_Prophet. He had spoken against them in the fourth year of Joachim, and now is more explicit in the fourth of Sedecias, (chap. li. 60.) sending his predictions to be read, and then thrown into the Euphrates. The fall of Babylon was gradual. It was in consequence of her pride and cruelty, ver. 11, 17... [ Continue Reading ]
_Declare. This is grand. Let all the captives publish these tidings. (Calmet) --- Bel, &c. Bel and Merodach were worshipped for gods by the men of Babylon. (Challoner) --- Merodach might be an ancient king deified. (Calmet) --- These greatest of their idols could neither save the people nor themselv... [ Continue Reading ]
_A nation, &c., viz., the Medes, (Challoner) under Darius, (Daniel v. 31.; Theodoret; Grotius) or rather under Cyrus, who came upon Babylon from the north, after conquering Asia; though he was born to the east of that city, Isaias lxi. 2, 25. He was a Mede by his mother, and ruler of that nation. He... [ Continue Reading ]
_Weeping for joy and compunction. Israel returns, as well as Juda. (Calmet) --- Thus Joseph wept when he beheld his brethren, Genesis xlii. 24. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Covenant. They renewed the old one under Nehemias, and never publicly broke it, as they had done. Yet the covenant of Christ is more properly meant._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Shepherds; kings, (Calmet) and false prophets. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not sinned: the Jews were such notorious offenders. But in what had they injured the Chaldeans? --- Beauty. Hebrew, "dwelling or fold."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Kids; rams. This comparison was not ignoble. Go boldly out of the city, before it be besieged._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nations. Cyrus had Armenians, &c., in his army. (Calmet) --- Thence, by the bed of the Euphrates, the waters of which were mostly let out into the marshes. Thus the city was taken, while the people were feasting. (Herodotus i. 191.) --- Aristotle (Pol. iii. 3.) says, three days passed before all th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bulls. You have rioted in Juda, and treated my people cruelly. (Haydock) --- In Hebrew four verbs have improperly i for v; but [in] chap. li. 34., v supplants i five times. (Kennicott)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dust, like a suppliant, Isaias xlvii. 1. (Calmet) --- Dry. The country shall be equally unfruitful. The waters of the Euphrates being let off, gave a passage to the enemy, ver. 9. (Haydock) --- Babylon soon lost its splendour. (Calmet) --- Vologeses completed its ruin. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hand, to form leagues; or she faints, (Septuagint) and submits, Lamentations v. 6._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Harvest. Such were usually unmolested. (Calmet) --- Babylon was so large, that people sowed corn within the walls. (Curtius v.) --- The environs were well cultivated. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xviii. 17.) --- Dove, or the destroyer; for the Hebrew word signifies either the one or the other. (Chall... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bones. He completely ruined the nation, which the Assyrians had left. (Haydock) --- They led the ten tribes away, and the Chaldeans took the rest, 4 Kings xviii., and xxv. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Assyria. This monarchy was subdued by Nabopolasser._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Israel; the ten tribes, whose country is specified._... [ Continue Reading ]
_None. Idolatry shall not be re-established._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rulers: the most potent empire of Babylon. --- All. Hebrew, "anathematize them and their posterity."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hammer. The violent injustice of the Chaldeans is thus entitled._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Aware. Men seemed to rise out of the earth, ver. 9._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Armoury. Fire and war are the Lord's weapons, Job xxxviii. 22. --- Work: punishment, chap. xlviii. 10._... [ Continue Reading ]
_That. Hebrew, "her granaries; trample on her as on heaps of corn, destroy," &c. He alludes to the custom of oxen trampling out the corn, chap. li. 33._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Voice. I hear the captives proclaiming this at their return._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Peace, in the grave; (Calmet) or shall submit quietly, 1 Machabees i. 3. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Proud. So the Chaldeans are often styled in the Psalms. (Calmet) --- The prophet addresses Nabuchodonosor, or rather Baltassar, (Menochius) under whom the city was taken, (Josephus, &c.) by Darius and Cyrus. He may be the Nabonides of Berosus, the question is so much perplexed. Yet "we are convince... [ Continue Reading ]
_Israel. Samaria had been destroyed forty-four years before the fourth of Joakim, from which period many of Juda had been captives seventy years, till Cyrus became their deliverer, and chastised the Chaldeans. (Calmet) --- Both kingdoms had been oppressed by a strong hand, till a stronger, even God... [ Continue Reading ]
_Name. He gives victory to Cyrus. Thus the Lord directs all for the sake of his elect, and laughs at the vain projects of men. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wise men. They were styled Chaldeans, and inhabited a certain part of the city, being employed in astronomical and mathematical observations. They disapproved of those who cast nativities. (Strabo xvi.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Diviners. Hebrew, "impostors." They were nowhere more plentiful, Daniel i. 20. Fortune-tellers were consulted on every occasion. The eastern nations are still much addicted to this superstition._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Drought. Cyrus almost drained the Euphrates, chap. li. 42., and Isaias xxi. --- Things, fit to terrify children, Baruch vi. 14. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "they are made upon their idols." (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER L. _ Fig-fauns. Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous shapes; such as the ancients called fauns and satyrs: and as they imagined them to live upon wild figs, they called them fauni-ficarii, or fig-fauns. (Challoner) --- Maldonat reads sicariis, "ruffians." Sixtus V and St. Jerome,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cruel. The Medes will not spare for money, ver. 3., and Isaias xiii. 7._... [ Continue Reading ]
_King. Baltassar, (though he was succeeded by Darius) or Nabonides, ver. 31. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_And beautiful. Hebrew, "habitation." (Haydock) --- He will rush into the fold, chap. xlix. 19. (Calmet) --- The king of Babylon had ruined many. Others shall destroy him, rushing on like the Jordan. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]