The struggles between people and nations sometimes take on epic, mythic proportions, as escalations of family feuds become large scale conflicts, or even world wars. Jacob and Esau, two mythical brothers wrestling for the birthright in Genesis, would become two nations - at each other’s throats.
Then, now, in the current and so many other civil wars and regional conflicts -- shared blood and inherited heritage turned into turmoil is what makes the bloodshed so much more unbearable.
For Jeremiah, as the book is almost at its end, this failure of fidelity is a source for great sorrow and blame.
The wounded prophet looks around at all the Judean nation’s neighbors, taking stock of who are allies, who are not, who came to support and who kept silent as Judea fought and fell.
In the aftermath of wars and devastation only words, and often whispers, remain to blast the ones who stood alongside the destroyers. In this case, there were a few local allies who helped Babylon vanquish Jerusalem. It doesn’t help that one of those nations, right next door, is also family --Edom, the children of Esau, Jacob’s bitter brother. These mythic ancestors with bad blood from the start, kept fighting on and off for generations. On some level that fight still persists today. Just the names are different.
Jeremiah bitterly blasts the Edomites in this chapter, cursing Esau’s nation who dwell across the Jordan river with a future prophecy of utter doom:
Rabbi Benny Lau explains the context of this family feud:
“In II Kings, the actual destruction of Jerusalem is attributed to Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian chief of the guards, who successfully accomplished his mission. Psalms 137 and Jeremiah 49 tell us another account of the Edomites arriving in the area of Judah during the siege, settling the southern Hebron hills, and serving as auxiliaries to Nebuzaradan's army of destruction.
The most explicit source of this tradition is Psalms 137, composed from the perspective of the Babylonian exiles: "By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat and indeed wept as we remembered Zion." This psalm is best known for the exiles' oath: "If I forget you, O Jerusalem...." But the subsequent verses are not nearly as well-known:
“Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day of Jerusalem's fall, when they said: Destroy! Destroy it to its foundations! Daughter of Babylonia, doomed to destruction, praised is he who repays you, visiting upon you what you visited upon us.” (137:7-9).
The exiled Jews swear revenge against the Edomites, who rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem and made sure it was razed to the ground. To comprehend the enormity of this rage, we must understand the history of Edomite-Israelite relations.
The connection between these two nations began, of course, with the struggle between Jacob and Esau in their mother's womb (according to Jewish tradition, Esau is the progenitor of Edom) and the Biblical story of the Israelites asking to cross through Edomite land (Num. 20) and being refused.
Centuries later, the two rivals met again. King David set out to conquer Edom and take its copper mines and trade routes. From the little information the verses offer us, we can ascertain that David's army massacred the Edomites, wiping out every male. Only Hadad, an Edomite prince, managed to escape to Egypt, where he was granted political asylum (II Sam. 8:14). The Edomites constantly attempted to regain their independence and remove Judah's yoke.
One of the most shocking events in the history of this fraught relationship occurred during the reign of King Amaziah of Judah. Scripture describes how Amaziah killed ten thousand Edomites and led another ten thousand captives to the rocky cliffs atop the Edomite city of Selah (possibly today's Petra), where he cast them down to their deaths (II Chr. 25:12). This was no act of war, but an act of vengeance. We can imagine how the Edomites preserved the memory of this atrocity from generation to generation, until they were finally presented with the opportunity to take revenge.”
That’s the Judean perspective anyway. What would the Edomites, long gone, say about this version of historial events?
This is a battleground that carries multi-generation-long trauma.
Edom and Judah, Jacob and Esau - on and on the feud is fueled by memories that transcend facts or logic, simply festering as fear and blame. For Jeremiah, words are weapons. But those words, back then, right now, will manifest as massacres under the banner of “am eye for eye.”
For now, the violent vision persists - cities are leveled, revenge rages on, innocents are killed, old grudges meet new ones as horror presides over hope.
How much longer will we hold on to the hurts of the past and keep perpetuating pain upon each other instead of letting go of the blame, brother to brother, holders of hope, for the sake of future generations?
How long before we all renew, for real, the oath - we are all our sibling’s keepers?
we pray today for healing, hope, and peace among us.
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