_Behold, I will raise up against Babylon_ Darius and Cyrus, who came against Babylon, came by a divine instinct. God excited their spirits to accomplish his purpose against that idolatrous city, and the oppressive government which had its seat there. _Against them that dwell in the midst_ Hebrew, _i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Against him that bendeth let the archer bend_ See Jeremiah 50:14; _and against him, that lifteth up himself in his brigandine_ Or, _coat of mail:_ suffer not them who are skilful in using the bow, or armed in coats of mail, to avail themselves any thing of their skill or their armour, but oppose th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Flee out of the midst of Babylon_, &c. God's people are here exhorted to flee out of Babylon with all haste, as Lot did out of Sodom, lest they should be consumed in the iniquity of that place: see Jeremiah 50:8. _Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand_ In what sense Babylon is called _a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Babylon is suddenly fallen_ It was one of the aggravations of the punishment of Babylon, that her destruction came upon her suddenly and unexpectedly. _Howl for her_, &c. So the kings, the merchants, and other factors, are described as lamenting the destruction of mystical Babylon, Revelation 18:9;... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness_ Hath made manifest the equity of our cause, revenged the wrongs we have suffered, and shown ours to be the true religion, by bringing such remarkable judgments upon our enemies. _Come, and let us declare in Zion_, &c. Therefore let us give glory to him... [ Continue Reading ]
_Make bright the arrows, gather the shields_ Hebrew, מלאו השׁלשׂים, _the quivers._ Thus the LXX., πληρουτε τας φαρετρας, with whom agree the Vulgate, Castalio, and others. The meaning is, Prepare all the instruments of war to defend yourselves, ye Babylonians, for you will have need of them all. _Th... [ Continue Reading ]
_O thou that dwellest upon many waters_ The river Euphrates ran through the midst of Babylon, and there was a prodigious lake of water on one side of the city, besides other lesser waters near it, so that it was in a manner encompassed with waters. _Many waters_ do likewise signify mystically the ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou art my battle-axe_, &c. Cyrus, or rather the army of the Medes and Persians, seems to be intended here; compare Jeremiah 51:11; as elsewhere the instrument of God's vengeance is called a _sword_, a _rod_, a _scourge._ This army, with Cyrus, their general, God here says he will make use of for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain_ Babylon was situate in a plain, but is called a mountain here, by reason of its superiority and eminence above all other places; and perhaps also on account of its lofty walls, palaces, and other edifices; and it has the epithet of _destroying_, on... [ Continue Reading ]
_Set ye up a standard blow the trumpet_ These were common signals for assembling armies together. _Call together the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashehenaz_ These were countries under the dominion of the Medes. The two former probably the greater and lesser Armenia, and the latter a part of Phrygi... [ Continue Reading ]
_The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight: they have remained_, &c. “The year before the siege of Babylon, Cyrus overthrew Belshazzar in battle, whereupon his army retreated within the walls, where they were shut up by him and besieged. Afterward, when Cyrus entered the city, he ordered publ... [ Continue Reading ]
_The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor_ God's people have been sorely bruised and trodden under foot by the Babylonians, as corn in a thrashing-floor: see note on Isaiah 21:10. _It is time to thrash her_ It is time for her to feel the miseries she has made others suffer. The word _thrash... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nebuchadrezzar hath devoured me_ Zion and Jerusalem, which are both expressed in the next verse, are the speakers here, and the words contain a pathetical description of the calamities brought upon the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar and his forces, who, after they had devoured the wealth and laid waste the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus saith the Lord, I will plead thy cause_ This is, as it were, God's answer to the prayers and imprecations of the Jewish people, mentioned in the two foregoing verses. _I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry_ This some think is spoken figuratively, meaning, I will exhaust her multitude... [ Continue Reading ]
_How is Sheshach taken!_ That Babylon is meant by Sheshach is certain; but why it is so called is yet matter of doubt: see note on Jeremiah 25:26. Some indeed have supposed that it is called so from a goddess of that name, which the Babylonians worshipped, and which is supposed by Calmet to have bee... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will punish Bel in Babylon_ The heathen ascribed the honour of all their successes to their idols; and, upon any great victory, offered the best part of the spoils to their gods, and deposited them in their temples, as a grateful acknowledgment that the success was owing to their assistance.... [ Continue Reading ]
_My people, go ye out of the midst of her_, &c. See note on Jeremiah 50:8. _And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour_, &c. “Lest the rumours of new forces, ready to join themselves to the Babylonians, dishearten you, and make you despair of seeing so great an empire subdued by any human... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore behold_, or rather, _Then soon, the days come that I will do judgment upon the graven images_, &c. That is, cause the statues of the gods of Babylon to be broken to pieces, or carried away. _Then the heaven and the earth, &c., shall sing for Babylon_ The angels in heaven, and many nations... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye that have escaped the sword_ Namely, the sword which wasted Babylon. _Go away, stand not still_ This is spoken to the Jews, who, attending to the advice given them, Jeremiah 51:45, withdrew from Babylon in time, and so escaped the sword by which they otherwise might have fallen. And here they ar... [ Continue Reading ]
_Though Babylon should mount up to heaven_ Though Babylon were built upon the most lofty and inaccessible mountain, and though it were made as strong as nature and art could make it, yet still I would cause it to be spoiled.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice_ “When cities are populous, they are of course noisy: see Isaiah 22:2. Silence is therefore a mark of depopulation; and in this sense we are to understand God's destroying, or taking away out of Babylon, the great noise... [ Continue Reading ]
_The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken_, &c. That the walls of Babylon were of a prodigious height and thickness, Herodotus tells, who says, they were 200 cubits high, and 50 cubits in breadth, lib. 1. cap. 178. “We are astonished,” says Bishop Lowth, in his note on Isaiah 13:19, “at th... [ Continue Reading ]
_The word which Jeremiah commanded Seraiah. when he went with Zedekiah_ The Hebrew בלכתו את צדקיהו, is rendered by the LXX., οτε επορευετο παρα Σεδεκιου, _when he went from Zedekiah_, on his _behalf_, or _by virtue_ of his _commission;_ which seems to be the meaning of the clause; for we have no rea... [ Continue Reading ]
_So Jeremiah wrote in a book_ Namely, in the two foregoing Chapter s; _all the evil that should come upon Babylon_ This was done that it might be known even in Babylon itself that Jeremiah had foretold the destruction of that city, six years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. _And Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_And thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates_ The prophets, as we have seen, frequently gave sensible representations of the judgments they foretold: see Jeremiah 19:10. This now given was a significant emblem of Babylon's sinking irrecoverably under the judgments here... [ Continue Reading ]