Jeremiah 49:2

Jer 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.

Ver. 2. Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord,] scil., After the subversion of the Jewish nation {Eze 21:25-27} For judgment commonly beginneth at the house of God.

And I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah.] Megalopolis, the metropolis of the Ammonites; it was afterwards called Philadelphia, from Ptolemy Philadelph, who re-edified it.

And it shall be a desolate heap.] Hob., A hillock of desolation.

And her daughters.] The neighbour towns and villages.

Then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs.] It hath been often observed, that God loveth to retaliate. How this was fulfilled, see /APC 1Ma 5:6, and Joseph., lib. xiii. cap. 21.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 49:2. Therefore I will cause the noise of war to be heard in Rabbah, &c. — The principal city of that country. Her daughters shall be burned with fire — That is, the lesser cities, which are reckoned so many daughters to the mother city. Then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs — Hebrew, וירשׁ את ירשׁיו, Possidebit possessores suos, Vulgate, shall possess his possessors: or, as Blaney renders it, shall take to their possessions who have taken to his. “This is understood,” says he, “to have been fulfilled when Judas Maccabeus defeated the Ammonites, and took their towns, 1Ma 5:6, &c. Zephaniah speaks in like manner, Jer 2:9, The residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. But both prophets may, perhaps, refer to still future times, when Israel shall be finally restored to their own land, as is frequently foretold of them, and not only recover their own ancient possessions, but succeed, likewise, to the vacant possessions of their once hostile neighbours, long since extinct and irrecoverably lost.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

49:2 Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, was destroyed in 582 BC.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which was one of the chief cities of the Ammonites, as were Heshbon and Ai: there was also a city called Heshbon among the Moabites.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Rabbah--"the great," metropolis of Ammon (Sa2 12:26-30). Its destruction is foretold also in Eze 25:5; Amo 1:14-15.

her daughters--the towns and villages, dependencies of the metropolis (Jos 15:45).

shall . . . be heir--shall possess those who possessed him. The full accomplishment of this is still future; partially fulfilled under the Maccabees (1 Maccabees 5:6).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God testifies here plainly that he would not suffer the Ammonites for ever to enjoy their unjust plunder. He says that the days would come, in order to sustain with hope the minds of his children: for the Prophet announced his prediction at a time when the Ammonites were in a state of security; and then, some years elapsed while that people enjoyed their spoils. He therefore holds here the minds of the faithful in suspense, that they might learn patiently to wait until the fixed time of God’s vengeance came. For this reason, then, he says, that the days would come when God would cause the trumpet of war to resound in Rabbah He speaks as of a thing extraordinary, for the Ammonites thought, as we shall see, that they should never be in any danger. As, then, they proudly trusted in their own strength, the Prophet speaks here of the trumpet of war in Rabbah, which was the metropolis of the whole land. Some think that it was Philadelphia, a name given to it by Ptolemy. Interpreters, however, do not agree; but the opinion mostly received is, that it was Philadelphia. Now, as to the main thing, there is no doubt but that it was then the chief seat of government, and the capital of the kingdom, because the Prophet, stating a part for the whole, includes the whole land when he speaks of this city.

He says that she would become a heap of desolation But this was then wholly incredible, because Rabbah was so fortified that no one thought that it could be destroyed. But the Prophet now declares that the whole city would be demolished, so that neither walls nor private houses would remain, but that it would be a deformed mass of ruins. He adds, her daughters shall be burned with fire By daughters he no doubt understands towns and villages; and hence is confirmed what I have said, that Rabbah was then the chief city of the whole land of Ammon. At the end of the verse he says, Israel shall possess all who possess them By these words Jeremiah again confirms what I have slightly referred to, that the calamity of the Ammonites would be a testimony as to God’s paternal kindness towards his chosen people, because he resolved to avenge the wrongs done to them. As, then, God undertook the cause of the Israelites as his own, he sufficiently manifested the favor he had intended for his people, and for no other reason, but because he had gratuitously chosen them.

It may be asked, when was this prophecy fulfilled? God, indeed, under David, gave some indication of their future subjection, but Israel never possessed that land. Indeed, from that time Ammon had not been brought low until after the overthrow of Israel. It then follows that what Jeremiah predicted here, was not fully accomplished except under the kingdom of Christ. David humbled that nation, because he had received a great indignity from the king of Ammon; and he took also Rabbah, as it is evident front sacred history. (2 Samuel 12:29, etc.; 1 Chronicles 20:1, 2.) He was yet satisfied with making the people tributary. From that time they not only shook off the yoke, but exercised authority within the borders of Israel; and that the Israelites had recovered what they had lost, we nowhere read. Then Israel began to possess power over the Ammonites when the kingdom of Christ was established; by which all heathen nations were not only brought into subjection and under the yoke, but all unworthy of mercy were also reduced to nothing. What is added at the end of the verse is not superfluous; for the Prophet introduces God as the speaker, because he speaks of great things, and of which it was difficult to be fully convinced. It now follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(2) Rabbah of the Ammonites.—More fully, of the children of Ammon.—Rabbah, or Rabbath, the “city of waters” (the word signifies “Great,” and the city was, as it were, the Megalopolis of Ammon), was the capital, and this was its full and formal title (Deu_3:11; 2Sa_11:1; 2Sa_12:26). It had been captured by Joab after the siege made memorable by the death of Uriah the Hittite. Jeremiah now predicts its destruction as Amos (Jer_50:14) had done before him. Israel shall then re-enter on its occupation. Its site is now marked by ruins of a stately temple and theatres of the Syrian period (Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 540).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Rabbah] now ‘Ammân, their capital city, on the river Jabbok, fourteen miles N.E. of Heshbon.

a desolate heap] See on Jer_30:18.

her daughters] the minor cities depending on her; so Jer_49:3.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are coming" (y); as they did, in a very little time after this prophecy:

that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; the metropolis of the Ammonites; it was their royal city in the times of David, Kg1 11:1; called by Polybius (z) Rabbahamana; and by Ptolemy (a) Philadelphia, which name it had from Ptolemy Philadelphus, who rebuilt it; this the Lord threatens with the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, or the noise of warriors, as the Targum; the Chaldean army under Nebuchadnezzar, who, about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, subdued the Ammonites, as Josephus (b) relates:

and it shall be a desolate heap; be utterly destroyed; its walls broken down, and houses demolished, and made a heap of rubbish: and

her daughters shall be burnt with fire: Rabbah was the mother city, and the other cities of the Ammonites were her daughters, which are threatened to be destroyed with fire by the enemy; or it may mean the villages round about Rabbah, it being usual in Scripture for villages to be called the daughters of cities; see Eze 16:46; so the Targum here paraphrases it,

"the inhabitants of her villages shall be burnt with fire:''

then shall Israel be heirs unto them that were his heirs, saith the Lord: that is, shall inherit their land again, which the Ammonites pretended to be the lawful heirs of; yea, not only possess their own land, but the land of Ammon too: this was fulfilled not immediately upon the destruction of Ammon, but in part upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, when they repossessed their own country; and partly in the times of the Maccabees, when they subdued the Ammonites,

"Afterward he passed over to the children of Ammon, where he found a mighty power, and much people, with Timotheus their captain.'' (1 Maccabees 5:6)

and will more fully in the latter day, when the Jews shall be converted, and return to their own land, and the children of Ammon shall obey them, Isa 11:14; so Kimchi interprets it; and other Jewish writers understand it of the days of the Messiah, as Abarbinel observes.

(y) "sunt venientes", Montanus, Schmidt. (z) Hist. l. 5. p. 414. (a) Geograph. l. 5. c. 15. (b) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rabbah - i. e., the “great city.” See 2Sa 12:27 note for a distinction between Rabbah, the citadel, and the town itself, lying below upon the Jabbok.

Daughters - i. e., unwalled villages (and in Jer 49:3).

Shall Israel be heir ... - i. e., “shall be victor over his victors;” compare Mic 1:15.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rabbath; called Amana, Astarte, and Philadelphia, by Stephanus. --- Possess; returning first from captivity, and subduing the cities of Ammon, under Hyrcan, 1 Machabees v. 6.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Because the Ammonites had violently seized upon some part of the Jews’ land, and (as we have it, Amo 1:13,14) cruelly ripped up the women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border, God threatens a war to Rabbah, Amo 1:14, calls it a fire, which should make Rabbah a heap. Of this Rabbah, as the head city of the Ammonites, we read Deu 3:11; Jos 13:25; 15:60. It was there where, in David’s time, Uriah was slain, 2Sa 11:1,17; 12:26. It is threatened by Jeremiah in this chapter, and Eze 25:5; Amo 1:13,14. We read not how or when this prophecy was fulfilled, whether by the Maccabees, 1Ma 5:6, or rather after the coming of Christ, when most of these nations were destroyed. God threatens not only their metropolis, which was Rabbah their mother city, but all the other cities belonging to the Ammonites, which were as it were daughters to Rabbah. But how the last clause of this prophecy was ever fulfilled, if it were not in the time of the Maccabees, I cannot understand; for though they were swallowed up afterward by the Roman empire, yet Israel being also subdued by them, and scattered into all parts, it is not likely that many of them were suffered to, abide in any considerable numbers in a country so near their own.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Rabbah — Its full name was”The great city of the sons of Ammon,” though it was usually called simply Rabbah — the Great. Later it was called Philadelphia, after Ptolemy Philadelphus. It was situated on or near the brook Jabbok.

Her daughters — The unwalled villages dependent on her.

Be heir — The tables will be turned. The Ammonites have taken possession of the Israelites’ territory, but shall be driven from it.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The punishment of Ammon. Its capital, Rabbah, (see 2Sa_12:26, 2Sa_12:27) and the "daughter" cities, (comp. Num_21:25, margin; Jos_15:45 and Jos_17:11 in the Hebrew) shall be laid waste. The alarm of war ("alarm" equivalent to "shout"), as in Jer_4:19. A desolate heap. Fortified towns were built on "heaps, or slight elevations, (comp. on Jer_30:18) the Hebrew name for which (in the singular) is tel. The "heap" and the ruins of the town together are aptly called a "heap of desolation." Then shall Israel be heir, etc.; rather, then shall Israel dispossess those who dispossessed him (comp. ver. 1). The form of the phrase reminds us of Isa_14:2.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.