Jeremiah 49:2

2 In the days to come,” says the LORD, “I will sound the battle cry against your city of Rabbah. It will become a desolate heap of ruins, and the neighboring towns will be burned. Then Israel will take back the land you took from her,” 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 This message was given concerning the Ammonites. This is what the LORD says: “Are there no descendants of Israel to inherit the land of Gad? Why are you, who worship Molech, living in its towns?

2 In the days to come,” says the LORD, “I will sound the battle cry against your city of Rabbah. It will become a desolate heap of ruins, and the neighboring towns will be burned. Then Israel will take back the land you took from her,” says the LORD .

3 “Cry out, O Heshbon, for the town of Ai is destroyed. Weep, O people of Rabbah! Put on your clothes of mourning. Weep and wail, hiding in the hedges, for your god Molech, with his priests and officials, will be hauled off to distant lands.

4 You are proud of your fertile valleys, but they will soon be ruined. You trusted in your wealth, you rebellious daughter, and thought no one could ever harm you.

5 But look! I will bring terror upon you,” says the Lord, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Your neighbors will chase you from your land, and no one will help your exiles as they flee.