1Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says the LORD:
         “Does Israel have no sons?
         Or has he no heirs?
         Why then has Malcam taken possession of Gad
         And his people settled in its cities?

2“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
         “That I will cause a trumpet blast of war to be heard
         Against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon;
         And it will become a desolate heap,
         And her towns will be set on fire.
         Then Israel will take possession of his possessors,”
         Says the LORD.

3“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed!
         Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,
         Gird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,
         And rush back and forth inside the walls;
         For Malcam will go into exile
         Together with his priests and his princes.

4“How boastful you are about the valleys!
         Your valley is flowing away,
         O backsliding daughter
         Who trusts in her treasures, saying,
         ‘Who will come against me?’

5“Behold, I am going to bring terror upon you,”
         Declares the Lord GOD of hosts,
         “From all directions around you;
         And each of you will be driven out headlong,
         With no one to gather the fugitives together.

6“But afterward I will restore
         The fortunes of the sons of Ammon,”
         Declares the LORD.

Prophecy against Edom

7Concerning Edom.
         Thus says the LORD of hosts,
         “Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman?
         Has good counsel been lost to the prudent?
         Has their wisdom decayed?

8“Flee away, turn back, dwell in the depths,
         O inhabitants of Dedan,
         For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him
         At the time I punish him.

9“If grape gatherers came to you,
         Would they not leave gleanings?
         If thieves came by night,
         They would destroy only until they had enough.

10“But I have stripped Esau bare,
         I have uncovered his hiding places
         So that he will not be able to conceal himself;
         His offspring has been destroyed along with his relatives
         And his neighbors, and he is no more.

11“Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive;
         And let your widows trust in Me.”

      12For thus says the LORD, “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. 13“For I have sworn by Myself,” declares the LORD, “that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all its cities will become perpetual ruins.”

14I have heard a message from the LORD,
         And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying,
         “Gather yourselves together and come against her,
         And rise up for battle!”

15“For behold, I have made you small among the nations,
         Despised among men.

16“As for the terror of you,
         The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,
         O you who live in the clefts of the rock,
         Who occupy the height of the hill.
         Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,
         I will bring you down from there,” declares the LORD.

      17“Edom will become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss at all its wounds. 18“Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it. 19“Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan against a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make him run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against Me?”

      20Therefore hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture desolate because of them. 21The earth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea. 22Behold, He will mount up and swoop like an eagle and spread out His wings against Bozrah; and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Prophecy against Damascus

23Concerning Damascus.
         “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,
         For they have heard bad news;
         They are disheartened.
         There is anxiety by the sea,
         It cannot be calmed.

24“Damascus has become helpless;
         She has turned away to flee,
         And panic has gripped her;
         Distress and pangs have taken hold of her
         Like a woman in childbirth.

25“How the city of praise has not been deserted,
         The town of My joy!

26“Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets,
         And all the men of war will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD of hosts.

27“I will set fire to the wall of Damascus,
         And it will devour the fortified towers of Ben-hadad.”

Prophecy against Kedar and Hazor

      28Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated. Thus says the LORD,
         “Arise, go up to Kedar
         And devastate the men of the east.

29“They will take away their tents and their flocks;
         They will carry off for themselves
         Their tent curtains, all their goods and their camels,
         And they will call out to one another, ‘Terror on every side!’

30“Run away, flee! Dwell in the depths,
         O inhabitants of Hazor,” declares the LORD;
         “For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has formed a plan against you
         And devised a scheme against you.

31“Arise, go up against a nation which is at ease,
         Which lives securely,” declares the LORD.
         “It has no gates or bars;
         They dwell alone.

32“Their camels will become plunder,
         And their many cattle for booty,
         And I will scatter to all the winds those who cut the corners of their hair;
         And I will bring their disaster from every side,” declares the LORD.

33“Hazor will become a haunt of jackals,
         A desolation forever;
         No one will live there,
         Nor will a son of man reside in it.”

Prophecy against Elam

      34That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:

35“Thus says the LORD of hosts,
         ‘Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam,
         The finest of their might.

36‘I will bring upon Elam the four winds
         From the four ends of heaven,
         And will scatter them to all these winds;
         And there will be no nation
         To which the outcasts of Elam will not go.

37‘So I will shatter Elam before their enemies
         And before those who seek their lives;
         And I will bring calamity upon them,
         Even My fierce anger,’ declares the LORD,
         ‘And I will send out the sword after them
         Until I have consumed them.

38‘Then I will set My throne in Elam
         And destroy out of it king and princes,’
         Declares the LORD.

39‘But it will come about in the last days
         That I will restore the fortunes of Elam,’”
         Declares the LORD.

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says the LORD: "Does Israel have no sons? Or has he no heirs? Why then has Malcam taken possession of Gad And his people settled in its cities?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
This is what the LORD says about the people of Ammon: Doesn't Israel have any children? Doesn't it have any heirs? Why, then, has the god Milcom taken over the inheritance of Gad's descendants? Why do Milcom's people live in Gad's cities?

King James Bible
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?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Against the children of Ammon. Thus saith the Lord: Hath Israel no sons? or hath he no heir? Why then hath Melchom inherited Gad: and his people dwelt in his cities ?

Darby Bible Translation
Concerning the children of Ammon. Thus saith Jehovah: Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? Why is Malcam heir of Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?

English Revised Version
Of the children of Ammon. Thus saith the LORD: Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Malcam possess Gad, and his people dwell in the cities thereof?

Webster's Bible Translation
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?

World English Bible
Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in its cities?

Young's Literal Translation
Concerning the sons of Ammon: 'Thus said Jehovah: Sons -- hath Israel none? heir -- hath he none? Wherefore hath Malcam possessed Gad? And his people in its cities have dwelt?

Cross References

Numbers 1:24 Of the sons of Gad, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,

Deuteronomy 23:3 "No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD,

Deuteronomy 23:4 because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

2 Chronicles 20:1 Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

Jeremiah 12:14 Thus says the LORD concerning all My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, "Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will uproot the house of Judah from among them.

Jeremiah 25:21 Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon;

Ezekiel 21:28 "And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach,' and say: 'A sword, a sword is drawn, polished for the slaughter, to cause it to consume, that it may be like lightning--

Ezekiel 25:2 "Son of man, set your face toward the sons of Ammon and prophesy against them,

Amos 1:13 Thus says the LORD, "For three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not revoke its punishment, Because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead In order to enlarge their borders.

Zephaniah 1:5 "And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, And those who bow down and swear to the LORD and yet swear by Milcom,

Zephaniah 2:8 "I have heard the taunting of Moab And the revilings of the sons of Ammon, With which they have taunted My people And become arrogant against their territory.

Zephaniah 2:9 "Therefore, as I live," declares the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, "Surely Moab will be like Sodom And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah-- A place possessed by nettles and salt pits, And a perpetual desolation. The remnant of My people will plunder them And the remainder of My nation will inherit them."

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Chapter 49

The cup of trembling still goes round, and the nations must all drink of it, according to the instructions given to Jeremiah, ch. 25:15. This chapter puts it into the hands, I. Of the Ammonites (v. 1-6). II. Of the Edomites (v. 7-22). III. Of the Syrians (v. 23-27). IV. Of the Kedarenes, and the kingdoms of Hazor (v. 28-33). V. Of the Elamites (v. 34-39). When Israel was scarcely saved where shall all these appear?

Verses 1-6

The Ammonites were next, both in kindred and neighbourhood, to the Moabites, and therefore are next set to the bar. Their country joined to that of the two tribes and a half, on the other side Jordan, and was but a bad neighbour; however, being a neighbour, they shall have a share in these circular predictions. 1. An action is here brought, in God's name, against the Ammonites, for an illegal encroachment upon the rightful possessions of the tribe of Gad, that lay next them, v. 1. A writ of enquiry is brought to discover what title they had to those territories, which, upon the carrying away of the Gileadites, by the king of Assyria (2 Ki. 15:29, 1 Chr. 5:26), were left almost dispeopled, at least unguarded, and an easy prey to the next invader. "What! Does it escheat ob defectum sanguinis-for what of an heir? Hath Israel no sons? Hath he no heir? Are there no Gadites left, to whom the right of inheritance belongs? Or, if there were not, are there no Israelites, none left of Judah, that are nearer akin to them than you are?" Why then does their king, as if he were entitled to the forfeited estates, or Milcom, their idol, as if he had the right to dispose of it to his worshippers, inherit Gad, and his people dwell in the cities which fell by lot to that tribe of God's people. Nay, there were sons and heirs of their own body, en ventre de sa mere-in their mother's womb, and the Ammonites, to prevent their claim, most barbarously murdered them (Amos 1:13): They ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border, that, having seized it, none might rise up hereafter to recover it from them. Thus they magnified themselves against their border and boasted it was their own, Zep. 2:8. Note, Though among men might often prevails against right, yet that might shall be controlled by the Almighty, who sits in the throne, judging right; and those will find themselves mistaken who think every thing their own which they can lay their hands on, or which none yet appears to lay claim to. As there is justice owing to owners, so also to their heirs, when they are dead, whom it is a great sin to defraud, though they either know not their right or know not how to come at it. This shall be reckoned for particularly, when injuries of this kind are done to God's people. 2. Judgment is here given against them for this violence. (1.) Terrors shall come upon them: God will cause an alarm of war to be heard, even in Rabbah, their capital city and a very strong one, v. 2. The Lord God of hosts, who has all armies at his command, will bring a fear upon them from all that be about them, v. 5. Note, God has many ways to terrify those who have been a terror to his people. (2.) Their cities shall be laid in ruins: Rabbah, the mother-city, shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters, the other cities that have a dependence upon her, and receive law from her as daughters, shall be burnt with fire; so that the inhabitants shall be forced to quit them, and they shall cry, and gird themselves with sackcloth, as having lost all they had, and not knowing whither to betake themselves. (3.) Their country, which they were so proud of, shall be wasted (v. 4): Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, and trustest in thy treasures, O backsliding daughter? They are charged with backsliding or turning away from God and from his worship, for they were the posterity of righteous Lot. It is true, they had never been so in covenant with God as Israel was; yet all idolaters may be called backsliders, for the worship of the true God was prior to that of false gods. They were untoward and refractory (so some read it); and, when they had forsaken their God, they gloried in their valleys, particularly one that was called the flowing valley, because it flowed with all good things. These they had violently taken away from Israel, and gloried in it when they had done so. They gloried in the strength of their valleys, so surrounded with mountains that they were inaccessible, gloried in the products of them, gloried in the treasures they got together out of them, saying, Who shall come unto me? While they bathed themselves in the pleasures of their country, they flattered themselves with a conceit that they should never be disturbed in the enjoyment of them: To-morrow shall be as this day; therefore they set God and his judgments at defiance; they are proud, voluptuous, and secure; but wherefore dost thou do so: Note, Those who backslide and turn away from God have little reason either to take complacency or to put confidence in any worldly enjoyments whatsoever, Hos. 9:1. (4.) Their people, from the least to the greatest, shall be forced out of the country. Some shall flee to seek for shelter, others shall be carried into captivity, so that their land shall be quite evacuated: Their king and his princes, nay, and Milcom, their god, and his priests, shall go into captivity (v. 3), and every man shall be driven out right forth, shall take the next way, and make the best of it in his flight (v. 5), forgetting the valleys, the flowing valleys, which now fail them. And, to complete their misery, none shall gather up him that wanders, none shall open their doors to them, as Jael to Sisera, to entertain them; and those that flee shall be so much in care to secure themselves that they shall not take notice of others, no, not of those that are nearest to them, that wander, and are at a loss which way to go, as ch. 47:3. (5.) Then the country of the Ammonites shall fall into the hands of the remaining Israelites (v. 2): Then shall Israel be heir to those that were his heirs, shall possess himself of their land who had possessed themselves of his, by way of reprisal. Note, The equity of divine Providence is to be acknowledged when the losses of the injured are recompensed out of the unjust gains of the injurious. Though the enemies of God's Israel may make a prey of them for a while, the tables will shortly be turned. 3. Yet there is a prospect given them of mercy hereafter (v. 6), as before to Moab. The day will come when the captivity of the children of Ammon will be brought again; for so it is in human affairs: the wheel goes round.

Calvin's Commentary

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?

1. Ad filios Ammon: Sic dicit Jehova, An filii non sunt Israeli? An haeres non est ei? quare haereditate possidet rex eorum Gad et populus ejus in urbibus ejus habitat?

We have said that the Ammonites were not only contiguous to the Moabites, but had also derived their origin from Lot, and were thus connected with them by blood. Their origin was indeed base and shameful, for they were, as it is well known, the offspring of incest. There was, however, the bond of fraternity between them, because both nations had the same father. God had spared them when he brought up his people from Egypt; for in remembrance of the holy man Lot, he would have both peoples to remain uninjured. But ingratitude doubled their crime, for these impious men ceased not in various ways to harass the children of Abraham.: For this reason, therefore, does Jeremiah now prophesy against them.

And we see here, again, the object of this prophecy and the design of the Holy Spirit in announcing it, even that the Israelites might know that they were not so completely cast away by God, but that there remained some remnants of his paternal favor; for if the Moabites and the Ammonites had been free from all evils, it would have been a most grievous trial; it would have been enough to overwhelm weak minds to see a people whom God had adopted, miserably oppressed and severely chastised, while heathen nations were remaining quiet in the enjoyment of their pleasures, and exulting also over the calamities of others. God, then, in order to mitigate the grief and sorrow which the children of Israel derived from their troubles and calamities, shews that he would yet show them favor, because he would carry on war against their enemies, and become the avenger of all the wrongs which they had suffered. It was no common consolation for the Israelites to hear that they were still the objects of God's care, who, nevertheless, seemed in various ways to have poured forth his wrath upon them in a full stream. We now, then, see the reason why Jeremiah denounced destruction on the Ammonites, as he did before on the Moabites.

Then he says, To the children of Ammon: [28] Are there no children to Israel? Hath he no heir? It was a trial very grievous to the miserable Israelites to see a part of the inheritance promised them by God forcibly taken from them by the Ammonites; for what must have come to their minds but that they had been deceived by vain promises? But it had happened, that the Ammonites had deprived the children of Israel of a part of their inheritance. Hence the Prophet teaches us here, that though God connived for a time, and passed by this robbery, he yet would not suffer the Ammonites to go unpunished for having taken to themselves what justly belonged to others. Hence it is added, Why doth their king inherit Gad?

I know not why Jerome rendered mlkm, melkam, as though it were the name of an idol, as the word is found in the Prophet Amos. [29] But it is evident that Jeremiah speaks here of the king, for immediately after he adds, his people Their king, then, he says, inherits Gad Gad is not the name of a place, as some think, but Mount Gilead, which had been given to that tribe. The Prophet says that they possessed the country of the Gadites; for they had been ejected from their portion, and the children of Ammon had occupied what had been given by God to them. And this is confirmed by the Prophet Amos, when he says,

"For three of the transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not be propitious to them, because they have cut off the mountain of Gilead." [30] (Amos 1:13)

He speaks there metaphorically, because God had fixed the limits between the tribe of Gad and the children of Ammon, so that both might be satisfied with their own inheritance. But the children of Ammon had broken through and expelled the tribe of Gad from the cities of Mount Gilead. This, then, is what now our Prophet means, even that they had taken to themselves that part of the land which had been allotted to the children of Gad; for it immediately follows, and his people dwell in his cities, even in the cities which had been given by lot to that tribe; for we know that a possession beyond Jordan had been given to the children of Gad. We now, then, perceive the meaning of the words.

God, then, shews that he had not forgotten his covenant, though he had for a time suffered the Ammonites to invade the inheritance which he had conferred on the children of Israel; yet the Gaddites would at length recover what had been unjustly taken from them. For it was a robbery not to be endured, that the Ammonites should have dared to take to themselves that land, which was not the property of men, but rather of God himself, for he had called it his rest, because he would have his people to dwell there. And though God inflicted a just punishment on the Gaddites when he expelled them from their inheritance, yet he afterwards punished the children of Ammon, as he is wont to chastise his own children by the hand of the wicked, and at length to render them also their just reward. It now follows --

Footnotes:

[28] Literally it is, "To the children of Ammon thus saith Jehovah:" so the Sept., the Vulg., and the Targ. There are prophecies concerning Ammon in Ezekiel 21:28-32; Ezekiel 25:2-7; Amos 1:13-15; and in Zephaniah 2:8-11. -- Ed.

[29] "Milcom" is given by the Sept., the Vulg., and the Syr.; but "their king" by the Targ. In Amos 1:15, the Vulg. and Syr. are the same; but the Sept. have "kings," and the Targ. is the same as here. There was a king of Ammon, Jeremiah 27:3; and there is one passage in which the possession of a country is ascribed to a heathen god, to Chemosh, see Judges 11:24. But "inheriting" is more suitably applied to a king than to an idol; and the contrast in the next verse is with Israel and not with God, "Israel shall be heir," etc. Most probably, then, the king is meant, and not the idol. -- Ed.

[30] The quotation is not literally given, but the meaning of the passage. -- Ed.

Links

Jeremiah 49 Commentaries: Barnes • Calvin • Clarke • Darby • Gill • Geneva • Guzik • JFB • Keil / Delitzsch • KJV Translators' • Henry's Concise • Matthew Henry • Scofield • TSK • Wesley

NIV / NLT / ESV / GWT / KJV / ASV / DRB

Jump to Previous Occurrence
Ammon Ammonites Children Cities Dispossessed Dwell Gad Heir Heritage Inherit Israel Live Malcam Milcom Molech Possess Possession Settled Thereof Towns

Jump to Next Occurrence
Ammon Ammonites Children Cities Dispossessed Dwell Gad Heir Heritage Inherit Israel Live Malcam Milcom Molech Possess Possession Settled Thereof Towns

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Alphabetical: Ammon Ammonites And cities Concerning do Does Gad Has have he heirs his in is Israel its live LORD Malcam Molech no of Or people possession says settled she sons taken the then This Thus towns what Why

Bible Browser

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament