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V. ORACLE RESPECTING EDOM, XLIX. 7-22.

XLIX. 7. To Edom. Thus says Yahveh of hosts: Is then wisdom no longer in Teman? has counsel vanished from the prudent? is their wisdom spilt ? 8. Flee ye, turn away, bury yourselves deep, ye inhabitants of Dedan; for I bring Esau's calamity on him on the day that I visit him. 9. When grape-gatherers come upon thee, they will leave no gleaning; when thieves (come) at night-time, they will destroy until they have enough. 10. For I lay Esau bare, discover his hiding places, so that he can no longer remain concealed. Violence is done to his seed, and his brethren, and his neigh

CHAPTER XLIX. 7-22.

Ver. 7. 8, see on xlvi. 2. The oracle respecting Edom often coincides literally with Obadiah's respecting that people. Cf. xlix. 7 with Obad. 8, xlix. 15 with Obad. 2, xlix. 16 with Obad. 3. As Caspari has proved in detail (Der Proph. Obadja, 1842), Obadiah is the original which Jeremiah used, as he used other oracles in many of his foreign prophecies. Whether he had the whole canonical Obadiah before him, or whether the latter was enlarged by later additions, is of no importance here.-The inhabitants of Edom, especially those of Teman, an Edomite province, were famed for their wisdom (cf. Job ii. 11). This wisdom does not help them to escape from the judgment. It seems to vanish when the latter approaches. Quem perdere vult deus, dementat.-D, partic. of ra; cf. a, Obad. 8.—

, poured on the ground, cf. xix. 7. The trading people of Dedan, near Edom (xxv. 23), whose caravans were accustomed to pass through the country of the Edomites, must hasten away and hide themselves. D, imper. Hoph. (rare, Ges. § 46. 1), elsewhere Hiphil (ver. 24, xlvi. 21).-Bury yourselves right deep, properly, go down into the depth to dwell, used of seeking the most unapproachable hiding-place. Ver. 9, much more graphic in Obad. 5. Jeremiah has turned the questions of surprise in the seer into simple statements respecting the future. Whether one regards the enemies as grape-gatherers or thieves, they will do their work thoroughly. " does not denote here a moderate measure, as in Obadiah, but describes insatiableness without limit. Ver. 10 freely, after Obad. 6. In their rocky nests the marauding Edomites had stored up many treasures; cf. Diod. Sic. xix. 94, 95.-—л, in any case for 2, is difficult as perfect; perhaps лan (infin.) is to be read. Besides the Edomites

bours, and he himself passes away. 11. Leave thy orphans; I preserve their life; and let thy widows trust in me! 12. For thus says Yahveh: Behold, they who deserved not to drink this cup shall certainly drink it, and shalt thou go quite unpunished? Thou shalt not remain unpunished, but shalt certainly drink. 13. For by myself I have sworn, is Yahveh's oracle, that Bozrah shall become a solitude, a reviling, a wilderness, and a curse, and all its cities perpetual wastes.

14. I have heard tidings from Yahveh, and a messenger is sent among the nations: Gather ye together and advance against her, and arise for the battle! 15. For, behold, I have made thee small among the nations, despised among men. 16. Terror for thee! The presumption of thine heart has bewitched thee, thou who dwellest in the rock clefts, that holdest the crown of the hill! Though thou buildest thy nest high as the eagle, thence will I force thee down, is

proper, their brethren and neighbours also are threatened, like the kindred Amalekites (Gen. xxxvi. 12), Horites (Gen. xxxvi. 20 ff.), Simeonites (1 Chron. iv. 42), and the neighbouring tribes, Dedan (ver. 8), Tema, Buz (xxv. 23). Ver. 11. Edom is addressed; he can no longer care for his widows and orphans, but must commit them to the merciful God. Ver. 12. Cf. xxv. 29.-Who did not deserve, properly, whose right it was not, who had not the judgment pertaining to them by right (see on xxvi. 11). Ver. 13. n5 manns, xxv. 18, xliv. 22. Bozrah (Gen. xxxvi. 33; Isa. xxxiv. 6, lxiii. 1; Amos i. 12), once capital of the Edomites, to-day the village El-Buzeireh in the district of Jebal; all its towns are the smaller ones about. Ver. 14, at the beginning of the oracle in Obadiah; is there more original in form. God commands the nations, as the prophet hears, against Edom. Ver. 16. non, here only =

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. The suffix expresses genitive of object. The fear of thee has bewitched thee, i.c. the regard thou enjoyest is too feeble; moreover, the verb, as masc., belongs to the following subject. Hence it is better taken as exclamation, cf. Isa. xxix. 16. The fate of the arrogant nation excites terror. Nägelsbach: Thy abomination seduced thee, cf. ny; but the appositional subject, "the pride of thy heart," would not agree with this. Nor is any such deity of Edom known.— Edom thought itself impregnable in its rocky abodes. As the

Yahveh's oracle. 17. And Edom shall become a desolation; whoever passes by it shall be amazed, and hiss for all its wounds. 18. As after the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha and their neighbours, says Yahveh, no one shall dwell there, and no child of man sojourn there. 19. Behold, like a lion it rises up from the overgrowth of Jordan for an indestructible pasture; for in a moment I will chase him away from it, and who is chosen? Him will I appoint over it. For who is like me, and who will challenge me? And who now is a shepherd to stand before me? 20. Therefore hear ye the purpose of Yahveh, which he formed respecting Edom, and his thoughts which he thought in regard to the inhabitants of Teman: Verily they are dragged away, the little ones of the flock; verily their pasture shall be astonished at them. 21. The earth trembles at their thundering fall; the cry of grief-its sound is heard on the Red Sea. 22. Behold, like an eagle it rises up and flies near, and spreads its wings over ruins of its capital Sela (Petra) show still, the people dwelt of old in dwellings furnished by caves, artificially excavated in part. Jerome on Obad. 5: "omnis australis regio Idumæorum in specubus habitatiunculas habet." Ver. 17. "And hiss," see on xviii. 16. Ver. 18. As after the overthrow of Sodom, cf. Deut. xxix. 22; fuller form, Jer. 1. 40. Their neighbours, Admah and Zeboim, Deut. xxix. 22; Hos. xi. 8. Ver. 19. The enemy proper is not named, only described figuratively as in xxv. 38, xlviii. 40.-Overgrowth of Jordan, see on xii. 5. The indestructible pasture, serving the people as a settled home, must be forsaken at a stroke.- expresses an adverbial idea of time, and is to be understood as in Prov. xii. 19, , usque dum nictem oculis vibrem (A. Schultens), where stands in antithesis, like in here; see Orelli, Synonyma der Zeit, p. 27 f. In a moment I chase him (Edom) from it (the settled, always inhabited pasture). Over this home, to which Edom thought it had an inviolable right, God in sovereign freedom sets whom He chooses. Who will challenge me, properly, summon to give account (Job ix. 19)? And where is a shepherd (keeping up the figure of a pasture), a ruler, to stand in my way? Ver. 20. The little ones of the flock, i.e. the defenceless people. Opposite in xxv. 34. Their own land is dumb with terror at them. Do, Hiphil, as usually Kal. Ver. 216. Construction, Ges. § 145. 2; Eng. § 142. Ver. 22 like xlviii. 40 f.-Bozrah, see on ver. 13.

עד ארגיעה

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Bozrah; and the heart of the heroes of Edom on that day becomes like the heart of a woman in her

pangs.

EXPOSITION.

Contents of ch. xlix. 7-22. Rebuke of the Edomites. This neighbouring people to Israel, by a peculiar destiny, had almost always stood in a hostile relation to it. As long as the Edomites were subject to Israel-Judah (from David's days), they used every opportunity to rise against its supremacy; so under Joram (2 Kings viii. 20) and under Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 6; 2 Chron. xxviii. 17). And when they became permanently independent, they remained hostile in disposition, despite Jer. xxvii. 3, as was especially seen at Jerusalem's fall. This nation, therefore, receives from the prophet a specially severe condemnation, such as was due to it (ver. 12). According to his custom, Jeremiah repeats a judicial sentence which Obadiah had long ago passed on Edom on an occasion when the latter had acted with marked. treachery; cf. also Joel iii. 19; Amos i. 11. If in Obadiah the order of the sayings and their shape are more original and striking, in Jeremiah, on the other hand, the day of retribution has come nearer, and the avenging foe, who will requite the guile of Edom, is already in sight. Jeremiah's oracle precedes the overthrow of Jerusalem, when Edom filled up the measure of its sins (Lam. iv. 22; Ezek. xxxv. 5, 10, xxxvi. 5; Ps. cxxxvii. 7); it belongs to the time of Jehoiakim, perhaps the fourth year of this king (xxv. 21), and shows many points of contact with the other oracles of this epoch. What Edom is told is as follows. The famous wisdom which flourished among these neighbours of God's people, and of which the Book of Job is a glorious monument, will not save them, and just as little their strong, seemingly inaccessible seats on Mount Seir: their nests will be taken, their treasures amassed by plunder will be carried off; the nation, that had

never been driven from its pasture, the advancing lion will drive off in a moment from its native meadow.

The fulfilment of this prophecy appears in Mal. i. 3, which passage implies a partial laying waste of the country of the Edomites by the Chaldæans (in the period after Jerusalem's overthrow), and also announces a repetition of this judgment (ver. 4), such as was executed in fact by the Maccabees, and at last by the Romans.

VI. ORACLE RESPECTING DAMASCUS, XLIX. 23–27.

XLIX. 23. To Damascus. Hamath is ashamed, and Arpad ; for they have heard evil tidings; they are beside themselves, agitated like the sea; it cannot be quiet. 24. Damascus is without strength, is turned in flight, and terror has seized it; anguish and pangs have taken hold of it like a travailing woman. 25. How is the city of renown not forsaken, the

CHAPTER XLIX. 23-27.

Ver. 23. In the heading (see on xlvi. 2) only Damascus is named, the most important town of all Aram (Syria); really the capital of a more limited kingdom, the "Damascene Aram," 2 Sam. viii. 6, from which the "land of Hamath" is distinguished (xxxix. 5). This Hamath on the Orontes, called also Hamath Rabbah (Amos vi. 2), a very important city mentioned often in the inscriptions, called Epiphania in the Macedonian period, now again Hamah, is the extreme northern point to which the Israelitish supremacy extended, 1 Kings viii. 65; 2 Kings xiv. 25 (Num. xiii. 21, xxxiv. 8, etc.).—Arpad (Isa. x. 9), to-day an uninhabited ruin, Tell Erfad, three hours north of Aleppo; once powerful, as appears from its frequent mention in the inscriptions.-Instead of ', yielding no satisfactory meaning, read, after Isa. lvii. 20, D2, and join to the following. applies to the seer. In consequence of the bad news they are melted, i.e. beside themselves with anxiety, like the sea which finds no rest. Ver. 24. п, mappik has fallen away because of the putting back of the tone., terror, panic, here only; perhaps used here intentionally as a Syrian word; cf. nn, Hos. xiii. 1. Ver. 25. 5 does not stand elsewhere in this sense with 78, properly

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how is it not forsaken,

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