Jeremiah 49:24

24 Damascus has grown slack. She has turned away to flee and panic. Anxiety has seized [her], and labor pains have grasped 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, like an eagle he will go up and he will swoop down, and he will spread out his wings against Bozrah. And the heart of the warriors of Edom will be in that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.

23 Concerning Damascus: "Hamath and Arpad are ashamed, for they have heard bad news; they melt. [There is] concern in the sea. It is not able to keep quiet.

24 Damascus has grown slack. She has turned away to flee and panic. Anxiety has seized [her], and labor pains have grasped her, like a woman in labor.

25 How [the] city of praise has not been abandoned! The city of my joy!

26 {Therefore} her young men will fall in her public squares, and all {the soldiers} will perish in that day," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.