onare) super Rabbath filiorum (vel, super filios) Ammon clangorem praelii, et erit in
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS taken from them. For it was a robbery not to be endured, that the Ammonites should have dared to take to themselves that land, which was not the property of men, but rather of God himself, for he had called it his rest, because he would have his people to dwell there. And though God inflicted a just punishment on the Gaddites when he expelled them from their inheritance, yet he afterwards punished the children of
Ammon, as he is wont to chastise his own children by the hand of the wicked, and at length to render them also their just reward. It now follows ---
Jeremiah 49:2
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.
2. Propterea ecce dies veniunt, dicit Jehova, et audire faciam (vel, faciam resonare) super Rabbath filiorum (vel, super filios) Ammon clangorem praelii, et erit in acervum vastitatis, et filiae ejus igne comburentur, et possidebit Israel possessores suos, dicit Jehova.
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 391 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
391Literally it is, "And Israel shall inherit his inheritors." The Ammonites claimed to be the heirs, and Israel succeeded them as the right heir. This prophecy was fulfilled as recorded in 1 Macc. 5:6, 7, 28-36. — Ed.