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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 49:1 - 49:1
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"Concerning the children of Ammon, thus saith Jahveh: Hath Israel no sons, or hath he no heir? Why doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? Jer 49:2. Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jahveh, when I will cause to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon a war-cry; and it shall become a heap of ruins, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: and Israel shall heir those who heired him, saith Jahveh. Jer 49:3. Howl, O Heshbon! for Ai is laid waste. Cry! ye daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth; lament, and run up and down among the enclosures: for their king shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together. Jer 49:4. Why dost thou glory in the valleys? Thy valley flows away, O thou rebellious daughter, that trusted in her treasures, [saying], Who shall come to me? Jer 49:5. Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord Jahveh of hosts, from all that is round thee; and ye shall be driven each one before him, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives. Jer 49:6. But afterwards I will turn the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith Jahveh."
The address begins with a question full of reproach: "Has Israel, then, no sons who could take possession of his land as their inheritance, that the king of the Ammonites has taken possession of Gad (i.e., of the hereditary portion of the tribe of Gad), and dwells in the cities of Gad?" The question presupposes that the Israelites had been carried away by Tiglath-pileser, but at the same time, also, that the country still belongs to the Gadites, for they certainly have sons who shall again receive the inheritance of their fathers. Since Jeremiah, as is clear from Jer 49:3, had Amo 1:13-15 in his mind, he evidently uses מַלְכָּם in a double sense, not merely in Jer 49:3, but even in Jer 49:1 also, with a reference to Amo 1:15, meaning the king and god of the Ammonites. As in Amos, Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome, and the Syriac, so in this passage also, the lxx, Vulgate, and Syriac have understood מַלְכָּם of the god מִלְכֹּם; with them agree Ewald, Hitzig, and Graf. But the reasons alleged for the change of מַלְכָּם into מִלְכֹּם are quite as insufficient here as in Amo 1:15. Just as, in the last-named passage, מַלְכָּם first of all refers to the king of the Ammonites, so is it here. It is not the god, but the king, of the Ammonites that has taken possession of the territory of Gad. It is not till Jer 49:3 that the reference to the god Milcom plainly comes out. Jer 49:2. Therefore shall Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, hear the cry of war, and be changed into a heap of ruins. רַבַּת בְּנֵי , "The great (city) of the sons of Ammon," is the full name of the Ammonite capital (cf. Deu 3:11), which is usually called, briefly, רַבָּה (Amo 1:14; 2Sa 11:1, etc.); it was afterwards called Philadelphia, probably after Ptolemy Philadelphus, in Polybius' ̔Ραββατάμανα, in Abulfeda Amân, which is the name still given to its ruins on the Nahr Ammân, i.e., the Upper Jabbok; see on Deu 3:11. "A cry of war," as in Jer 4:19; cf. Amo 1:14. "A will of desolation," i.e., a heap of ruins; cf. Jos 8:28; Deu 13:17. "her daughters" are the smaller cities dependent on the capital, - here, all the remaining cities of the Ammonites; cf. Num 21:25; Jos 15:45, etc. "Israel shall heir those who heired him," i.e., receive back the property of those who have appropriated his land.
Jer 49:3
The cities of the Ammonites, i.e., their inhabitants, shall howl and lament over this calamity. The summons given to Heshbon to howl implies that this city, formerly the residence of Sihon, was then in possession of the Ammonites. There is obscurity in the clause announcing the reason, "for עַי (lxx Γαΐ́) is laid waste:" the word seems to be a proper noun, but there is no city of this name known in the Ammonite country, or the land east of the Jordan; while we must not think of Ai (הָעַי, Jos 7:2.), which was situated on the west side of the Jordan. Venema and Ewald are inclined to take the word as an appellative, synonymous with תֵּל, "ruins" (which is the meaning of עִי), and regard it as the subject of Rabbah, the capital, "because it has been laid in ruins." But a comparison of Jer 48:20; Jer 4:20; Zec 11:3, rather favours our taking עַי as the subject. Graf and others would therefore change עַי into עָר, as (they say) the capital of the Ammonites was called by the Israelites. But there are no historical traces of this designation of Rabbah. There remains hardly any other course open than to consider עַי as the name of an important Ammonite city. The mere fact that it is mentioned nowhere else cannot form a strong foundation for the objection against this assumption, for we do not find anywhere a list of the Ammonite cities. The inhabitants of the other towns are to put on signs of sorrow, and go about mourning "in the enclosures," i.e., in the open country, since the cities, being reduced to ashes, no longer afford shelter. Most expositors understand גְּדֵרֹות as meaning sheep-folds (Num 32:16, Num 32:24, Num 32:36); but there is no reason for taking this special view of the meaning of the word, according to which גְּדֵרֹות would stand for גִּדְרֹות צֹאן. גְּדֵרָה and גָּדֵר also mean the wall of a vineyard, or the hedges of the vineyards, and in Num 22:24 specially the enclosure of the vineyards at the cross-roads in the country east of the Jordan. This is the meaning here. We must not, with Nägelsbach, think of city walls on which one could run up and down, for the purpose of taking measures for defence: the words to not signify the walls of a city. The carrying away into exile of Malcam with his priests and princes gives the reason for the sorrow. מַלְכָּם is here not the earthly king, but the god Milcom viewed as the king of the Ammonites, as is clear from the addition כֹּהֲנָיו noitidd, and from the parallel passage in Jer 48:7. The clause is copied from Amo 1:15, but הוּא has been substituted for כֹּהֲנָיו, in order that מַלְכָּם may be understood of Milcom, the chief deity (see on 1Ki 11:5).
Jer 49:4-5
Thus shall the empty boasting of the Ammonites and their trust in their riches come to nothing. "Why dost thou boast of the valleys?" i.e., of the splendid fruitful valleys and plains which, being well watered, produced large crops of corn and wheat.
(Note: The lxx have in this passage, as in Jer 47:5, changed עמק for ענק, and translated τὶ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε ὲν τοῖς πεδίοις ̓Εννακείμ; here it remains doubtful whether they have expressed בָּעֲמָקִים or עִמְקֵךְ by ̓Εννακείμ. On the ground of this arbitrary paraphrase, Hitzig would at once change עֲמָקִים into עֲנָקִים, without considering that the giant races of that region, to which Og the king of Bashan had also belonged (Deu 3:11), were not called ענקים at all, but זַמְזֻמִּים by the Ammonites, and אֵימִים by the Moabites (Deu 2:10, Deu 2:20).)
זָב is viewed by some as an antithesis to what immediately precedes: "thy valley flows, sc. with the blood of the slain" (Rosenmüller and Gesenius still view it thus); or, "it flows away," i.e., thy valley (viz., its inhabitants) is scattered, dispersed. But it is quite arbitrary to supply "with blood;" and even the other explanation - which Hitzig justifies on the ground that valley or river-bottom stands for what it contains, i.e., the inhabitants of the valley, and that the population is represented under the figure of a mass of water running, flowing away - is very far-fetched. The words cannot form an antithesis to what precedes (because the description of the confidence shown is still continued, and the antithesis does not follow till Jer 49:5), but merely a further extension of the preceding clause. We may, then, either translate, "thy valley flows, overflows," so that the words shall be subordinated to what precedes; or we may take זָב, with Ewald and Graf, as a noun, in which case we must repeat the preposition בְּ, "the abundance of thy valley." The singular, "thy valley," means, together with the other valleys of the country, perhaps the valley of Rabbah; for Ammân lies in a broad valley along with banks of the Moiet Ammân, which has its source in a pool two hundred paces from the south-west end of the city (Burckhardt's Syria, p. 355). Regarding the vicinity, Abulfeda writes (Tabulae Syr. ed. Mich. p. 92), circumjecta regio arva sativa sunt ac terra bona et abundans. The direct address, "O rebellious daughter," used of Israel in Jer 31:22, is here transferred to the inhabitants of Rabbah, with reference to the fact that the Ammonites, denying their descent from Lot, behaved like enemies towards Jahveh and His people. In trusting their riches, they are like the Moabites, Jer 48:7. In this confidence they said, "Who will come unto us?" i.e., attack us as enemies. Thereupon the Lord replies, "I will bring on thee fear, terror from all that is round thee," all the nations that dwell about thee (cf. Jer 48:17, Jer 48:39), whose distress or overthrow will put thee in terror. אִישׁ = אִישׁ לְפָנָיו, "every one before him" (cf. Jos 6:5; Amo 4:3), without looking about him, or turning round (cf. Jer 46:5), i.e., in the most precipitate flight, with no one to rally the fugitives. לַֹנּדֵר is collective.
Jer 49:6
Yet afterwards, the fortunes of Ammon also shall be changed, as it was with Moab. Jer 48:47.
Regarding the fulfilment of this prophecy (just as in the case of Moab), we have no further information than that of Josephus (Ant. x. 9. 7), that Nebuchadnezzar defeated and subdued the Ammonites in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. Shortly before, their king Baalis had got Gedaliah the governor put out of the way (Jer 40:14). Even after the exile they kept up their hostile spirit against the Israelites and the Jews, inasmuch as they tried to hinder the building of the city walls at Jerusalem (Neh 4:1.), and in the Maccabean age were still making war against the Jews; 1 Macc. 5:6, 30-43. Their name was preserved till the time of Justin Martyr ( ̓Αμμανιτῶν ἐστι νῦν πολὺ πλῆθος, Dial. Tryph. p. 272). But Origen already comprehends their country under the general name Arabia (lib. 1 in Jobum).