What The Lord Says About Edom
June 23, 2022
Commentary
This passage has to do with God’s Judgments against Edom – (vv. 7-22). The Edomites come next to receive their judgment from God. These people had descended from Jacob’s elder brother Esau, whom God had bypassed for the blessing, giving it to Jacob (Gen. 25:19-34). They inhabited the Trans-Jordan territory south of the Dead Sea from the Zered River to the Gulf of Aqaba. The caravan route, known as the King’s Highway (Num. 20:14-18), passed along the eastern part of their land. Hostilities and bitterness were abundant between the Hebrews and the Edomites (I Kings 11:15,16) but their common enemy, Babylon, caused them to join hands in the days of Zedekiah (Jer. 27:3).
The people of Edom were noted for their great wisdom, but they weren’t able to devise any plan that would save them from the invasion of the Babylonians (vv. 7-8). Edom’s judgment was like a harvest where nothing was left for the gleaners (vv. 9,10). He told them He could be trusted to care for their orphans and widows but they had to “drink of His cup of anger” (v. 12). He also told them their towns will suffer a horrible fate and lie in ruins forever (v. 13). He commands the nations to prepare for war against Edom who Ia. small and hated by them because of their pride and rebellion against the Lord (vv. 14-16). People will be shocked to see the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ans towns nearby (vv, 17-18). The Lord will attack like a lion attacking sheep and the land will be empty (v. 19), your children will be dragged off (v. 20), your destruction will cause the earth to shake (v. 21) and your warriors will be as fearful as women giving birth.
Application
Jeremiah 49:7– 22 (NET)
7 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies spoke about Edom: “Is wisdom no longer to be found in Teman? Can Edom’s counselors not give her any good advice? Has all their wisdom turned bad?
8 Turn and flee! Take up refuge in remote places, you people who live in Dedan. For I will bring disaster on the descendants of Esau. I have decided it is time for me to punish them.
9 If grape pickers came to pick your grapes, would they not leave a few grapes behind? If robbers came at night, would they not pillage only what they needed?
10 But I will strip everything away from Esau’s descendants. I will uncover their hiding places so they cannot hide. Their children, relatives, and neighbors will all be destroyed. Not one of them will be left!
11 Leave your orphans behind and I will keep them alive. Your widows, too, can depend on me.”
12 For the Lord says, “If even those who did not deserve to drink from the cup of my wrath must drink from it, do you think you will go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must certainly drink from the cup of my wrath. 13 For I solemnly swear,” says the Lord, “that Bozrah will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”
14 I said, “I have heard a message from the Lord. A messenger has been sent among the nations to say, ‘Gather your armies and march out against her! Prepare to do battle with her!’”
15 The Lord says to Edom, “I will certainly make you small among nations. I will make you despised by all humankind.
16 The terror you inspire in others and the arrogance of your heart have deceived you. You may make your home in the clefts of the rocks; you may occupy the highest places in the hills. But even if you made your home where the eagles nest, I would bring you down from there,” says the Lord.
17 “Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by it will be filled with horror; they will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.
18 Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns that were around them. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.
19 “A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Edomites off their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me, and there is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler who can stand up against me.
20 So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Edom, what I intend to do to the people who live in Teman. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.
21 The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba.
22 Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.”