Jeremiah 49:7 - Meaning and Application

The Edomites are the next people to receive God’s judgment through Jeremiah. They had long been enemies of God’s people, but their time of reckoning is coming now, and it is near. This warning is not only for Edom, but also for the comfort of God’s people, whose suffering was made worse by Edom’s joy over their fall (Psalm 137:7).

Many of the words in this prophecy about Edom come from Obadiah’s prophecy, which is also about Edom. That fits, because all the prophets were guided by one Spirit, so their messages agree with each other in a wonderful way. Here Jeremiah foretells two main things.

First, the land of Edom will be ruined and left empty. God will bring on them the disaster they have earned for their old sins, and the time for that is near (Jeremiah 49:8). When God calls them to account, they will run from the sword, turn back from battle, and hide in deep caves. Everything they have will be taken by the conqueror. Ordinary grape gatherers leave some fruit behind, and even thieves know when to stop, but those who destroy Edom will never be satisfied (Jeremiah 49:9-10).

Edom will be stripped bare. The invaders will hunt down even hidden treasure and search out the places where Edom thought its wealth was safe. Nothing they own, and no one in their families, will be secure. They will not be able to hide themselves, and their children will be spoiled too. Their neighbors, the Moabites and Philistines, who might have helped them or sheltered them, will also be broken and unable to help.

Jeremiah says there will be no one left to say, “Leave your fatherless children, and I will keep them alive” (Jeremiah 49:11). No relative, no friend, and no public helper will be left to care for the widows and children behind. Edom will be gone, and no one will be there to take up the orphans. If a father is taken away, it is a comfort to leave his family in the care of a trusted friend. But Edom will have no such help, because all will share the same disaster.

The old Chaldee version takes these words as God’s promise to his own people, setting them apart from Edom in the judgment. It reads, in effect, that Israel will not be left without care, because God himself will preserve their children and care for their widows. Whatever becomes of Edom’s widows and fatherless, God will look after his people’s. That is a deep comfort for believers. When they are dying, they can leave their family with God in faith and trust him to preserve them, even if they cannot promise much worldly success for them.

Edom should expect only ruin and shame, because God has already made his decree. He has sworn it by himself that their cities will be destroyed and left as permanent ruins (Jeremiah 49:13). They had once looked powerful, but God will make them small among the nations. Those who despised God’s people will themselves become despised (Jeremiah 49:15, Obadiah 1:2). Their ruin will be so great that people will be astonished when they see it, and they will become a warning and a terror (Jeremiah 49:17). Edom will be made like Sodom and Gomorrah, so awful that no one will want to live there or even stay near the ruins (Jeremiah 49:18).

Second, the agents of this destruction will be bold and powerful. They come with God’s own commission. Jeremiah says he has heard a report from the Lord, and that an envoy is sent to the nations to gather them against Edom (Jeremiah 49:14). God’s purpose is settled. His counsel against Edom has been made, and no one can resist it (Jeremiah 49:20). God has determined that Edom will be laid waste, and the power used to do it will come swiftly and strongly.

This points to Nebuchadnezzar. He will come like a lion, fierce and hungry, especially like a lion driven out of cover by the flooding Jordan (Jeremiah 49:19). He will come roaring to devour all in his path. He will attack their strongholds and castles, and God says he will bring him suddenly into the land, so the Edomites will be unprepared. God will choose the right man for the work, a man fitted for the task. When God has work to do, he knows how to find the right tools for it.

No one can challenge God or set a time for him to act. No one can stand against him when he sends judgment, just as no shepherd could stop a lion sent into a flock. If God chooses to destroy Edom and drive them from their land, even the weakest soldier in Nebuchadnezzar’s army will be enough to draw them out (Jeremiah 49:20). The least servant in that camp will help force them to flee or surrender, and their homes will be left desolate. God can carry out the greatest works through the most unlikely means. When the Chaldean army comes against Edom, every hand will be used, and even the lowest soldier will have a share in their downfall.

Nebuchadnezzar will come, not only like a lion, the king of beasts, but like an eagle, the king of birds (Jeremiah 49:22). He will swoop down on his prey quickly and with force, and he will spread his wings over Bozrah, the chief city of Edom, to take it for himself, as in Jeremiah 48:40. At once the hearts of the mighty men will fail, because they will see that this is an enemy they cannot resist.

The Edomites had placed their trust in their wisdom, but it would do them no good. This is the first thing struck at in this prophecy against Edom, Jeremiah 49:7. That nation had long been known for wise men, and their leaders were thought to be skilled in politics. Yet now they would make such bad choices and fail so badly in every plan that people would wonder, “What has happened to the Edomites? Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Have the wise men of the east country (1 Kings 4:30) become fools? Are those who were thought to be so practical now helpless? Has counsel disappeared from the men of understanding?” That is what happens when God plans to bring a people down, because whom he means to destroy, he makes foolish (Job 12:20). Has their wisdom faded? Has it grown weak? Has it become useless? In the end, it will not help them when God comes against them.

They also trusted in their strength, but that would not save them, Jeremiah 49:16. They had been a terror to all their neighbors. Everyone feared them and yielded to them, and that made them proud and overconfident. Because no nearby nation dared to challenge them, they thought no nation anywhere in the world would dare. Much of their land was mountainous, with many narrow passes, and they thought they could defend those places against any attacker. But their fearsome reputation deceived them, and so did their belief that their land could not be reached. They were not as strong as they seemed, and they were not as safe as they felt. Though they were high and secure in their own eyes, God would bring them down, for there is no wisdom and no power that can stand against the Lord (Obadiah 1:3, 1:4, 1:8).

Their destruction would be certain and very public. God had determined it, Jeremiah 49:12. He had said it, and even sworn it, Jeremiah 49:13, that the Edomites would not go unpunished, but would drink the cup of trembling. That cup had already been given to all their neighbors, even to some who were less deserving of judgment than Edom. Some nations had not been such enemies of Israel as Edom had been, and even Israel, God’s special people, had had many who kept his commands and might have expected mercy. Yet they too had been made to drink that bitter cup. So should the Edomites expect to escape? No, they would surely drink from it as well. When God punishes the less guilty, it is foolish for the more guilty to think they will go free. And when judgment begins at God’s house, it will reach outsiders too.

The whole world would notice what happened to them, Jeremiah 49:21. The earth would shake, and all the nations would be troubled by the noise of Edom’s fall. The report of it would make them tremble. The cry would be heard as far as the Red Sea, which bordered Edom. The shouting of the victors and the cries of the defeated would be so loud, and the news of Idumea’s destruction would spread so far, that even ships in the Red Sea would hear it and carry the report to the farthest shores (1 Kings 9:26). When those who have made much noise with their pride and power fall, their ruin makes an even greater noise.