Jeremiah 49:28

PROPHECY AGAINST KEDAR AND HAZOR

"Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon smote. Thus saith Jehovah: Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east. Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Terror on every side! Flee ye, wander afar off, dwell in the depths, O ye inhabitants of Hazor, saith Jehovah; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you. Arise, get you up into a nation that is at ease, that dwelleth without care, saith Jehovah; that hath neither gates nor bars, that dwelleth alone. And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter unto all winds them that hath the corners of their hair cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, saith Jehovah. And Hazor shall be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein."

Little is known of Kedar or Hazor; but from the description here it appears that the people whom God commanded Nebuchadnezzar to destroy were desert-dwellers, living carelessly. Keil suggested that these names "refer to all of the nomadic tribes and shepherd nations of Arabia."[10]

Joshua (Joshua 11:1; 15:23) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 11:33) both mentioned towns of the name of Hazor in Palestine; but the Hazor here is evidently Arabian.

"Curtains ... vessels ... camels ... tents ... flocks ... cattle ..." (Jeremiah 49:29-32). What else was left in the desert? The devastation of these Arabian tribes would be complete and without mercy.

"This prophecy was evidently fulfilled in Nebuchadnezzar's sixth year (599-598 B.C.) when the Babylonian Chronicle relates that the king of Babylon in Syria sent out companies, and scouring the desert, they took much plunder from the Arabs, their possessions, their domestic animals, and gods. The Babylonians did the same thing again in 581 B.C."[11]

"Them that have the corners of their hair cut off ..." (Jeremiah 49:32). This does not indicate that God is all that much disturbed about one's style of haircut, or dress, but is doubtless a reference to this earmark of some pagan cult in rebellion against God. The mention of "their gods" in the above quotation indicates this probability.