(29) Fear is on every side.--There is a striking individuality in this reproduction of the Magor-missabib cry which had been so prominent in the prophet's own life and preaching (Jeremiah 6:25; Jeremiah 20:3; Jeremiah 20:10; Jeremiah 46:5).
Verse 29. - All the possessions of the nomad are here mentioned - first his tents and his flocks; then the hangings of which the tent is composed (Jeremiah 4:20; Jeremiah 10:20), and the vessels which it contains; and finally the camels which the Arab rides, not to mention their other uses. All this shall be ruthlessly appropriated by the Chaldean invaders. Fear is on every side. Again Jeremiah's motto recurs (see on Jeremiah 6:25). It expresses here, not the war cry itself, but the result produced by it.
49:28-33 Nebuchadnezzar would make desolation among the people of Kedar, who dwelt in the deserts of Arabia. He who conquered many strong cities, will not leave those unconquered that dwell in tents. He will do this to gratify his own covetousness and ambition; but God orders it for correcting an unthankful people, and for warning a careless world to expect trouble when they seem most safe. They shall flee, get far off, and dwell deep in the deserts; they shall be dispersed. But privacy and obscurity are not always protection and security.
Their tents and their flocks shall they take away,.... The Kedarenes were a people whose business chiefly lay in feeding flocks, and of which their substance consisted; and they mostly dwelt in tents, which they removed from place to place, for the sake of pasturage for their flocks; hence they were sometimes called Scenites, and sometimes Nomades; see Psalm 120:5; but now both their habitations, such as they were, and their flocks too, wherein lay their riches, would be taken away from them:
they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels,
and their camels; their curtains made of skins of beasts, of which their tents were made; or with which they were covered to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather; and all the furniture of them, their household goods; their vessels for domestic use; and utensils for their calling and employment; and their camels, which were much used in those countries for travelling from place to place; on which they put their tents, curtains, and vessels, when they removed from one pasturage to another; these they, not the Kedarenes, should take to themselves, and flee with them; but the Chaldeans should seize on them for themselves, as their booty and prey:
and they shall cry unto them, fear is on every side; or, "magormissabib", "a fear all round", Jeremiah 20:3; this is the word the Chaldeans shall use, and with it frighten the Kedarenes out of their tents; or by the sound of their trumpets, the alarm of war, and by their shouts and cries, and the clashing of their arms, they shall put them in fear all around: or else the Kedarenes and Hazorites, when they shall see the Chaldean army approaching, shall say one to another, fear is on all sides of us; nothing but ruin and destruction attend us from every quarter.
they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels,
and their camels; their curtains made of skins of beasts, of which their tents were made; or with which they were covered to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather; and all the furniture of them, their household goods; their vessels for domestic use; and utensils for their calling and employment; and their camels, which were much used in those countries for travelling from place to place; on which they put their tents, curtains, and vessels, when they removed from one pasturage to another; these they, not the Kedarenes, should take to themselves, and flee with them; but the Chaldeans should seize on them for themselves, as their booty and prey:
and they shall cry unto them, fear is on every side; or, "magormissabib", "a fear all round", Jeremiah 20:3; this is the word the Chaldeans shall use, and with it frighten the Kedarenes out of their tents; or by the sound of their trumpets, the alarm of war, and by their shouts and cries, and the clashing of their arms, they shall put them in fear all around: or else the Kedarenes and Hazorites, when they shall see the Chaldean army approaching, shall say one to another, fear is on all sides of us; nothing but ruin and destruction attend us from every quarter.