Bible Strands
Jeremiah 49:36
I will bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I will scatter them to all these winds. There will not be a nation to which Elam’s exiles will not go.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD of Hosts speaks through the prophet against the nation of Elam during a declared campaign of military dismantling. This declaration occurs immediately after the promise to shatter Elam’s bow and immediately before the promise to scatter their army before their enemies.
The words — `רוּח֗וֹת (ru.Chot)` translates literally to winds, and `קְצ֣וֹת (ke.Tzot)` translates literally to ends or corners. These terms frame the coming judgment as a comprehensive dispersion originating from the heavens.
The thread — The motif of scattering to the winds appears in Jeremiah 49:32, while the broader pattern of divine judgment and subsequent restoration or destruction is echoed in Jeremiah 30:17 and Ezekiel 5:10. These passages collectively trace how God mobilizes natural and geopolitical forces to execute covenant consequences.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine judgment operates beyond human defense or geographic refuge. It requires the reader to accept that exile and defeat are deliberately orchestrated rather than accidental.
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
And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 49:32 Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoil. I will scatter to the wind in every direction those who shave their temples; I will bring calamity on them from all sides,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 30:17 But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”
- Ezekiel 5:10 As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
- Daniel 8:8 Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.
- Amos 9:9 “For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.
- Revelation 7:1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back its four winds so that no wind would blow on land or sea or on any tree.
- Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
- Psalms 147:2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the exiles of Israel.
- Isaiah 11:12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth.