Jeremiah 51:1-64
1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midsta of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;
2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 Make brightb the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes:c for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself,d saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.
15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitudee of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man is brutishf by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.
20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;
22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.
25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolateg for ever, saith the LORD.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
35 The violenceh done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yelli as lions' whelps.
39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the LORD.
49 Asj Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.
52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the LORD.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
55 Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broadk walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolatel for ever.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 51:7. Babylon is a golden cup in the hands of Jehovah. All the captives and allies are intoxicated with it. All nations bow to her idols, submit to her power, wonder at her riches, applaud her victories, and adore her splendour. Little indeed suspecting that her power should fall headlong from the highest pinnacle of elevation, and all her allies be instantaneously converted into foes.
Jeremiah 51:11. Make bright the arrows. Sharpen their points, rouse the spirit of the Median kings to war, and plant the standards of Elam upon her highest towers.
Jeremiah 51:13. Oh thou that dwellest upon many waters. All resources of wealth are at thy command, yet thy waters shall be drained. The Euphrates, which ran through the city, was two hundred and fifty paces broad; and a communication was opened with the Tigris by a canal. These waters supplied her with merchandise; but the river once opened by Cyrus into the lower channel, almost forsook the city, and diminished the navigation.
Jeremiah 51:14. The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself I will fill thee with men. As when a cloud of locusts descends on the fields and vineyards, and cease not their depradations till the verdure is all consumed, so shall the allied armies enter Babylon. And who can say what their licentiousness would be. They were all learned in the crimes of the Babylonian armies. True is the proverb, the laws are silent in war.
Jeremiah 51:15. He hath made the earth by his power. These words are of the same import as in Jeremiah 10:13.
Jeremiah 51:20. Thou art my battle-axe. This is an apostrophe to Nebuchadnezzar, who is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jeremiah 50:23; the hammer that dashed Nineveh to pieces. Nahum 2:1. Now the axe should be turned against Babylon, to which city the apostrophe is continued, as in the following words.
Jeremiah 51:25. Oh destroying mountain. Though situate on a plain, Babylon was a very high mountain in regard of power over all Asia. I will roll thee down from the rocks, and make thee a burnt mountain, or a mountain of combustion. Babylon was not burned by the Persians, the prophet might therefore have in view the sublime irruptions of volcanic mountains, which sometimes burst at once. Pliny names an earthquake which destroyed twelve cities of Asia; and Hecla, by one irruption, covered the sea for seventy miles with pumice. Babylon had so vomited fire and devastations on the nations, as to merit the appellation of a destroying mountain.
Jeremiah 51:26. They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation, as from other ruins. See on Jeremiah 50:40.
Jeremiah 51:27. Ararat is a mountain in Armenia, isolated, very high and pointed, with a double summit, inaccessible and covered with snow. The lower hills abound with ruins. Minni seems to be Armenia the less, as the Chaldaic reads. N. Damascenus, in Josephus, calls it Minias, a mountain. Strabo and Pliny call it Mylias. By Ashchenaz, some understand the country which reached to Scythia. Others, with more propriety, understand it of Phrygia and Mysia, as part of this country is called by Homer Ascaria. Poole has a long criticism on this verse.
Jeremiah 51:31. One post shall run to meet another to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end. Here the prediction and the events are so striking, that I would translate the words of Herodotus, a pure and unsuspected historian. After stating how the flood-banks of Semiramis had been cut, and the river made fordable; and how the troops had boldly entered the river, and thence ascended into the city; he adds, “If the Chaldeans had conceived the least idea of Cyrus's design, they could without doubt have prevented the entrance of the Persians, and repulsed them. Had they closed the smaller ports which led to the river, and posted themselves on the quays, they would have fought their enemies from above, and defeated them with ease. But the Persians surprised them when they had not the least idea of their movements; and the city was so great, if one may believe the inhabitants, that those who lived in the end were already taken, before those who lived in the middle were apprised of the event. Add to this, that as the day (Xenophon says night) on which they were taken was a day of festivity, they were wholly occupied with games and rejoicings when apprised of their calamity.” Clio, or book 1.
Jeremiah 51:38. They shall roar together like lions. Shut up in their dens, and unable to escape, their fury would be beyond description. Spirit in their soldiers existed no more. In one hour their wanton songs were changed to doleful cries. Oh what curses did they belch out against their rulers, and against their gods! Oh what echoes would conscience make of their former bloody deeds. How different is the state of Zion in the day of visitation! He that believeth shall not make haste.
Jeremiah 51:41. How is Sheshach taken. A name of some palace in Babylon, or some temple, as in Jeremiah 25:26. See the note on that verse.
Jeremiah 51:43. Her cities are a desolation. This is strictly true; travellers describe Babylon as a mass overgrown and uncultivated.
Jeremiah 51:44. I will punish Bel I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up. The treasures of the plundered and demolished temples of Asia were deposited in the temple of Belus; and it is supposed that they amounted to twenty one millions of our money. See Prideaux's Connection.
Jeremiah 51:45. My people, go ye out of the midst of her. These words the prophet often repeated to the Jews, and the Spirit in the Revelation of John, repeats them to the church. Let christians avoid associations with the ungodly, and cherish the sweet communion of saints. God warned his people to leave Babylon in time, for a succession of calamities would yet come on those who, for the time, had escaped the visitations of justice.
Jeremiah 51:59. Seraiah was a quiet prince, of the legation which Zedekiah had sent to Babylon; but the Seraiah mentioned in Jeremiah 52:24 was a priest, and not the person to whom Jeremiah wrote.
Jeremiah 51:63. Thou shalt bind a stone, and cast it into the Euphrates. The angel threw a millstone into the sea, with the like execration on mystical Babylon. Revelation 18:21. An instance of the like nature is recorded by Herodotus in Euterpe. “When the Phoceans, of Ionia in Asia, said to be the first who made long voyages, were driven from their country by the Persians, they resolved to go to Cyrnos, now Corsica; but on quitting Phocea, they sunk a mass of iron into the sea, and bound themselves with an oath never to return till that iron could swim on the water.” This was a curse on the Persians, as the sinking of the stone was an execration on Babylon.
REFLECTIONS.
In this sublime and beautiful elegy on the fall of Babylon, we are struck with the grandeur, the boldness, and the glory of the figures employed by the prophet to depict the scene. Inspiration elevated the prophet's soul; ideas and figures crowded on his mind, and he could scarcely restrain the impetuosity of his spirit.
In addition to the reflections in the preseding chapter, we may here remark, it is foretold in Jeremiah 51:8, that the fall of Babylon should be sudden and unexpected. It was to happen in one day. Isaiah 49:9. Cyrus's army was at first too small to excite suspicion, and his object was to reduce the nations which had been subject to Media, to their former homage. Besides, his operations were chiefly in the north of Asia minor, which excited the less suspicion and fear in the effeminate Chaldeans. Hence when he found himself sufficiently strong, and supported by allies, to make a direct approach to Babylon, terror came upon them suddenly; yet deeming their walls impregnable, and having plenty of provisions, they were lulled into a fatal slumber that time would compel him to retire. They never dreamed that their waters could be drained. Their king and their nobles were feasting and drunk, when God spread a net for their feet. The cry of terror ran through the streets, Babylon is suddenly fallen, while the Medes roared like lions when they make a carnage of the flock.
The prophecies of the fall of Babylon were purposely written to support the Jews in their long captivity, that they might abstain from idolatry, from intermarrying with the heathen, and keep their eye on the promises of restoration. By so doing, piety would comfort them in affliction, and faith would anticipate happier times.
Seraiah was to read these words, and to sink with a stone the scroll in the Euphrates, with a predictive malediction that Babylon shall so sink, as it appears literally to have done in a considerable degree. St. John, speaking of mystic Babylon, or the power of Rome to set up her decrees and doctrines above the bible, uses those very words, when he saw the angel casting a millstone into the sea. Revelation 18:21. Hence the prophecies, that bible christianity shall fill the earth, should in like manner support and comfort the christian world. Let us constantly keep our eye on the glorious things which are spoken of the church, as suggested in the general reflections at the end of Isaiah's prophecies; and let us rest assured that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.