Jeremiah and the Yoke Bars (27:1-22) 311(Obad 9-14; Ezek 25:12-14; 35:15; Ps 137:7; Joel 4:19[Eng 3:19]; 1Esd4:45).
Edom appears to have escaped punitive action by Nebuchadnezzar in 588-586
B.c., also in 582 B.C. when both Ammon and Moab were attacked (see Note for
49:10). But at some point Edom will have to drink Yahweh's cup of wrath
(25:21; cf. 9:24-25[Eng 9:25-26]), and Jeremiah thus delivers oracles of judg-
ment against it (49:7-22). In the seventh-sixth centuries B.C., Edom is a king-
dom to be reckoned with; currently it is threatening Judah on its southern
front, although Bartlett ( 1999) thinks that Edom does not make substantial in-
roads into southern Judah and the Negeb until later.
the king of Moab. After the Battle of Carchemish (605 B.c.), Moab appears to
have sworn alliegance to Nebuchadnezzar and remained loyal when Je-
hoiakim rebelled, for which reason it was not attacked in 597 B.C. Moab, in
fact, aided Nebuchadnezzar against Judah at this time (2 Kgs 24:2). Yet now it
is represented in Jerusalem when the talk is rebellion against Babylon. The na-
tion was spared when Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C., but according to Josephus (Ant
x 181-82), Moab was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 582 B.c., at which time
Ammon suffered a similar fate (see Note for 48: l ). Jeremiah gives an unusually
large number of judgment oracles against Moab (48:1-47), who sat at table
with other nations to drink Yahweh's cup of wrath (25:21; cf. 9:24-25[Eng
9:25-26]).
the king of the Ammonites. This Ammonite king may have been Baalis,
who plotted against Gedaliah after the fall of Jerusalem ( 40: 13-4 l:l 5), or his
predecessor, 'Amminadab II. On the Ammonite King List and an Ammonite
bulla from Tell eI-<Umeiri naming Baalis, see Note for 40: 14. The Ammonites,
too, aided Babylon against Judah before Nebuchadnezzar came himself in 597
B.C. (2 Kgs 24:2) but, like Moab, is now talking rebellion against Babylon at the
Jerusalem conference. Ammon continued in opposition to Babylon (unlike
Edom, which shifted allegiance after the conference) and Nebuchadnezzar,
when he entered the area in 588 B.C., threatened the nation on his way to at-
tack Judah (Ezek 21:23-32[Eng 2l:l8-27]). According to Josephus (Ant x 181-
82), Ammon was brought down by Nebuchadnezzar in 582 B.C., which would
have been punishment for its present disloyalty and the role it played later in
disrupting community life at Mizpah. The Ammonites were also destined to
drink Yahweh's cup of wrath (25:21; cf. 9:24-25[Eng 9:25-26]), and Jeremiah
spoke judgment oracles against the nation as well (49:1-6).
the king of Tyre ... the king of Sidon. Here in 594-593 B.C. we see that the
northern coastal city-states of Tyre and Sidon are still intact. Tyre survived
Assyrian rule (738-627 B.C.) and the interim period between the Assyrian re-
treat and Nebuchadnezzar's campaigns into Syria and Palestine in 604 and 60 l
B.C., but soon afterward came under siege by Nebuchadnezzar in a battle that
lasted 13 years (Josephus Ant x 228; Against Apion i 144). By 573 B.C., or per-
haps earlier, all but the island portion of the city had been taken (see Note for
47:4). Sidon was destroyed by the Assyrians in ca. 677 B.C., but reestablished it-
self early in Nebuchadnezzar's reign, perhaps before (Elat 1991: 21) and had
submitted to the Babylonian king by the time Jerusalem was destroyed. Kings