Bible Strands
Jeremiah 49:3
Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn; run back and forth within your walls, for Milcom will go into exile together with his priests and officials.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers a divine oracle of judgment to the cities of Heshbon and Rabbah during a period of impending military invasion. The message targets the Ammonite leadership and populace as their territory faces imminent destruction.
The words — The command הֵילִ֨ילִי (hei.Li.li) literally means "wail" and initiates the call for public mourning. The declaration שֻׁדְּדָה־ (shu.de.dah-) denotes that Ai has been completely devastated, confirming the certainty of the coming ruin.
The thread — The motif of national wailing and exiled deities appears in Jeremiah 48:7, where Chemosh departs with his priests, and Isaiah 15:2, which records Moab’s mourning over its high places. These passages share the same prophetic pattern of divine judgment against neighboring kingdoms.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of impending loss and the collapse of false security before the invading forces breach the walls. It requires readers to recognize that political trust and religious idols cannot prevent divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is spoiled: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 48:7 Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.
- Isaiah 15:2 Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.
- Jeremiah 48:37 For every head is shaved and every beard is clipped; on every hand is a gash, and around every waist is sackcloth.
- 1 Kings 11:5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- 1 Kings 11:33 For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon’s father David did.
- 2 Kings 23:13 The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
- Jeremiah 4:8 So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
- Jeremiah 46:25 The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I am about to punish Amon god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt with her gods and kings, and those who trust in Pharaoh.
- Joshua 8:28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
- Job 30:3 Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.