Jeremiah 49:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep “When the Arabs,” says Harmer, “have drawn upon themselves such a general resentment of the more fixed inhabitants of those countries that they think themselves unable to stand against them, they withdraw into the depths of the great wilderness, where none can follow them with hopes of success.” D'Arvieux tells us, “they will be quite ready to decamp upon less than two hours' warning, and, retiring immediately into the deserts, render it impossible for other nations, even the most powerful, to conquer them, they not daring to venture far into the deserts, where the Arabs alone know how to steer their course, so as to hit upon places of water and forage. Is it not then most probable that the dwelling deep, which Jeremiah here recommends to the Arab tribes, means this plunging far into the deserts, rather than going into deep caves and dens, as Grotius and other commentators suppose?” O inhabitants of Dedan The Dedanites were Arabians of the posterity of Dedan, a grandson of Abraham, Genesis 25:3. They seem by this place to have been, in latter times, subdued by the Idumeans, and incorporated with them.