Tuesday after VaYakhel

Tuesday after VaYakhel

Weekday Reading

Jeremiah chapter 49

Jer 49:1 Of the children of `Ammon. Thus says YHWH: Has Yisra’el no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malkam possess Gad, and his people well in the cities of it?

The Arabs that are claiming Israel’s lands are in violation of Elohim’s will.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of `Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Yisra’el possess those who did possess him, says YHWH.

Jer 49:3 Wail, Cheshbon, for `Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malkam shall go into captivity, his Kohanim and his princes together.

Again, the people in what used to be Ammon will be deported from Eretz Israel during the Messianic Kingdom. The land of Eretz Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates, will be reserved as an inheritance strictly for obedient believers of the House of Israel. Righteous Gentiles have a place in the Kingdom, but that place is not Eretz Israel.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:4 Why glory you in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? who trusted in her treasures, [saying], Who shall come to me?

Jer 49:5 Behold, I will bring a fear on you, says Adonai, YHWH Tzeva’ot, from all who are round about you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.

Jer 49:6 But afterward I will rescind the captivity of the children of `Ammon, says YHWH.

Like Egypt and Moab, there will come a time when Ammonites will be able to live again in Eretz Israel – most likely after some generations of being obedient believers in the Kingdom. Elohim’s judgement is said to go down to the “third and fourth” generations, so it will be some years, possibly, prior to their descendants in the Kingdom gaining readmittance to the land that is now called Jordan.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:7 Of Edom. Thus says YHWH Tzeva’ot: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

Jer 49:8 Flee you, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esav on him, the time that I shall visit him.

Jer 49:9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn’t they destroy until they had enough?

Jer 49:10 But I have made Esav bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

Jer 49:11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.

Jer 49:12 For thus says YHWH: Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink.

Jer 49:13 For I have sworn by myself, says YHWH, that Botzrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities of it shall be perpetual wastes.

We should take “perpetual” at face value. Some areas of Arab rebellion against Elohim will be permanently unhabitable, even in Jordan. The land itself is defiled due to their actions.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:14 I have heard news from YHWH, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

Jer 49:15 For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men.

Jer 49:16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says YHWH.

Jer 49:17 Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues of it.

Jer 49:18 As in the overthrow of Sedom and `Amorah and the neighbor cities of it, says YHWH, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

For us in our day, this would seem to indicate a nuclear strike.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Yarden against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me?

Jer 49:20 Therefore hear the counsel of YHWH, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

Jer 49:21 The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Sea of Suf.

Jer 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Botzrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

The “Sea of Suf” is the “Sea of Reeds” mentioned in Exodus.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:23 Of Damascus. Chamat is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can’t be quiet.

Damascus is in what is now Syria, of course.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:24 Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.

Jer 49:25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?

Jer 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says YHWH Tzeva’ot.

Jer 49:27 I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.

It is not clear here if this refers to a nuclear strike or simply to conventional warfare, but Zachariah seems to indicate a nuclear strike will occur.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:28 Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Chatzor, which Nevukhadnetzar king of Bavel struck. Thus says YHWH: Arise you, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east.

Kedar was a town east of Jerusalem – but it is also a reference to the Ukraine, which is known as the Land of Kedar. There is no evidence that Babylon ever invaded that far north, of course, but since, as the Sages agree, all the prophetic books of the Bible are here for reference to the end times (as opposed to those that got left out, which were not). So this could be referring to the False Messiah ordering Ukrainian troops to participate in his Middle Eastern Invasion. Or, it could simply be referring to a town in what is now the “West Bank” are of Israel, inhabited unlawfully by Arab Muslims.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side!

Jer 49:30 Flee you, wander far off, dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Chatzor, says YHWH; for Nevukhadnetzar king of Bavel has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.

Jer 49:31 Arise, go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says YHWH; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone.

Jer 49:32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says YHWH.

Jer 49:33 Chatzor shall be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

Another cursed and defiled area, even in the Messianic Kingdom.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:34 The word of YHWH that came to Yirmeyahu the prophet concerning `Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, saying,

Recall, Elam was located in what is now southwestern Iran.

Jeremiah, continued:

Jer 49:35 Thus says YHWH Tzeva’ot Behold, I will break the bow of `Elam, the chief of their might.

Jer 49:36 On `Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of `Elam shall not come.

Jer 49:37 I will cause `Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life; and I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger, says YHWH; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them;

Jer 49:38 and I will set my throne in `Elam, and will destroy from there king and princes, says YHWH.

Jer 49:39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will rescind the captivity of `Elam, says YHWH.

Elam does not appear to exactly be inside the area that Elohim promised to Avraham as Eretz Israel, but the Persian and Arab Muslim inhabitants will be deported anyway, possibly because Iran is involved in developing nuclear weapons which it intends to use against the State of Israel.