Day 235—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.

    Day 235 – Jeremiah 49 – 50 (Judgments on Ammon, Edom, various cities and Babylon)

Jeremiah 49. Like the Moabites, the Ammonites were descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot. When Assyria took the northern kingdom captive, the Ammonites moved right into the territories of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. 

“Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcon (god, Molech) settled in his cities?”  “I will cause  the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound.”    “Cry out….put on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the hedges? For Milcom (Molech) shall go into exile with his priests and officials “But, afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob/Israel’s twin brother. They lived in the high country east and south of the Dead Sea.  “Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.  As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there.”     

Damascus in Syria also comes under the LORD’s judgment. “Damascus has become feeble. She turned to flee, and panic seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her as of a woman in labor.”     “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.”       

Kedar and Hazor in Arabia, were descendants of Ishmael, and were struck down by Nebuchadnezzar as he headed for Jerusalem…“for the king has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you.”    

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Jeremiah 50. And at last, God’s judgment will come upon Babylon.  

“Declare among the nations and proclaim….Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed.” 

” For out of the north, a nation has come up against her which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away. “

Then, the captivity of Israel will be ended.

“In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the LORD their God.  They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, “Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”     

And more, much more, against Babylon.

“Though you rejoice, though you exult O plunderers of my heritage… Because of the wrath of the LORD, she shall not be inhabited but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled.”  “Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen; her walls are thrown down.”   

“How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations.  I set a snare for you, and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught because you opposed the LORD.”

“The LORD has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of His wrath, for the Lord GOD of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.”

“A sword against the Chaldeans declares the LORD, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men!

A sword against the diviners, that they may become fools!

A sword against her warriors that they may be destroyed!

A sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst that they may become women!

A sword against all her treasures that they may be plundered!

A drought against her waters that they may be dried up!

For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols. Therefore, wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people nor be inhabited for all her generations.”

“Behold, a people comes from the north, a mighty nation……..the sound of them is like a roaring of the sea; they ride on horses, arrayed as a man for battle against YOU, O daughter of Babylon.”

“At the sound of the capture of Babylon, the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.”

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(More horribleness against Babylon for Israel’s sake tomorrow.”)