Jeremiah 49 Footnotes

49:10 During the exile and into the postexilic period, Arabs overran the land of Edom (descendants of Esau) and the Edomites retreated into Judah, where they became known as Idumeans. At the time of the Maccabees, John Hyrcanus compelled the Idumeans to become Jews and to submit to circumcision. Herod the Great, ruler at Judea at the time of Jesus’s birth, was an Idumean. When the Romans subdued the Judeans in AD 70, the Idumeans ceased to exist although the Herodian Dynasty ruled elsewhere until the death of Herod Agrippa II in AD 100. Jeremiah’s prophecy that Esau would “exist no longer” was eventually fulfilled.

49:16-17 Petra in Edom is indeed still deserted except for tourists and passersby.

49:33 Did this prophecy come true? Hazor in Galilee was destroyed in 732 BC (2Kg 15:29) and never again became a fortified city, but people did live there. This prophecy may refer to another city of the same name; there were several (Jos 15:23-25).

49:34-35 Zedekiah began his rule in 597 BC, and the defeat of Elam occurred in 596–594 BC. The text gives the date for Jeremiah’s prediction of the demise of Elam, not for the event itself which occurred a few years later. In any case, Zedekiah was king for ten years so the “beginning” of his reign need not be restricted to the immediate period of his accession to the throne.