BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 49

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 49 of 52•39 verses

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Jeremiah 49 Overview

Jeremiah delivers oracles against Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar/Hazor, and Elam, exposing territorial greed, false wisdom, fear, military collapse, and misplaced security; several judgments are followed by future restoration promises.

JeremiahBook

49Chapter

39Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 49

Coming from

Jeremiah gives an extended lament and judgment over Moab, condemning pride, complacency, idolatry, and confidence in works and treasures; city after city falls, yet the chapter ends with a promise that Moab’s captivity will be restored in the latter days.

In this chapter

Leads into

The first long Babylon oracle announces that the empire which conquered Judah will itself fall; Israel and Judah will return weeping to seek the LORD in an everlasting covenant, while Babylon is judged for pride, violence, and opposition to the Holy One.

Key understandingExplore deeper

This chapter surveys multiple nations surrounding or influencing Judah. Each oracle has its own imagery and historical setting.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 49 is the chapter’s own movement: no neighboring nation is beyond god’s jurisdiction. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

No neighboring nation is beyond God’s jurisdiction

Different peoples with different strengths all answer to the LORD.

Human specialties cannot guarantee security

Edom’s famed wisdom, desert isolation, and Elam’s bow all fail under judgment.

God can preserve hope beyond national disaster

Ammon and Elam receive explicit latter restoration promises.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Obadiah

Edom’s pride and downfall receive fuller treatment there.

Amos 1

Several of the same neighboring nations appear in Amos’s judgment oracles.

Daniel 8:2

Elam/Susa later becomes important in Persian-period visions, showing changing imperial geography.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not blend all the national oracles into one event.

Each people has distinct geography, sins, and historical circumstances.

Do not treat Edom’s wisdom tradition as proof wisdom is bad.

The point is that human wisdom cannot outmaneuver divine judgment.

Read Jeremiah 49 watching for…

Ammon occupying Gad

Edom’s failed wisdom

Damascus in anguish

desert peoples told to flee

Elam’s broken bow and later restoration

Chapter outline5 sections

1-6Ammon is judged for taking Gad, yet restoration is promised afterward 7-22Edom’s wisdom cannot save it from a devastating overthrow 23-27Damascus and its cities are weakened and burned 28-33Kedar and Hazor are scattered by Nebuchadnezzar and left desolate 34-39Elam’s bow is broken, its people scattered, yet restoration is promised in the latter days

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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,

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

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.

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:

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

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

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Jeremiah 49:3

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