translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JER

label: NET study note

text: Ammonites . Ammon was a small kingdom to the north and east of Moab which was in constant conflict with the Transjordanian tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh over territorial rights to the lands north and south of the Jabbok River. Ammon mainly centered on the city of Rabbah which is modern Amman. According to Judg 11:13 the Ammonites claimed the land between the Jabbok and the Arnon but this was land taken from them by Sihon and Og and land that the Israelites captured from the latter two kings. The Ammonites attempted to expand into the territory of Israel in the Transjordan in the time of Jephthah ( Judg 10-11 ) and the time of Saul (). Apparently when Tiglath Pileser carried away the Israelite tribes in Transjordan in 733 b.c. , the Ammonites took over possession of their cities ( Jer 49:1 ). Like Moab they appear to have been loyal to Nebuchadnezzar in the early part of his reign, forming part of the contingent that he sent to harass Judah when Jehoiakim rebelled in 598 b.c. ( 2 Kgs 24:2 ). But along with Moab and Edom they sent representatives to plot rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar in 594 b.c. ( Jer 27:3 ). The Ammonites were evidently in rebellion against him in 588 b.c. when he had to decide whether to attack Rabbah or Jerusalem first ( Ezek 21:18-23 [ 21:23-28 HT]). They appear to have remained in rebellion after the destruction of Jerusalem because their king Baalis was behind the plot to assassinate Gedaliah and offered refuge to Ishmael after he did it ( Jer 40:13; 41:15 ). According to the Jewish historian Josephus they were conquered in 582 b.c. by Nebuchadnezzar.


text: Compare Jer 48:7 and the study note there.


text: Edom was a kingdom to the south and east of Judah. Its borders varied over time but basically Edom lay in the hundred mile strip between the Gulf of Aqaba on the south and the Zered River on the north. It straddled the Arabah leading down from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, having as its northern neighbors both Judah and Moab. A long history of hostility existed between Israel and Edom, making Edom one of the favorite objects of the prophets’ oracles of judgment (cf., e.g., Isa 21:11-12; 34:5-15; 63:1-6 ; Amos 1:11-12 ; Ezek 25:12-14; 35:1-15 ; Obad 1-16). Not much is known about Edom at this time other than the fact that they participated in the discussions regarding rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar in 594 b.c . According to Obadiah 10-16 they not only gloated over Judah’s downfall in 586 b.c. but participated in its plunder and killed some of those who were fleeing the country.


text: Teman was the name of one of Esau’s descendants, the name of an Edomite clan and the name of the district where they lived ( Gen 36:11, 15, 34 ). Like the name Bozrah, it is used poetically for all of Edom ( Jer 49:20 ; Ezek 25:13 ).


text: Dedan . The Dedanites were an Arabian tribe who lived to the southeast of Edom. They are warned here to disassociate themselves from Edom because Edom is about to suffer disaster.


text: Bozrah appears to have been the chief city in Edom, its capital city (see its parallelism with Edom in Isa 34:6; 63:1 ; Jer 49:22 ). The reference to “its towns” (translated here “all the towns around it”) could then be a reference to all the towns in Edom. It was located about twenty-five miles southeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea apparently in the district of Teman (see the parallelism in Amos 1:12 ).


text: This verse is very similar to Jer 19:8 where the same judgment is pronounced on Jerusalem. For the meaning of some of the terms here (“hiss out their scorn” and “all the disasters that have happened to it”) see the notes on that verse.


text: Teman here appears to be a poetic equivalent for Edom, a common figure of speech in Hebrew poetry where the part is put for the whole. “The people of Teman” is thus equivalent to all the people of Edom.


text: Compare Jer 48:40-41 for a similar prophecy about Moab. The parallelism here suggests that Bozrah, like Teman in v. 20 , is a poetic equivalent for Edom.


text: Damascus is a city in Syria, located below the eastern slopes of the Anti-lebanon Mountains. It was the capital of the Aramean state that was in constant hostility with Israel from the time of David until its destruction by the Assyrians in 732 b.c . At various times it was allied with the Aramean state of Hamath which was further north. Contingents from these Aramean states were involved in harassing Judah and Jerusalem in 598 b.c. when Jehoiakim rebelled ( 2 Kgs 24:2 ) but little is heard about them in the rest of the book of Jeremiah or in the history of this period.


text: Ben-Hadad was a common name borne by a number of the kings of Damascus, e.g., one during the time of Asa around 900 b.c. (cf. 1 Kgs 15:18-20 ), one a little later during the time of Omri and Ahab around 850 (), and one during the time of Jehoash about 800 ( 2 Kgs 13:24-25 ).


text: Kedar appears to refer to an Arabic tribe of nomads descended from Ishmael ( Gen 25:13 ). They are associated here with the people who live in the eastern desert ( Heb “the children of the east”; בְּנֵי־קֶדֶם , bÿne-qedem ). In Isa 21:16 they are associated with the Temanites and the Dedanites, Arabic tribes in the north Arabian desert. They were sheep breeders ( Isa 60:7 ) who lived in tents ( Ps 120:5 ) and unwalled villages ( Isa 42:11 ). According to Assyrian records they clashed with Assyria from the time of Shalmaneser in 850 until the time of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal in the late seventh century. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, Nebuchadnezzar defeated them in 599 b.c .


text: Hazor . Nothing is know about this Hazor other than what is said here in vv. 28, 30, 33 . They appear to also be nomadic tent dwellers who had a loose association with the Kedarites.


text: Heb “the children of the east.” Nothing much is known about them other than their association with the Midianites and Amalekites in their attack on Israel in the time of Gideon ( Judg 6:3, 33 ) and the fact that God would let tribes from the eastern desert capture Moab and Ammon in the future ( Ezek 25:4, 10 ). Midian and Amalek were consider to be located in the region in north Arabia east of Ezion Geber. That would put them in the same general locality as the region of Kedar. The parallelism here suggests that they are the same as the people of Kedar. The words here are apparently addressed to the armies of Nebuchadnezzar.


text: This expression is a favorite theme in the book of Jeremiah. It describes the terrors of war awaiting the people of Judah and Jerusalem ( 6:25 ), the Egyptians at Carchemish ( 46:5 ), and here the Kedarites.


text: Compare Jer 9:11 .


text: Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.