Jeremiah 49:2

2 Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sound the battle alarm against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord.

Jeremiah 49:2 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 49:2

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord
Or, "are coming" ^F25; as they did, in a very little time after this prophecy: that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the
Ammonites;
the metropolis of the Ammonites; it was their royal city in the times of David, ( 1 Kings 11:1 ) ( 12:26 ) ; called by Polybius ^F26 Rabbahamana; and by Ptolemy ^F1 Philadelphia, which name it had from Ptolemy Philadelphus, who rebuilt it; this the Lord threatens with the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, or the noise of warriors, as the Targum; the Chaldean army under Nebuchadnezzar, who, about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, subdued the Ammonites, as Josephus ^F2 relates: and it shall be a desolate heap;
be utterly destroyed; its walls broken down, and houses demolished, and made a heap of rubbish: and her daughters shall be burnt with fire:
Rabbah was the mother city, and the other cities of the Ammonites were her daughters, which are threatened to be destroyed with fire by the enemy; or it may mean the villages round about Rabbah, it being usual in Scripture for villages to be called the daughters of cities; see ( Ezekiel 16:46 ) ; so the Targum here paraphrases it,

``the inhabitants of her villages shall be burnt with fire:''

then shall Israel be heirs unto them that were his heirs, saith the
Lord:
that is, shall inherit their land again, which the Ammonites pretended to be the lawful heirs of; yea, not only possess their own land, but the land of Ammon too: this was fulfilled not immediately upon the destruction of Ammon, but in part upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, when they repossessed their own country; and partly in the times of the Maccabees, when they subdued the Ammonites,

``Afterward he passed over to the children of Ammon, where he found a mighty power, and much people, with Timotheus their captain.'' (1 Maccabees 5:6)

and will more fully in the latter day, when the Jews shall be converted, and return to their own land, and the children of Ammon shall obey them, ( Isaiah 11:14 ) ; so Kimchi interprets it; and other Jewish writers understand it of the days of the Messiah, as Abarbinel observes.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (Myab) "sunt venientes", Montanus, Schmidt.
F26 Hist. l. 5. p. 414.
F1 Geograph. l. 5. c. 15.
F2 Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.

Jeremiah 49:2 In-Context

1 Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the Lord: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad, and his people settled in its towns?

2 Therefore, the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will sound the battle alarm against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord.

3 Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth, lament, and slash yourselves with whips! For Milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and his attendants.

4 Why do you boast in your strength? Your strength is ebbing, O faithless daughter. You trusted in your treasures, saying, "Who will attack me?"

5 I am going to bring terror upon you, says the Lord God of hosts, from all your neighbors, and you will be scattered, each headlong, with no one to gather the fugitives.