Jeremiah 49:8-18

8 Flee ye, and turn ye the backs; go down into a swallow, ye dwellers of Dedan, for I have brought the perdition of Esau on him, the time of his visitation. (Flee ye, and turn ye the backs; go down into a hollow, ye inhabitants of Dedan, for I have brought the perdition of Esau upon him, yea, the time of his punishment.)
9 If gatherers of grapes had come [up]on thee, they should have left (at least) a cluster; if thieves in the night, they should have ravished that that sufficed to them (if thieves in the night, they should have robbed, or taken, only what sufficed for themselves).
10 Forsooth I have uncovered Esau, and I have showed the hid things of him, and he may not be able to be hid; his seed is destroyed, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and it shall not be. (But I have uncovered Esau, and I have shown his hidden things, and he cannot hide himself; his children, or his descendants, be destroyed, and also his kinsmen, and his neighbours, and now he is not.)
11 Forsake thy fatherless children, and I shall make them to live, and thy widows shall (have) hope in me.
12 For the Lord saith these things, Lo! they drinking shall drink, to whom was no doom, that they should drink the cup (Lo! they who were not doomed, that they should drink the cup, even so, they shall still have to drink it). And shalt thou be left as innocent? (No!) thou shalt not be (left as) innocent, but thou drinking shalt (also) drink (of it).
13 For I swore by myself, saith the Lord, that Bozrah shall be into wilderness, and into shame, and into forsaking, and into cursing; and all the cities thereof shall be into everlasting wildernesses.
14 I heard an hearing of the Lord, and I am sent (as) a messenger to heathen men (I heard a word from the Lord, and I am sent as a messenger to the heathen); (to say,) Be ye gathered together, and come ye against them, and rise we (up) together into battle.
15 For lo! I have given thee (like) a little one among heathen men, despisable among men. (For lo! I make thee little among the heathen, and despised among the people.)
16 Thy boast, and the pride of thine heart, hath deceived thee, that dwellest in the caves of stone, and enforcest to take (hold of) the highness of a little hill; when thou as an eagle hast raised (up) thy nest, from thence I shall draw thee down, saith the Lord. (Thy boast, and the pride of thy heart, have deceived thee, thou who livest in stone caves, and endeavourest to take hold of the highness, or the top, of a little hill; even though thou hast raised up thy nest like an eagle, from there I shall draw thee down, saith the Lord.)
17 And Idumea shall be forsaken; each man that shall pass by it, shall wonder, and shall hiss on all the wounds thereof; (And Edom shall be deserted; each person who shall pass by it, shall wonder, and shall hiss at all its wounds;)
18 as Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed, and the nigh cities thereof, saith the Lord. A man shall not dwell there, and the son of (a) man shall not inhabit it. (yea, it, and the cities nearby, shall be destroyed, like Sodom and Gomorrah, saith the Lord. No one shall live there, and no one shall inhabit it.)

Jeremiah 49:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 49

This chapter contains prophecies concerning the judgments of God on several nations and kingdoms, chiefly bordering on the land of Israel; on the Ammonites, Jer 49:1-6; on the Edomites, Jer 49:7-22; on the kingdom of Damascus, or the Syrians, Jer 49:23-27; on the Kedarenes or Arabians, Jer 49:28-33; and on the Elamites or Persians, Jer 49:34-39.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.