Jeremiah 49:24

24 Damascus has become weak; she has turned to run; panic has gripped her. Distress and labor pains have seized her like a woman in labor.

Jeremiah 49:24 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 49:24

Damascus is waxed feeble
Or, "is become remiss" ^F7; her hands hang down, not being able through fear and fright to lift them up against the enemy; that is, the inhabitants of Damascus, as the Targum: [and] turneth herself to flee;
instead of going out to meet the enemy, the inhabitants of this city meditated a flight, and turned their backs upon him in order to flee from him, and escape falling into his hands: and fear hath seized on [her]:
or, "she seized on fear" ^F8; instead of seizing on arms, and laying hold on them to defend herself with, she seized on that; or however that seized on her, and made her quite unfit to stand up in her own defence: anguish and sorrows have taken her as a woman in travail;
(See Gill on Jeremiah 49:22); A phrase often used to express the sudden and inevitable destruction of a people, and their distress and inability to help themselves.

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 (htpr) "remissa erit", Junius & Tremellius; "remissa est", Cocceius, Piscator; "remissa facta est", Schmidt.
F8 (hqyzxh jjrw) "et apprehendit tremorem", Munster; "et horrorem apprehendit", Schmidt; "et horrorem febrilem prehendet", Junius & Tremellius; "apprehendet", Piscator.

Jeremiah 49:24 In-Context

22 Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom's warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

23 About Damascus: Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report and are agitated; in the sea there is anxiety that cannot be calmed.

24 Damascus has become weak; she has turned to run; panic has gripped her. Distress and labor pains have seized her like a woman in labor.

25 How can the city of praise not be abandoned, the town that brings Me joy?

26 Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares; all the warriors will be silenced in that day. [This is]*The bracketed text has been added for clarity. the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.