Jeremiah 49:24

24 The city of Damascus has become weak. The people want to run away; they are ready to panic. The people feel pain and suffering, like a woman giving birth to a baby.

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 The Lord is like an eagle swooping down and spreading its wings over the city of Bozrah. very frightened, like a woman having a baby.

23 This message is to the city of Damascus: "The towns of Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, because they have heard bad news. They are discouraged. They are troubled like the tossing sea.

24 The city of Damascus has become weak. The people want to run away; they are ready to panic. The people feel pain and suffering, like a woman giving birth to a baby.

25 Damascus was a city of my joy. Why have the people not left that famous city yet?

26 Surely the young men will die in the city squares, and all her soldiers will be killed at that time," says the Lord All-Powerful.