Scripture Daily

Context No. 93 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 49:1-6: in context

1Of the children of Ammon. The LORD says: “Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people dwell in its cities? 2Therefore behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and it will become a desolate heap, and her daughters will be burned with fire; then Israel will possess those who possessed him,” says the LORD. 3“Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry, you daughters of Rabbah! Clothe yourself in sackcloth. Lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam will go into captivity, his priests and his princes together. 4Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? You trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come to me?’ 5Behold, I will bring a terror on you,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies, “from all who are around you. All of you will be driven completely out, and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives. 6“But afterward I will reverse the captivity of the children of Ammon,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah's book includes a series of oracles against the nations surrounding Judah, and this passage addresses Ammon, a small kingdom east of the Jordan around modern Amman, which still carries the name. The Ammonites were reckoned kin to Israel, descended from Lot.

The charge is opportunism. When Assyria deported the northern tribes, Ammon moved into the territory of Gad, which bordered them, and settled its cities. Jeremiah's question is legal in tone: has Israel no sons, no heir? Then why has Milcom taken possession of Gad? Milcom was the national god of Ammon, and naming him as the occupier makes the land grab a religious claim as well as a military one.

What follows is the standard shape of these oracles, war against the capital Rabbah, the god going into exile with his priests, the taunt to a people who trusted their treasures and their valleys. And then the last verse, which is easy to miss: afterward I will restore the fortunes of the children of Ammon. The judgment on the neighbor ends the same way the judgment on Judah does. Whose downfall have I been quietly hoping for, and how would it sit with me to hear it end with their restoration?

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