Footnotes:

1. Jeremiah 49:6 As complete and continuous as the desolation of Moab and Ammon was for so many long centuries, yet God is keeping His word for their restoration “in the latter days” (Jer. 48:47) in a remarkable manner. For instance, Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (formerly called Transjordania, and in Bible times the ancient Rabbah of Ammon), was a mere village in 1900, but by 1960 it was a city of 200,000 inhabitants. One can only stand in awe and reverent amazement at the precision with which the prophecies of the Word of God are being carried out in the present day and age.
2. Jeremiah 49:13 How except by divine inspiration could the prophets have foretold that Edom’s desolation would be perpetual? After 2,500 years the statement is so literally true that in the land of Edom, where millions once lived, there are only a few people barely existing, and the land is in ruins. For there was no prophecy that Edom would recover “in the latter days” (Jer. 48:47), as was predicted for Moab and Ammon, but Edom’s desolation was to be lasting. The short book of Obadiah presents an interesting further clarification of God’s reason for this exceptional treatment of Edom. It was all the outcome of a mere quarrel, a family feud, between two brothers, Jacob and Esau, which erupted into acts of violence and which continued from Genesis to the Gospels. (Gen. 27 and footnote on Gen. 27:41).
3. Jeremiah 49:16 Petra, once an important Roman province in Edom, was lost for many centuries but rediscovered in 1812. On the height above its ruins is the great high place, and other evidences of idolatry stand on neighboring heights.
4. Jeremiah 49:28 This Hazor is not to be confused with three others mentioned elsewhere (Josh. 11:1; 15:23; Neh. 11:33). It was a region in the Arabian Desert east of Palestine. Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning it was literally fulfilled. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Arabia, according to historians, and Hazor’s exact situation is long since unknown. Hazor is also known as that part of the Arab nation which used fixed dwellings in unwalled towns, in contrast to nomad Arabs.
5. Jeremiah 49:30 See footnote on Jer. 21:2.
6. Jeremiah 49:37 Elam was a region beyond the Tigris River. After a long period of subjugation to foreign powers, it joined with Media and ultimately captured Babylon (Isa. 21:2, 9). Elam became a province of the Persian Empire. Elamites had been settled as colonists in Samaria long before the return of the Jews from Babylon, and they joined with others in attempting to prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple (Ezra 4:9). There were also Elamites present on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9), but they became extinct in the eleventh century. Elam in modern times is a province of modern Iran, bearing the name Khuzistan. Thus this prophecy of that nation’s destruction is long since fulfilled, with the restoration of Elam’s fortunes predicted in Jer. 49:39, the fulfillment of which we anticipate and await.
7. Jeremiah 49:39 Elam was a region beyond the Tigris River. After a long period of subjugation to foreign powers, it joined with Media and ultimately captured Babylon (Isa. 21:2, 9). Elam became a province of the Persian Empire. Elamites had been settled as colonists in Samaria long before the return of the Jews from Babylon, and they joined with others in attempting to prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple (Ezra 4:9). There were also Elamites present on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:9), but they became extinct in the eleventh century. Elam in modern times is a province of modern Iran, bearing the name Khuzistan. Thus this prophecy of that nation’s destruction is long since fulfilled, with the restoration of Elam’s fortunes predicted in Jer. 49:39, the fulfillment of which we anticipate and await.