NOTES for Иер 49:1-39
A succession of pagan nations passes before us. What, one might ask, does this list of their names give us? It seems to tell us nothing fundamentally new, nothing that other pages of the Bible have not already told us. Once again we face lists of sins; once again we read the sentence passed upon pagan impiety, which inevitably brings retribution upon itself. Only now the circle of nations warned by the prophet grows wider.
Then we notice that the paths followed by the pagan nations can no longer be considered completely separate from the path to which the Israelites are called. The prophecy mentions the Israelites and their neighbors in the same line, and it is a line of sinners and apostates. Responsibility for sins falls upon the pagan nations just as much as upon the chosen people.
This means that, even though negatively, the prophecy reveals to us that all nations are interconnected and matter to the Creator; therefore, the election of one nation for service does not mean the rejection of the others. This is confirmed again and again when the Lord speaks of the nations’ return from slavery and exile, which must eventually take place. The promise of their deliverance is given in the same words as the promise of the return of Israel’s remnant.