Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor,.... A new prophecy concerning the Arabians; for Kedar was a son of Ishmael,
Genesis 25:13; whose posterity inhabited Arabia Petraea. Hazor was Petra itself, the metropolis of the country, whose king had several petty kings and kingdoms under him; for this is not the Hazor in the land of Canaan destroyed by Joshua, which had been the head of several kingdoms; and where Jabin king of Canaan afterwards reigned, Joshua 11:10 Judges 4:2; though some think that some of those Hazorites in Joshua's time made their escape, and fled into these parts, and built a city, and called it after the name of the former:
which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the Lord: that is, "thus saith the Lord concerning", or "unto", or "against Kedar" p, c. as in Jeremiah 49:1 which the king of Babylon "hath smitten"; the past for the future, common in prophetic language: or, "is about to smite" q; would do it in a very little time; for the phrase, "thus saith the Lord", is not to be connected with what follows after, but with what goes before; though indeed the next words are the words of the Lord to the Chaldeans:
arise ye, go up to Kedar; in a hostile manner; invade that country, and possess it:
and spoil the men of the east; the Arabians, which lay east of Judea and Babylon: or, "the children of Kedem" r; the same with Kedemah, another son of Ishmael, Genesis 25:15; whose posterity dwelt still more to the east; so Kimchi; though the Targum renders it "the children of the east".
p לקדר "ad Cedar", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "contra Kedarem", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "contra Arabian", Schmidt. q חכה "percussurus est", Junius & Tremellius, Grotius. r בני קדם "filios Chedem", Montanus, Vatablus.