What does Jeremias Chapter 49 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Ammon’s occupancy and scattering precede a return promise. Edom’s downfall retains care for orphans and widows. Damascus, Cedar, Asor and Elam receive distinct oracles.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 49 asks why Melchom inherits Gad when Israel has sons and an heir; the edition identifies Ammon’s idol. Rabbath becomes a heap, daughters burn and Israel possesses its possessors. Hesebon, Hai and Rabbath receive mourning appeals; idol, priests and princes face captivity. Valley and treasure boasts meet scattering without a gatherer, followed by promised return. A particular earlier deportation cause is not stated.

Edom’s oracle questions Theman’s lost wisdom, urges Dedan’s flight into a deep hole and exposes Esau’s secrets beyond the partial taking of gleaners or thieves. Fatherless children receive a life promise and widows hope. The unavoidable cup and oath against Bosra precede an ambassador’s summons, smallness among nations and deceptive pride in rock clefts: even an eagle-high nest is brought down. Desolation like Sodom and Gomorrha, a lion from Jordan’s swelling, questions about an appointed ruler and resisting shepherd, little flock-members casting down, an earth-moving fall heard at the Red Sea, and an eagle over Bosra conclude with warriors’ labor-like fear.

Damascus’s oracle names troubled Emath and Arphad, flight, sorrow, abandoned renown, fallen young men and silent warriors, with fire on wall and Benadad’s strongholds. Cedar and Asor, identified separately as Arabian regions, lose tents, flocks, curtains, vessels and camels. Flight to deep holes accompanies Babylonian designs against an isolated people without gates or bars; round-cut hair, scattered inhabitants and Asor’s dragon habitation remain. Elam’s word dates to Sedecias’s beginning; the edition identifies a part of Persia. Broken bow, four winds scattering fugitives, fear, consuming sword and throne with destroyed kings and princes precede promised latter-day return. Jackals, famous bows, a Persian administrative province and scattering only warriors are not substituted.

The story inside

Opening: Ammon’s occupancy and scattering precede a return promise. Development: Edom’s downfall retains care for orphans and widows. Conclusion: Damascus, Cedar, Asor and Elam receive distinct oracles.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Ammon’s occupancy and scattering precede a return promise.
2
Edom’s downfall retains care for orphans and widows.
3
Damascus, Cedar, Asor and Elam receive distinct oracles.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 89124–89151
49:1. Against the children of Ammon. Thus saith the Lord: Hath Israel no sons? or hath he no heir? Why then hath Melchom inherited Gad: and his people dwelt in his cities? Melchom.... The idol of the Ammonites. 49:2. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will cause the noise of war to be heard in Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and it shall be destroyed into a heap, and her daughters shall be burnt with fire, and Israel shall possess them that have possessed him, saith the Lord. 49:3. Howl, O Hesebon, for Hai is wasted. Cry, ye daughters of Rabbath, gird yourselves with haircloth: mourn and go about by the hedges: for Melchom shall be carried into captivity, his priests, and his princes together. 49:4. Why gloriest thou in the valleys? thy valley hath flowed away, O delicate daughter, that hast trusted in thy treasures, and hast said: Who shall come to me? 49:5. Behold I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all that are round about thee: and you shall be scattered every one out of one another’s sight, neither shall there be any to gather together them that flee. 49:6. And afterwards I will cause the captives of the children of Ammon to return, saith the Lord.
Lines 89181–89199
49:14. I have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent to the nations: Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and let us rise up to battle. 49:15. For behold I have made thee a little one among the nations, despicable among men. 49:16. Thy arrogancy hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart: O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, and endeavourest to lay hold on the height of the hill: but though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as an eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord. 49:17. And Edom shall be desolate: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues. 49:18. As Sodom was overthrown and Gomorrha, and the neighbours thereof, saith the Lord: there shall not a man dwell there, and there shall no son of man inhabit it.