Jeremiah 50 - Introduction
_THE JUDGMENT OF BABYLON. THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL._ _Before Christ 595._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE JUDGMENT OF BABYLON. THE REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL._ _Before Christ 595._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORD THAT THE LORD SPAKE AGAINST BABYLON— After having announced to the Philistines, Edomites, and other people, the evils which they should suffer from Nebuchadrezzar, Jeremiah proceeds to foretel what should happen to the Chaldeans themselves from Cyrus and other princes his successors. For th... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE NORTH THERE COMETH UP A NATION— The Medes, who lay north of Babylon. See Jeremiah 50:9; Jeremiah 50:41. These people are well and fully described in the subsequent verses.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS, AND IN THAT TIME— The return of the ten tribes with that of Judah and Benjamin could not have been marked out more expressly. "They shall return to their country amid tears of joy, of tenderness and compunction." See Calmet. But from the next verse we may conclude, that a future and m... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR SHEPHERDS—HAVE TURNED THEM AWAY— They have turned them aside from the true worship of God performed at Jerusalem, to sacrifice to idols upon the mountains and high-places. See chap. Jeremiah 2:20 Jeremiah 3:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR ADVERSARIES SAID, WE OFFEND NOT— "In making them captives." Jeremiah introduces the Chaldean speaking thus by the truest prosopopoeia; for it could not be but the Chaldeans must have known those things which the prophets had foretold concerning the future captivity of the Jews: Nebuchadrezzar... [ Continue Reading ]
BE AS THE HE-GOATS BEFORE THE FLOCKS— "Let each of the princes of Judah endeavour to lead the way to others, and give them an example of speedily obeying God's call, without shewing any fondness to the place, or to the idolatries there practised." See Zechariah 10:3. Homer frequently compares his he... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT SPOIL HER SHALL BE SATISFIED— "They shall fully revenge themselves upon her, and have as much spoil and plunder as they can desire.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, &C.— _Behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness,_ &c. Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE OF THE WRATH OF THE LORD, IT SHALL NOT BE INHABITED— See Isaiah 13:19 to which the following remarkable passage from Rollin's Ancient History, vol. 2: book 4: may be added: "After its capture by Cyrus, Babylon ceased to be a royal city; the kings of Persia choosing some other place for their... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE HATH GIVEN HER HAND— _Giving the hand,_ is a token of consenting to any conditions offered. See Exodus 10:15 and Lamentations 5:6. _Dare manus,_ (_to give the hand,_) in Latin signifies, _to yield;_ and most probably alludes to the act of the vanquished, who, throwing down his arms, and stretchi... [ Continue Reading ]
CUT OFF THE SOWER FROM BABYLON— Babylon resembled a country walled in, rather than a city; the walls, according to Herodotus, being sixty miles in compass. Within this large circuit a great deal of ground was cultivated with corn; so that enough grew within the walls to support the inhabitants durin... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL IS A SCATTERED SHEEP— See Jeremiah 50:6. "As a lion coming among a flock of sheep scatters them one from another; so have these foreign invaders served my people." See chap. Jeremiah 2:15 Jeremiah 5:6. Instead of, _A scattered sheep,_ Houbigant reads, _a dispersed flock;_ and he reads the lat... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS, &C.— That is, "I will be perfectly reconciled to them, as if they had never offended." The Hebrew expresses the utter ceasing of any thing by _seeking and not finding._ Compare Psalms 10:15; Psalms 37:36. Isaiah 41:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jeremiah 50:21. Go up,_ &c. The two places here mentioned, though unknown, are supposed to have been situate in the Babylonish dominions. The meaning of the words is, _the land of the rebels—and the inhabitants of visitation:_ and some understand them of the Babylonians in the sense here given. The... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW IS THE HAMMER OF THE WHOLE EARTH CUT ASUNDER, &C.— _Divided and broken._ Houbigant. "How is that oppressive empire which smote the nations with a continual stroke, broken and destroyed!" The figure is strong and expressive.... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE LAID A SNARE FOR THEE— Cyrus took the city by surprise, entering it when the walls were intire, the city full of provisions, and the people in high spirits, to their utter consternation, by having drained the Euphrates. See Jeremiah 50:38.... [ Continue Reading ]
CAST HER UP AS HEAPS— The marginal rendering of our Bibles, which is followed by Houbigant, seems preferable; _Tread her as heaps,_ that is to say, as the corn is trodden down when it is threshed. The phrase alludes to the eastern way of threshing.... [ Continue Reading ]
SLAY ALL HER BULLOCKS— The Vulgate and Chaldee have explained the sense of this figure by rendering it, _her strong men._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VOICE OF THEM THAT FLEE, &C.— Some of those who were more than ordinarily zealous for the welfare of God's church and people, were ready, upon the first news of the taking of Babylon, to bring the glad tidings to Judaea, that God had avenged his people, and executed his judgments on those who de... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT HE MAY GIVE REST, &C.— Houbigant renders it, _Rest to their land;_ that is to say, to the Jews.... [ Continue Reading ]
A SWORD IS UPON THE LIARS— _The diviners, and they shall be mad._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
A DROUGHT IS UPON HER WATERS— _A sword is upon her waters, that they may be dried up; because it is a land of idols, and they glory in vain gods._ Our translators, after the example of the Vulgate and others, read חרב _choreb,_ in this place _a drought,_ differently from the reading and sense given... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, &C.— _Therefore wild cats, with jackals, shall dwell there; and the daughters of the ostriches shall dwell therein._ &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, &C.— See the note and alterations of the version, ver. Jeremiah 49:19, &c. REFLECTIONS.—1st, We have here, 1. The destruction of Babylon foretold, with her idols. And great joy would it administer, when these glad tidings were spread among the nations, that the rod of the oppressor was bro... [ Continue Reading ]