Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Turn and run! Lie low, O dwellers of Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time I punish him.

“Dedan--a tribe bordering on and made subject by Idumea; descended from Jokshan, son of Abraham and Keturah (Ge 25:1-3).”

Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.”

“Thy fatherless and widows must rest their hope in God alone, as none of the adult males shall be left alive, so desperate will be the affairs of Edom.”

For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished?

“It might have been expected that they would be spared. He regards not the merits of the Jews, for they were as bad or worse than others: but the grace and adoption of God; it is just and natural ("judgment") that God should pardon His…”

Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land.

“English Version accords more with the Hebrew. suddenly--"in the twinkling of an eye," as the Hebrew implies. him . . . her--I will make Nebuzara-dan enter Idumea, and then, having in the twinkling of an eye effected the conquest, go away speedily: elsewhere.”

Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report; they are agitated like the sea; their anxiety cannot be calmed.

“Prophecy as to Damascus, &c. The kingdom of Damascus was destroyed by Assyria, but the city revived, and it is as to the latter Jeremiah now prophesies. The fulfilment was probably about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10.9,7].”

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

“Elam--part of Susiana, west of Persia proper, but used to designate Persia in general. Elam proper, or Elymais, nearer Judea than Persia, is probably here meant; it had helped Nebuchadnezzar against Judea; hence its punishment.”

I will set My throne in Elam, and destroy its king and officials,” declares the LORD.

“I will show Myself King by My judgments there, as though My tribunal were erected there. The throne of Cyrus, God's instrument, set up over Media, of which Elam was a part, may be meant [GROTIUS]; or rather, that of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 43:10).”

My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray, causing them to roam the mountains. They have wandered from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

“Jehovah is the resting-place of His sheep (Mt 11:28). They rest in His "bosom" (Isa 40:11). Also His temple at Zion, their "rest," because it is His (Ps 132:8, 14).”

All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their…

“At the same time these "adversaries" unconsciously use language which corrects their own notions. The covenant with the Jews' "fathers" is not utterly set aside by their sin, as their adversaries thought; there is still "a habitation" or refuge for them with the God of…”

“Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,

“But there is a disagreement of gender in Hebrew reading thus. The Keri is better: "a heifer threshing"; the strongest were used for threshing, and as the law did not allow their mouth to be muzzled in threshing (De 25:4), they waxed wanton with eating.”

Line up in formation around Babylon, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against the LORD.

“Summons to the Median army to attack Babylon. against the Lord--By oppressing His people, their cause is His cause. Also by profaning His sacred vessels (Da 5:2).”

In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will…

“The specification of "Israel," as well as Judah, shows the reference is to times yet to come. iniquity . . . none--not merely idolatry, which ceased among the Jews ever since the Babylonian captivity, but chiefly their rejection of Messiah.”

Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD.

“Pekod-- (Eze 23:23); a chief province of Assyria, in which Nineveh, now overthrown, once lay. But, as in Merathaim, the allusion is to the meaning of Pekod, namely, "visitation"; the inhabitants whose time of deserved visitation in punishment is come; not, however, without reference to…”

I laid a snare for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it. You were found and captured because you challenged the LORD.

“I--Thou hast to do with God, not merely with men. taken . . . not aware--HERODOTUS relates that one half of the city was taken before those in the other half were "aware" of it.”

A sword is against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and wise men.

“The repetition of "A sword" in the beginning of each verse, by the figure anaphora, heightens the effect; the reiterated judgment is universal; the same sad stroke of the sword is upon each and all connected with guilty Babylon. wise men-- (Isa 47:13).”

So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

“Literally, "daughters of crying." Compare as to spiritual Babylon, Re 18:2. no more inhabited for ever--The accumulation of phrases is to express the final and utter extinction of Babylon; fulfilled not immediately, but by degrees;”

Behold, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirred up from the ends of the earth.

“The very language used to describe the calamities which Babylon inflicted on Zion is that here employed to describe Babylon's own calamity inflicted by the Medes.”

Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land.

“Repeated mainly from Jer 49:19-21. The identity of God's principle in His dealing with Edom, and in that with Babylon, is implied by the similarity of language as to both.”

Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!

“The Chaldean version and JEROME, by changing the vowel points, read, "Let not him (the Babylonian) who bendeth his bow bend it."”

Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.

“The cup is termed "golden," to express the splendor and opulence of Babylon; whence also in the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar (Da 2:38) the head representing Babylon is of gold (compare Isa 14:4).”

“The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.”

“Compare Jer 23:6, "The Lord our righteousness"; Their righteousness is His righteousness. declare in Zion-- (Ps 102:13-21).”

Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it…

“GESENIUS, not so well, translates, "Fill with your bodies the shields" (compare So 4:4). He means to tell the Babylonians, Make what preparations you will, all will be in vain (compare Jer 46:3-6). kings of . . .”

The LORD made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

“Repeated from Jer 10:12-16; except that "Israel" is not in the Hebrew of Jer 51:19, which ought, therefore, to be translated, "He is the Former of all things, and (therefore) of the rod of His inheritance" (that is, of the nation peculiarly His own).”

Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

“The detail of particulars (Jer 51:20-23) is in order to express the indiscriminate slaughters perpetrated by Babylon on Zion, which, in just retribution, are all to befall her in turn (Jer 50:15, 29). in your sight--addressed to the Jews.”

“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD.

“Such was the appearance of Babylon after its destruction, and as the pumice stones of the volcano are left in their place, being unfit for building, so Babylon should never rise from its ruins.”