Many critics have endeavored to show that this prophecy Jer. 50–51 was not written by Jeremiah. Others grant that Jeremiah was the true author, yet assert that the prhophecy has been largely interpolated. The arguments for its authenticity are briefly stated in the following: (a) The superscription... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST ... AGAINST - Concerning.... [ Continue Reading ]
CONFOUNDED ... CONFOUNDED - ashamed ... ashamed. MERODACH - This deity, in the inscriptions Marduk, was the tutelary god of Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar, who called his son Evil-Merodach, appears to have been especially devoted to his service. He was really identical with Bel, and his equivalent amo... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE NORTH - Media lay to the northwest of Babylon. This constant use of the north, the quarter where the sun never shines, and therefore the region of darkness, is symbolic of the region from where danger ever comes. THEY SHALL REMOVE ... - Translate it (as in Jeremiah 9:10): “from man even... [ Continue Reading ]
The fall of Babylon is to be immediately followed by the return of the exiles homewards, in tearful procession, because they go as penitents; and yet with joy, because their faces are toward Zion. The cessation moreover of the schism between Israel and Judah is one of the signs of the times of the M... [ Continue Reading ]
THITHERWARD - Hereward; the writer evidently was at Jerusalem.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR SHEPHERDS ... MOUNTAINS - Some translate it: Their shepherds, i. e., civil rulers (Jeremiah 2:8 note) “have led them astray upon the seducing moutains.” - the mountains being the usual places where idolatry was practiced. THEIR RESTINGPLACE - Their fold Psalms 23:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
OFFEND NOT - i. e., “are not guilty.” Israel having left the fold, has no owner, and may therefore be maltreated with impunity. HABITATION OF JUSTICE - In Jeremiah 31:23 applied to Jerusalem: here, Yahweh alone is the true pasturage, in whom His people will find safety, rest, and plenty.... [ Continue Reading ]
So firmly did the Jews settle themselves in Babylon under Jeremiah’s counsels, that they were the last to abandon the place. HE GOATS - See Isaiah 14:9 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL RAISE - Or, stir up. AN ASSEMBLY OF GREAT NATIONS - The Medo-Persian empire was as much an aggregate of discordant nations as that of Babylon. FROM THENCE - From the north, i. e., by the great nations coming thence. RETURN IN VAIN - A proverbial expression for ill success (compare Isaiah 5... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “Chaldaea shall become a spoil ... for thou wast glad, thou exultedst, ye plunderers of mine heritage.” BECAUSE YE ARE GROWN FAT - Rather, for thou leapedst, skippedst as an animal does when playing. AS THE HEIFER AT GRASS - Or, as a heifer threshing. When threshing cattle were allowed to eat... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR MOTHER - i. e., Babylon. Confounded ... ashamed. Or, ashamed ... blush. BEHOLD ... - Translate, “Behold she is the hindermost of the nations, a desert, a thirsty land, and a waste:” - the reason why Babylon is to blush. Once the head of gold Daniel 2:32, she is now the lowest of earthly powers... [ Continue Reading ]
place the colon after bow.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOUT - i. e., spoken of the war-cry. So in Isaiah 42:13, where God is compared to a warrior, it is said He shall shout (the King James Version cry), i. e., raise the war-cry. SITE HATH GIVEN HER HAND - The sign of submission (compare 1 Chronicles 29:24 margin). FOUNDATIONS - Or, buttresses. The S... [ Continue Reading ]
The population is to be destroyed so utterly that the rich fields of Babylonia are to remain untilled. THEY SHALL TURN - The full force of the words will be seen if it be remembered that it had been the policy of Nebuchadnezzar to compel citizens selected from the vanquished nations to settle in Ba... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL IS A SCATTERED SHEEP - i. e., is like a flock which has been scared and driven in all directions, for lions have chased him. FIRST THE KING ... - Rather, the first lion “ate him, even the king of Assyria; and this one, the last, heath picked his bones, even Nebuchadrezzar etc.” The constant... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “I will bring Israel (the scared sheep) back to his pasturage (see Jeremiah 50:7) and he shall graze etc.” The places named are the districts of Palestine most famous for their rich herbage.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOSE DAYS - The days of the Messiah. RESERVE - Or, permit to remain: hence, the remnant, a word pregnant with meaning in the language of the prophets. See Isaiah 8:18 note (2).... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAND OF MERATHAIM - of double rebellion. Like Mitsraim, i. e., the two Egypts, Aram-Naharaim, i. e., Syria of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia, it is a dual. It may have been a real name; or - the dual ending being intensive - it may mean the land of very great rebelliousness. PEKOD - Possibly a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HAMMER - Babylon, by whose instrumentality Yahweh had crushed the nations, is now cut asunder, i. e., the head of iron or bronze is cut away from the wooden handle, and broken.... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE LAID A SNARE FOR THEE - Babylon, the impregnable, was taken (according to Herodotus) by Cyrus by stratagem. Having diverted the waters of the Euphrates, he entered the city by the river channel: but see Daniel 5:1 note. AND THOU WAST NOT AWARE - Better literally, and thou didst not know it.... [ Continue Reading ]
By a grand figure the prophet describes Yahweh arming Himself that in person He may execute justice upon the wicked city. FOR THIS IS THE WORK - Rather, for my Lord Yahweh of hosts hath a work to do in the land of the Chaldaeans.... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST HER - Or, to her, in order to plunder her. Her storehouses (literally granaries) are to burst open, the grain piled up in heaps, and finally they are to devote her to destruction, i. e., to burn her wealth with fire. FROM THE UTMOST BORDER - (Or, “from the first of you even to the last”).... [ Continue Reading ]
HER BULLOCKS - Her strong youths.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VOICE OF THEM ... - i. e., There is a sound of fugitives escaping from Babylonia. The Jews saw in the fall of Babylon Yahweh’s vengeance for His temple.... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, “Summon the archers to Babylon, even all who bend the bow: encamp against her etc.” In this portion of the prophecy the capture of Babylon is regarded as the punishment due to her for burning the temple Jeremiah 50:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
Babylon is here called Pride, just as in Jeremiah 50:21 she was called Double-rebellion.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIM ... HIS ... HIM - Or, her.... [ Continue Reading ]
WERE OPPRESSED - are “oppressed together: and all their captors have laid firm hold upon them: they have refused to let them go.” The restoration of Israel and Judah to their land is necessary. As Babylon will not let them go, it must be broken, and its empire destroyed.... [ Continue Reading ]
REDEEMER - i. e., גאל _gā'al_. Yahweh is Israel’s next relative, bound by law to avenge him, as well as to ransom him from captivity. It was the Go’el’s duty also to plead his kinsman’s cause. How thoroughly Yahweh will execute this duty for Israel is shown in the Hebrew by the triple repetition of... [ Continue Reading ]
Omit “is.” A summons comes from Yahweh, Israel’s Goel, to the sword to fall upon all the elements of Babylon’s greatness. The princes were her rulers at home and her generals in war. The wise men were those upon whose learning she so prided herself (Daniel 1:4 note).... [ Continue Reading ]
LIARS - Soothsayers, fortune-tellers.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MINGLED PEOPLE - i. e., the foreigners serving as mercenaries in her army.... [ Continue Reading ]
A DROUGHT - Rather, “a sword,” i. e., military skill and forethought. THEY ARE MAD UPON THEIR IDOLS - Omit their. The word for idols, literally terrors Psalms 88:16 is used in this one place only of objects of worship. Probably it refers to those montrous forms invented as representations of their... [ Continue Reading ]
WILD BEASTS OF THE ISLANDS - Jackals. OWLS - Ostriches (marginal reference note).... [ Continue Reading ]
An application to Babylon of the doom against Jerusalem Jeremiah 6:22. Jeremiah 50:41 THE COASTS OF THE EARTH - See the Jeremiah 6:22 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
A similar application to Babylon of what was said of Edom (marginal reference).... [ Continue Reading ]