThe principle of the arrangement of his prophecies is hard to ascertain. The order of kings was--Josiah (under whom he prophesied eighteen years), Jehoahaz (three months), Jehoiakim (eleven years), Jeconiah (three months), Zedekiah (eleven years). But his prophecies under Josiah (the first through twentieth chapters) are immediately followed by a portion under Zedekiah (the twenty-first chapter). Again, Jer 24:8-10, as to Zedekiah, comes in the midst of the section as to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fifth chapters, &c.) So the thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth chapters as to Jehoiakim, follow the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirty-third, thirty-fourth chapters, as to Zedekiah; and the forty-fifth chapter, dated the fourth year of Jehoiakim, comes after predictions as to the Jews who fled to Egypt after the overthrow of Jerusalem. EWALD thinks the present arrangement substantially Jeremiah's own; the various portions are prefaced by the same formula, \"The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord\" (Jer 7:1; Jer 11:1; Jer 18:1; Jer 21:1; Jer 25:1; Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:1, Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1; Jer 44:1; compare Jer 14:1; Jer 46:1; Jer 47:1; Jer 49:34). Notes of time mark other divisions more or less historical (Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 36:1; Jer 37:1). Two other portions are distinct of themselves (Jer 29:1; Jer 45:1). The second chapter has the shorter introduction which marks the beginning of a strophe; the third chapter seems imperfect, having as the introduction merely \"saying\" (Jer 3:1, Hebrew). Thus in the poetical parts, there are twenty-three sections divided into strophes of from seven to nine verses, marked some way thus, \"The Lord said also unto me\". They form five books: I. The Introduction, first chapter II. Reproofs of the Jews, the second through twenty-fourth chapters, made up of seven sections: (1) the second chapter (2) the third through sixth chapters; (3) the seventh through tenth chapters; (4) the eleventh through thirteenth chapters; (5) the fourteenth through seventeenth chapters; (6) the seventeenth through nineteenth and twentieth chapters; (7) the twenty-first through twenty-fourth chapters. III. Review of all nations in two sections: the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth through forty-ninth chapters, with a historical appendix of three sections, (1) the twenty-sixth chapter; (2) the twenty-seventh chapter; (3) the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters. IV. Two sections picturing the hopes of brighter times, (1) the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; (2) the thirty-second and thirty-third chapters; and an historical appendix in three sections: (1) Jer 34:1-7; (2) Jer 34:8-22; (3) Jer. 35:1-19. V. The conclusion, in two sections: (1) Jer 36:2; (2) Jer 45:1-5. Subsequently, in Egypt, he added Jer 46:13-26 to the previous prophecy as to Egypt; also the three sections, the thirty-seventh through thirty-ninth chapters; fortieth through forty-third chapters; and forty-fourth chapter. The fifty-second chapter was probably (see Jer 51:64) an appendix from a later hand, taken from Kg2 24:18, &c.; Kg2 25:30. The prophecies against the several foreign nations stand in a different order in the Hebrew from that of the Septuagint; also the prophecies against them in the Hebrew (the forty-sixth through fifty-first chapters) are in the Septuagint placed after Jer 25:14, forming the twenty-sixth and thirty-first chapters; the remainder of the twenty-fifth chapter of the Hebrew is the thirty-second chapter of the Septuagint. Some passages in the Hebrew (Jer 27:19-22; Jer 33:14-26; Jer 39:4-14 Jer 48:45-47) are not found in the Septuagint; the Greek translators must have had a different recension before them; probably an earlier one. The Hebrew is probably the latest and fullest edition from Jeremiah's own hand. See on Jer 25:13. The canonicity of his prophecies is established by quotations of them in the New Testament (see Mat 2:17; Mat 16:14; Heb 8:8-12; on Mat 27:9, see on Introduction to Zechariah); also by the testimony of Ecclesiasticus 49:7, which quotes Jer 1:10; of PHILO, who quotes his word as an \"oracle\"; and of the list of canonical books in MELITO, ORIGEN, JEROME, and the Talmud. \n\n\n\nNext: Jeremiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":24,"numberOfChapters":52,"sha256":"c78e13c74a2800611f22cb60aa103f8a8343344fc49d4e0043f00d5c7e483f21","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JER/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JER","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":52,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JER/52.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JER","chapter":52},"totalNumberOfVerses":1164},"chapter":{"number":49,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Rabbah--\"the great,\" metropolis of Ammon (Sa2 12:26-30). Its destruction is foretold also in Eze 25:5; Amo 1:14-15. \n\nher daughters--the towns and villages, dependencies of the metropolis (Jos 15:45). \n\nshall . . . be heir--shall possess those who possessed him. The full accomplishment of this is still future; partially fulfilled under the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 5:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Heshbon . . . Ai--Nebuchadnezzar, coming from the north, first attacked Ammon, then its brother and neighbor, Moab. As Ai of Ammon had already suffered destruction, Heshbon of Moab being near it might well fear the same fate. \n\nhedges--Their cities being destroyed, the outcasts have no place of shelter save behind the \"hedges\" of vineyards and gardens; or else the enclosures of their villages. \n\ntheir king--Melchom, the idol, as the mention of \"his priests\" shows (compare Jer 48:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["thy flowing valley--rather, \"thy valley shall flow,\" namely with the blood of the slain; in sad contrast to their \"valleys\" in which they had heretofore \"gloried,\" as flowing with milk and honey [GROTIUS]. Or else, as Margin, \"shall flow away.\" \n\nbacksliding--apostate from Jehovah, the God of their father Lot, to Molech. \n\ntreasures--her resources for resisting the foe. \n\nWho shall, &c.--Who can come . . . (Jer 21:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["every man right forth--whithersoever chance may lead him (Jer 46:5; Gen 19:17); straight before him, onwards at random (Amo 4:3). \n\nnone . . . gather up him, &c.--There shall be none to gather together the wandering fugitives, so as to care for them and restore them to their own homes.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["(Compare Jer 48:47). For the sake of \"righteous\" Lot their progenitor. Partially fulfilled under Cyrus; in gospel times more fully.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Concerning Edom--a distinct prophecy, copied in part from Obadiah, but with the freedom of one himself inspired and foretelling a later calamity. Obadiah's was fulfilled probably in Sennacherib's time (compare Isa 34:5; Amo 1:11); Jeremiah's about the same time as his preceding prophecies (Jer 49:12; Eze 25:12). \n\nwisdom--for which the Arabs and the people of Teman (a city of Edom) in particular, were famed (Gen 36:15; Kg1 4:30; see Job, everywhere; Oba 1:8). \n\nvanished--literally \"poured out,\" that is, exhausted (compare Isa 19:3, Margin) [MAURER]. Or, as the kindred Ethiopic word means, \"worn out\" [LUDOVICUS DE DIEU].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["turn--namely, your backs in flight. \n\ndwell deep--in deep defiles and caves [GROTIUS], which abound in Idumea. Others refer it to the Arab custom of retiring into the depth of the desert when avoiding an offended foe (Jer 49:30). \n\nDedan--a tribe bordering on and made subject by Idumea; descended from Jokshan, son of Abraham and Keturah (Gen 25:1-3). \n\nEsau--The naming of Edom's progenitor, reprobated by God, recalls the remembrance of the old curse on him for his profanity, both his sin and its punishment being perpetuated in his descendants (Heb 12:16-17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["(Oba 1:5). Grape gatherers, yea even thieves, leave something behind them; but the Chaldeans will sweep Idumea clean of everything.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Edom became politically extinct after the time of the Romans. \n\nuncovered his secret places--where he hid himself (Jer 49:8) and his treasures (Isa 45:3). I have caused that nothing should be so hidden as that the conqueror should not find it. \n\nbrethren--Ammon. \n\nneighbours--the Philistines.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Thy fatherless and widows must rest their hope in God alone, as none of the adult males shall be left alive, so desperate will be the affairs of Edom. The verse also, besides this threat, implies a promise of mercy to Esau in God's good time, as there was to Moab and Ammon (Jer 49:6; Jer 48:47); the extinction of the adult males is the prominent idea (compare Jer 49:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Compare Jer 25:15-16, Jer 25:29). \n\nthey whose judgment was not to drink of the cup--the Jews to whom, by virtue of the covenant relation, it did not belong to drink the cup. It might have been expected that they would be spared. He regards not the merits of the Jews, for they were as bad or worse than others: but the grace and adoption of God; it is just and natural (\"judgment\") that God should pardon His sons sooner than aliens [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Bozrah--(See on Jer 48:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["(Oba 1:1-3). \n\nambassador . . . unto the heathen--a messenger from God to stir up the Chaldeans against Edom.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["David and Joab had already humbled Edom (Sa2 8:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["terribleness--the terror which thou didst inspire into others. \n\ndeceived thee--rendered thee proudly confident, as if none would dare to assail thee. \n\ndwellest in . . . rock--Petra, the chief of Idumea, was cut in the rocks; its ruins are very remarkable. The whole south of Idumea abounds in cave dwellings and rocks. \n\nthough . . . nest . . . eagle-- (Job 39:27; Oba 1:3-4). The eagle builds its nest in the highest craggy eyry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["(Compare Kg1 9:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["(Jer 50:40; Deu 29:23; Amo 4:11). \n\nno man shall abide there--that is, of the Idumeans. The Romans had a garrison there.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["he--Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuzara-dan; the name would at once suggest itself to the minds of the hearers (Jer 48:40; Jer 46:18). \n\nswelling--as a lion which the overflow of the Jordan forced out of his lair on the banks, to ascend the neighboring heights [CALVIN]. See as to the translation, \"pride of the Jordan,\" see on Jer 12:5. \n\nhabitation of . . . strong--the fastnesses of Idumea (compare Num 24:21). MAURER translates, \"An ever verdant (literally, 'perennial') pasturage,\" that is, Idumea heretofore having enjoyed uninterrupted tranquillity; so in Jer 49:20 the image is retained, the Idumeans being compared to \"a flock,\" and their king to \"a shepherd,\" in this verse, and the enemy to \"a lion\" (compare Jer 50:17-19). English Version accords more with the Hebrew. \n\nsuddenly--\"in the twinkling of an eye,\" as the Hebrew implies. \n\n. . . her--I will make Nebuzara-dan enter Idumea, and then, having in the twinkling of an eye effected the conquest, go away speedily: elsewhere. Instead of \"but,\" translate, \"for.\" GROTIUS translates, \"run upon her,\" or \"to her,\" instead of \"run away from her.\" MAURER understands it, \"I will make him (the Idumean) run away from her\" (that is, from his own land); the similar change of reference of the pronouns (Jer 50:44) favors this. \n\nwho is a chosen man, &c.--God calls the choicest warriors to Him, to set \"over\" the work of devastating Idumea. God will surely execute His purpose, for He can call forth from all sides the agents He chooses. \n\nwho is like me?-- (Exo 15:11). \n\nwho will appoint me the time?--namely, for entering into a trial in judgment with Me (see Margin). Image from law courts (Job 9:19). \n\nshepherd--leader of the Idumeans; following up the previous image, \"a lion\"; no Idumean shepherd shall withstand the lion sent by Jehovah (Job 41:10), or save the Idumean flock.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["least of the flock--the weakest and humblest of the Chaldean host. Compare Jer 6:3, where the hostile leaders and their hosts are called \"shepherds and their flocks.\" \n\ndraw . . . out--\"shall drag them away captive\" [GROTIUS]; shall drag them to and fro, as a lion (Jer 49:19) does feeble sheep [MAURER]. \n\nwith them--that is, the habitation which they possess.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["was heard in--that is, shall be heard at. \n\nRed Sea--a considerable distance from Idumea; though the district at the Elantic bay of the Red Sea originally belonged to Idumea, and the sea itself was called from Edom, that is, \"red\" (Gen 25:30, Margin). Others translate, \"the weedy sea\" (Margin), and derive the name, \"Red Sea,\" from its red weeds; the former view is preferable.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["(Compare Jer 48:40-41). \n\nBozrah--(See on Jer 48:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["Prophecy as to Damascus, &c. (Isa 17:1; Isa 10:9). The kingdom of Damascus was destroyed by Assyria, but the city revived, and it is as to the latter Jeremiah now prophesies. The fulfilment was probably about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10.9,7]. \n\nHamath is confounded--at the tidings of the overthrow of the neighboring Damascus. \n\non the sea--that is, at the sea; the dwellers there are alarmed. Other manuscripts read, \"like the sea.\" \"There is anxiety (restless) as is the sea: they cannot quiet it,\" that is, it cannot be quieted (Isa 57:20). \n\nit--Whatever dwellers are there \"cannot be quiet.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["city of praise--The prophet, in the person of a citizen of Damascus deploring its calamity, calls it \"the city of praise,\" that is, celebrated with praises everywhere for its beauty (Jer 33:9; Jer 51:41). \"How is it possible that such a city has not been left whole--has not been spared by the foe?\" Compare left, Luk 17:35-36. So Israel \"left\" standing some of the Canaanite cities (Jos 11:13). \n\nof my joy--that is, in which I delighted.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["Therefore--that is, Since Damascus is doomed to fall, therefore, &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["palaces of Ben-hadad--that palace from which so many evils and such cruelty to Israel emanated; thus implying the cause of Damascus' overthrow. Not the Ben-hadad of Kg2 13:3; Amo 1:4; it was a common name of the Syrian kings (compare Kg1 15:18; meaning \"son of Hadad,\" the idol).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Kedar--son of Ishmael (Gen 25:13). The Kedarenes led a wandering predatory life in Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra, as the Bedouin Arabs (Ch2 21:16-17; Psa 120:5). Kedar means \"blackness\" (Sol 1:5). \n\nHazor--not the city in Palestine, but a district in Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra. \"Kingdoms\" refer to the several combinations of clans, each under its own sheik. \n\nmen of the east--Kedar and Hazor were east of Judea (Jdg 6:3; Job 1:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["tents--in which they dwelt, from which they are called Scenites, that is, tent dwellers. \n\ncurtains--namely, with which the tents were covered (Jer 4:20; Jer 10:20; Psa 104:2). \n\nthey shall cry unto them, Fear, &c.--The foe, on crying, Fear . . ., shall discomfit them (the Kedarenes) by their mere cry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["(See on Jer 49:8). No conqueror would venture to follow them into the desert.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["wealthy--rather, \"tranquil\" (Ch1 4:40). \n\nneither gates nor bars--The Arabs, lying out of the track of the contending powers of Asia and Africa, took no measures of defense and had neither walled cities nor gates (Eze 38:11). They thought their scanty resources and wilderness position would tempt no foe. \n\nalone--separated from other nations, without allies; and from one another scattered asunder. So as to Israel's isolation (Num 23:9; Deu 33:28; Mic 7:14).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["camels--their chief possessions; not fields or vineyards. \n\nin utmost . . . corners--who seemed least likely to be dispersed. Or else, \"having the hair shaven (or clipped) in angles\" (Jer 9:26; Jer 25:23) [GROTIUS]. \n\ncalamity from all sides--which will force even those in \"corners\" to \"scatter\" themselves.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["(Mal 1:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["Elam--part of Susiana, west of Persia proper, but used to designate Persia in general. Elam proper, or Elymais, nearer Judea than Persia, is probably here meant; it had helped Nebuchadnezzar against Judea; hence its punishment. It may have been idolatrous, whereas Persia proper was mainly monotheistic.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["bow--Elam was famed for its bowmen (Isa 22:6). \n\nchief of their might--in opposition to \"bow,\" that is, bowmen, who constituted their main strength.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["four winds, &c.--Nebuchadnezzar's army containing soldiers from the four quarters.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["consumed--as a distinct nation (Dan. 8:2-27). Fulfilled under Alexander and his successors.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["I will show Myself King by My judgments there, as though My tribunal were erected there. The throne of Cyrus, God's instrument, set up over Media, of which Elam was a part, may be meant [GROTIUS]; or rather, that of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 43:10). Then the restoration of Elam (Jer 49:39) will refer partly to that which took place on the reduction of Babylon by Cyrus, prince of Persia and Media.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["latter days--The full restoration belongs to gospel times. Elamites were among the first who heard and accepted it (Act 2:9).\n\nAfter the predictions of judgment to be inflicted on other nations by Babylon, follows this one against Babylon itself, the longest prophecy, consisting of one hundred verses. The date of utterance was the fourth year of Zedekiah, when Seraiah, to whom it was committed, was sent to Babylon (Jer 51:59-60). The repetitions in it make it likely that it consists of prophecies uttered at different times, now collected by Jeremiah to console the Jews in exile and to vindicate God's ways by exhibiting the final doom of Babylon, the enemy of the people of God, after her long prosperity. The style, imagery, and dialogues prove its genuineness in opposition to those who deny this. It shows his faithfulness; though under obligation to the king of Babylon, he owed a higher one to God, who directed him to prophesy against Babylon.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Jeremiah Chapter 50\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PREDICTIONS AS TO AMMON, IDUMEA, DAMASCUS, KEDAR, HAZOR, AND ELAM. (Jer. 49:1-39)\n\nHath Israel . . . no heir?--namely, to occupy the land of Gad, after it itself has been carried away captive by Shalmaneser. Ammon, like Moab, descended from Lot, lay north of Moab, from which it was separated by the river Arnon, and east of Reuben and Gad (Jos 13:24-25) on the same side of Jordan. It seized on Gad when Israel was carried captive. Judah was by the right of kindred the heir, not Ammon; but Ammon joined with Nebuchadnezzar against Judah and Jerusalem (Kg2 24:2) and exulted over its fall (Psa 83:4-7-8; Zep 2:8-9). It had already, in the days of Jeroboam, in Israel's affliction, tried to \"enlarge its border\" (Kg2 14:26; Amo 1:1, Amo 1:13). \n\ntheir king-- (Amo 1:15); referring to Melchom, their tutelary idol (Zep 1:5); and so the Septuagint reads it here as a proper name (Kg1 11:5, Kg1 11:33; Kg2 23:13). The Ammonite god is said to do what they do, namely, occupy the Israelite land of Gad. To Jehovah, the theocratic \"King\" of Israel, the land belonged of right; so that their Molech or Melchom was a usurper-king. \n\nhis people--the people of Melchom, \"their king.\" Compare \"people of Chemosh,\" Jer 48:46.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JER/49.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JER","chapter":49},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JER/50.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JER","chapter":50},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JER/48.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JER","chapter":48},"numberOfVerses":37}