Jeremiah 49:1

Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord,.... Or, "to the Ammonites" (u); or, "against" them (w); it will bear to be rendered either way, and all is true; for what is said by the Lord, as

Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

CHAPTER 49 The judgment of the Ammonites, : their restoration, . The judgment of Edom, ; of Damascus, ; of Kedar and Hazor, ; of Elam, and its restoration, . The Ammonites were the posterity of Ben-ammi, Lot’ s incestuous child, by his younger daughter, . Their country was near the Jews’ country. The Jews, in their journey from Egypt to Canaan to possess it, passed by their country, but were by God forbidden to meddle with it, because he had given it to the children of Lot, ; but they proved bad neighbours to the Israelites when in Canaan. They assisted the king of Moab against them, , and made war against them, 11:4. Nahash their king made an inroad upon them, . David fought with them in his time, , and destroyed them, . Jehoshaphat also and Jotham fought with them, 27:5. During the long tract of time that there were wars betwixt the Jews and Ammonites, the laud of Gad and Reuben, which lay beyond Jordan, fell into the hand of the Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites (whence it is that in the former chapter we read of many cities of Moab, which were, upon the division of Canaan, in the lot of Gad and Reuben). This prophecy cannot be well understood without a previous understanding this. Hence it is that the prophet saith, Hath Israel no sons? God had given that country of Gilead to Manasseh, and Reuben, and Gad, ; and as men’ s estates ought to descend to their heirs, so this land should have continued and descended to the posterity of these tribes, but the Ammonites had by force taken away a part, and Melcom possessed it. Melcom is their king, or the name of their idol to whom they gave the name of king, as other heathens called their idol Baal, that is, lord. And the people of the king of the Ammonites, or of Melcom the idol of the Ammonites, dwelt in the cities belonging to Gad, which was one of the tribes of Israel.

Jeremiah 49:1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why [then] doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?Ver. 1. Concerning the Ammonites.] Who are taxed in Scripture for their pride, petulance, and contempt of God’ s Israel, whom they had always infested, and now grossly injured, by encroaching upon part of their country, which they had seized on, as if Israel had been heirless, and themselves next of kin, which was nothing so. See Zephaniah 2:8. Hath he no heir.] Yes, Judah and Benjamin, not yet captivated. Why then doth their king inherit gad?] i.e., Gilead (Gad’ s portion beyond Jordan), because it lieth convenient to him. This they would have done long before - viz., in Jephtha’ s days: but then it would not be. Afterwards, Saul and David subdued them; but in Jehoshaphat’ s time they came again, together with the Moabites, and the men of Mount Seir, to make a disturbance; but were defeated. Now, when those Israelites beyond Jordan were carried away, and their land desolated, first by the Syrians, and afterwards by the Assyrians, then in likelihood it was that the Ammonites thus invaded the country, and laid it to their own, that they might dwell alone in that part of the earth.

XLIX. (1) Concerning the Ammonites.—The history of this people was, to a great extent, parallel with that of the Moabites. They had been conquered by Sihon, the great Amorite king, and when that monarch was, in his turn, conquered by the Israelites (Numbers 21:21-31) their territory was assigned to the tribes of Gad and Reuben (Numbers 32:34-38). In Judges 11:12-33 we have the record of an unsuccessful attempt to recover their lost territory, and like attempts appear to have been made by Nahash (1 Samuel 11:1-11), and Hanun (2 Samuel 10:6-14; 2 Samuel 12:26-31). On the deportation of the Trans-jordanic tribes by Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:6; 1 Chronicles 5:26), they made a more successful effort, and their king Baalis appears as prompting the conspiracy of Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah (Jeremiah 40:14). The prophecy on which we now enter was probably delivered before that time, in or about the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:21). Its opening words recall the long-standing territorial controversy. “Had Israel no heir?” Was the land he had occupied so long to pass into the possession of a stranger? Why then doth their king inherit Gad . . .?—Better, with the margin and all the older versions, Melcom. The name, all but identical with the “Malcham” of Zephaniah 1:5, and connected with Moloch, was that of the god of the Ammonites, as Chemosh was that of the Moabite deity. He, as his very name implied, was their true king; and the complaint of the prophet is that he inherits Gad, which had been in the possession of Israel.

CHAPTER XLIX This chapter is a collection of prophecies relating to several nations in the neighbourhood of Judea; and, like those preceding, are supposed to have been fulfilled by the ministry of Nebuchadnezzar during the thirteen years' siege of Tyre. The chapter opens with a prophecy concerning the Ammonites, whose chief city, Rabbah, shall be destroyed; and Malcom, the supreme divinity of the people, with all his retinue of priests and officers, carried into captivity, 1-5. Promise that the Ammonites shall be restored to their liberty, 6. Prophecy against the Edomites, (very like that most dreadful one in the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah against the same people,) who shall be utterly exterminated, after the similitude of Sodom and Gomorrah, 7-22. Prophecy against Damascus, 23-27; and against Kedar, 28, 29. Utter desolation of the kingdoms of Hazor foretold, 30-33. The polity of the Elamites shall be completely dissolved, and the people dispersed throughout the nations, 34-38. The Elamites shall be delivered from their captivity in the latter days, 39. It wilt be proper here to observe that these predictions should not be so explained as if they admitted of merely a private interpretation; for, as Bishop Lowth remarks upon Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Idumeans, "by a figure very common in the prophetical writings, any city or people, remarkably distinguished as enemies of the people and kingdom of God, is put for those enemies in general;" therefore, it is under the Gospel dispensation that these prophecies shall be accomplished to their fullest extent upon all the antichristian nations that have sinned after the similitude of the ancient enemies of the people of God under the Mosaic economy. NOTES ON CHAP. XLIX Verse 1. CONCERNING THE AMMONITES] This prophetic discourse was also delivered after the capture of Jerusalem. Hath Israel no sons? - no heir?] The Ammonites, it appears, took advantage of the depressed state of Israel, and invaded their territories in the tribe of Gad, hoping to make them their own for ever. But the prophet intimates that God will preserve the descendants of Israel, and will bring them back to their forfeited inheritances. Why then doth their king] מלכם Malcom or Milcom, the chief idol of the Ammonites. That the idol Milcom is here meant is sufficiently evident from Jeremiah 49:3, where it is said: "Milcom (not their king) shall go into captivity; his PRIESTS and his princes together." Milcom is also called Molech. Malcom is put here for the Ammonites, as the people of Chemosh in the preceding chapter are put for the Moabites in general.

1. Hath Israel no sons?] The style is quite that of Jeremiah (e.g. Jeremiah 2:14). Malcam] mg. (less well), their king; and so in Jeremiah 49:3. He was the god of Ammon. See 1 Kings 11:5. The word should be written as LXX, Syr., Vulg. Milcom (and so in Jeremiah 49:3). possess] better, as mg. inherit; so in Jeremiah 49:3.

Hath Israel no sons? - i. e., the Ammonites in seizing Gilead have acted as if the country had no rightful owner. The sons of Israel were to return from captivity, and the land was their hereditary property.

AGAINST AMMON, Jeremiah 49:1-6.1. Concerning the Ammonites — In descent and character the Ammonites were twin people with the Moabites, but probably less civilized, being largely nomadic, while the