29 Their tents and their flocks they will take; they will take away for themselves their curtains and all their vessels and their camels: they will give a cry to them, Fear on every side.
What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight, not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord.
Go not out into the field or by the way; for there is the sword of the attacker, and fear on every side.
Sorrow is mine because I am strange in Meshech, and living in the tents of Kedar.
News is given of destruction on destruction; all the land is made waste: suddenly my tents, straight away my curtains, are made waste.
Troubles are round us on every side, but we are not shut in; things are hard for us, but we see a way out of them;
Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her, as on a woman in birth-pains.
Then on the day after, Pashhur let Jeremiah loose. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has given you the name of Magor-missabib (Cause-of-fear-on-every-side), not Pashhur. For the Lord has said, See, I will make you a cause of fear to yourself and to all your friends: they will come to their death by the sword of their haters, and your eyes will see it: and I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away prisoners into Babylon and put them to the sword.
My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains.
Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and perfumes on their camels.
People will never be living in it again, and it will have no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not make it a resting-place for their flocks.
False statements against me have come to my ears; fear was on every side: they were talking together against me, designing to take away my life.
And they were helped against them, so that the Hagarites, and those with them, were given into their power. For they sent up prayers to God in the fight, and he gave ear to them, because they put their faith in him. And they took away their cattle: fifty thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand asses, and a hundred thousand men.
The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their camels' necks.
Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east were covering the valley like locusts; and their camels were like the sand by the seaside, without number.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 49
Commentary on Jeremiah 49 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 49
The cup of trembling still goes round, and the nations must all drink of it, according to the instructions given to Jeremiah, ch. 25:15. This chapter puts it into the hands,
When Israel was scarcely saved where shall all these appear?
Jer 49:1-6
The Ammonites were next, both in kindred and neighbourhood, to the Moabites, and therefore are next set to the bar. Their country joined to that of the two tribes and a half, on the other side Jordan, and was but a bad neighbour; however, being a neighbour, they shall have a share in these circular predictions.
Jer 49:7-22
The Edomites come next to receive their doom from God, by the mouth of Jeremiah: they also were old enemies to the Israel of God; but their day will come to be reckoned with, and it is now at hand, and is foretold, not only for warning to them, but for comfort to the Israel of God, whose afflictions were very much aggravated by their triumphs over them and joy in their calamity, Ps. 137:7. Many of the expressions used in this prophecy concerning Edom are borrowed from the prophecy of Obadiah, which is concerning Edom; for, all the prophets being inspired by one and the same Spirit, there must needs be a wonderful harmony and agreement in their predictions. Now here it is foretold,
Jer 49:23-27
The kingdom of Syria lay north of Canaan, as that of Edom lay south, and thither we must now remove and take a view of the approaching fate of that kingdom, which had been often vexatious to the Israel of God. Damascus was the metropolis of that kingdom, and the ruin of the whole is supposed in the ruin of that: yet Hamath and Arpad, two other considerable cities, are names (v. 23), and the palaces of Ben-hadad, which he built, are particularly marked for ruin, v. 27; see also Amos 1:4. Some think Ben-hadad (the son of Hadad, either their idol, or one of their ancient kings, whence the rest descended) was a common name of the kings of Syria, as Pharaoh of the kings of Egypt. Now observe concerning the judgment of Damascus,
Jer 49:28-33
These verses foretell the desolation that Nebuchadnezzar and his forces should make among the people of Kedar (who descended from Kedar the son of Ishmael, and inhabited a part of Arabia the Stony), and of the kingdoms, the petty principalities, of Hazor, that joined to them, who perhaps were originally Canaanites, of the kingdom of Hazor, in the north of Canaan, which had Jabin for its king, but, being driven thence, settled in the deserts of Arabia and associated themselves with the Kedarenes. Concerning this people we may here observe,
Jer 49:34-39
This prophecy is dated in the beginning of Zedekiah's reign; it is probable that the other prophecies against the Gentiles, going before, were at the same time. The Elamites were the Persians, descended from Elam the son of Shem (Gen. 10:22); yet some think it was only that part of Persia which lay nearest to the Jews which was called Elymais, and adjoined to Media-Elam, which, say they, had acted against God's Israel, bore the quiver in an expedition against them (Isa. 22:6), and therefore must be reckoned with among the rest. It is here foretold, in general, that God will bring evil upon them, even his fierce anger, and that is evil enough, it has all evil in it, v. 37. In particular,