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a desolation like Sodom and Gomorrah

Jeremiah 49:7-22 (JDV)

Jeremiah 49:7 This is what Yahveh of Armies says about Edom: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel been destroyed from the prudent? Has their wisdom rotted away?
Jeremiah 49:8 Run! Turn back! Lie low, residents of Dedan, because I will bring Esau’s calamity on him at the time I punish him.
Jeremiah 49:9 If grape harvesters came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, they would destroy only what they wanted.
Jeremiah 49:10 But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his secret places. He will try to hide, but he will be unable. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors. He will exist no longer.
Jeremiah 49:11 Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them; let your widows trust in me.
Jeremiah 49:12 You see, this is what Yahveh says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, because you must drink it too.
Jeremiah 49:13 You see, by myself I have sworn” – this is what Yahveh declares – “Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and an example for cursing, and all its surrounding cities will become permanent ruins.”
Jeremiah 49:14 I have heard an envoy from Yahveh; a messenger has been sent among the nations: Assemble yourselves to come against her. Rise up for war!
Jeremiah 49:15 I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations, despised among humanity.
Jeremiah 49:16 As to the terror you cause, your arrogant heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rock, you who occupy the mountain summit, though you elevate your nest like the eagles, even from there I will bring you down. This is what Yahveh declares.
Jeremiah 49:17 “Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be appalled and whistle because of all her wounds.
Jeremiah 49:18 Like when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says Yahveh, “no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.
Jeremiah 49:19 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. You see, who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”
Jeremiah 49:20 Therefore, hear the plans that Yahveh has drawn up against Edom and the strategies he has devised against the people of Teman: The flock’s little lambs will certainly be dragged away, and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them.
Jeremiah 49:21 At the sound of their fall the land will quake; the sound of her cry will be heard at the Red Sea.
Jeremiah 49:22 Notice! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.

a desolation like Sodom and Gomorrah

Jeremiah predicts the destruction of Edom by comparing their fate with that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Peter says that God’s final judgment will also result in the ungodly being reduced to ashes. It is a terrible fate and irreversible.

“and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter” (2 Peter 2:5-6 NASB).

Lord, give us the wisdom to turn from our wickedness before your final judgment destroys us.