Jeremiah 49:37

37 So I will shatter Elam {before} their enemies, and {before} the seekers of their life. And I will bring disaster upon them, {my burning anger},' {declares} Yahweh. 'And I will send after them the sword until I have destroyed them.

Jeremiah 49:37 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 49:37

For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies,
&c.] Frightened; thrown into the utmost consternation, so that they shall have no heart nor spirit to go out against them, and meet them, and defend themselves; but make all haste imaginable to flee from them, such a panic would seize them: and before them that seek their life;
a further description of their enemies; they being such, who, not content with their substance, sought to take away their lives; nothing less would satisfy them, being: cruel and blood thirsty ones: and I will bring evil upon them, [even] my fierce anger, saith the
Lord;
and a greater evil than that cannot be; signifying that the destruction that should be made among them would be the effect of the wrath of God upon them for their sins: and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them;
that is, those that slay with the sword, as the Targum; these should go after those that fled, and destroy them, till the greater part of them were consumed; for all of them that were taken were not destroyed; or otherwise there would have been none to return from captivity, as is promised at the close of this prophecy.

Jeremiah 49:37 In-Context

35 "Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Look, I [am] going to break the bow of Elam, the first and best of their might.

36 And I will bring to Elam four winds, from the four corners of heaven, and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there will not be a nation where the scattered people of Elam will not go.

37 So I will shatter Elam {before} their enemies, and {before} the seekers of their life. And I will bring disaster upon them, {my burning anger},' {declares} Yahweh. 'And I will send after them the sword until I have destroyed them.

38 And I will set my throne in Elam and I will destroy from there king and officials,' {declares} Yahweh.

39 '{And then} in the last of the days I will restore the fortunes of Elam,' {declares} Yahweh."

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "to the face of"
• [b] Literally "to the face of"
• [c] Literally "the blaze of my nose"
• [d] Literally "a declaration of"