Jeremiah 49:3

3 People of Heshbon, cry out! Ai is destroyed! Women of Rabbah, go into mourning! Put on sackcloth and mourn. Run about in confusion. Your god Molech will be taken into exile, together with his priests and princes.

Jeremiah 49:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 49:3

Howl, O Heshbon
Which was a city of Moab, though it formerly belonged to the Amorites; see ( Jeremiah 48:2 ) ( Numbers 21:26 ) ; it was upon the border of Ammon, and near to Ai, now destroyed; and therefore is called upon to howl and lament, because its destruction also was near at hand, and might be expected; hence Kimchi gathers, that the Ammonites were destroyed before the Moabites: but some have thought that Heshbon was a double city, divided by a river, which ran through it; and that that city which was on one side of the river belonged to Moab, and that on the other side to Ammon: for Ai is spoiled;
not that which was near Jericho in the land of Canaan, but a city in the land of Ammon, thought to be the Gaia of Ptolemy; this seems to be the first city in the country of Ammon that Nebuchadnezzar would lay waste: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah;
the royal city before mentioned; (See Gill on Jeremiah 49:2); either the inhabitants of it, particularly the women, especially the younger women, who would be in the utmost distress on hearing the enemy was so near them, and what had befallen Ai; or the villages about Rabbah, as Kimchi interprets it; that is, as the Targum,

``the inhabitants of the villages of Rabbah:''

gird ye with sackcloth;
as a token of calamity and mourning for it, as was usual: lament, and run to and fro by the hedges;
which Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand of the enclosures or fences of villages, like those of gardens, fields, and folds, in distinction from walls of cities, and fortified places; but rather it signifies the hedges in the fields, whither, being drove from their habitations, they would seek unto for shelter, and run about among them for safety, lamenting their unhappy case: for their king shall go into captivity;
be taken and carried captive; either their principal governor; or rather Milcom their god, since it follows: [and] his priests and his princes together;
both such as offered sacrifices to him, and attended on and supported his worship: the same is said of Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, ( Jeremiah 48:7 ) .

Jeremiah 49:3 In-Context

1 This is what the Lord said about Ammon: "Where are the men of Israel? Is there no one to defend their land? Why have they let the people who worship Molech take the territory of the tribe of Gad and settle there?

2 But the time is coming when I will make the people of the capital city of Rabbah hear the noise of battle, and it will be left in ruins and its villages burned to the ground. Then Israel will take its land back from those who took it from them.

3 People of Heshbon, cry out! Ai is destroyed! Women of Rabbah, go into mourning! Put on sackcloth and mourn. Run about in confusion. Your god Molech will be taken into exile, together with his priests and princes.

4 Why do you unfaithful people boast? Your strength is failing. Why do you trust in your power and say that no one would dare attack you?

5 I will bring terror on you from every side. You will all run away. Each one will run for his life, and there will be no one to bring your troops together again.