_THE SEVERE JUDGMENT OF GOD AGAINST BABYLON, IN VINDICATION OF ISRAEL. JEREMIAH DELIVERETH THE BOOK OF THIS PROPHESY TO SERAIAH, TO BE CAST INTO THE EUPHRATES, IN TOKEN OF THE PERPETUAL SINKING OF BABYLON._ _Before Christ 595._... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM THAT RISE UP AGAINST ME, &C.— See chap. Jeremiah 4:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
FANNERS, &C.— _Winnowers,_ &c. This image is frequently made use of by the Hebrew prophets to represent the ease with which the Almighty disperses and destroys his enemies. See Isaiah 21:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST HIM THAT BENDETH— _Let not him who bendeth the bow relax his hand; let him not put off his armour._ Houbigant. _AND AGAINST HIM THAT LIFTETH HIMSELF UP IN HIS BRIGANDINE_— _And let him not lift up himself in his brigandine._ This is exactly parallel in sense to the preceding part of the ver... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS THE SLAIN SHALL FALL— _Let the wounded fall in the land of the Chaldeans._ Houbigant. Dr. Kennicott would render it, _Thus the soldiers shall fall;_ which seems to agree well with the 13th verse of the preceding chapter.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ISRAEL HATH NOT BEEN FORSAKEN— _For Israel shall not therefore be forsaken, or Judah without his God, the Lord of Hosts, because their land hath been filled with desolation by the Holy One of Israel._ Houbigant. Though God was justly displeased with his people; yet he will not cast them off utte... [ Continue Reading ]
BABYLON HATH BEEN A GOLDEN CUP— "The Lord has presented by the hand of Babylon and her kings the cup of his wrath to all the people of the earth: Egypt, Judaea, Phoenicia, Syria, Idumaea, and many other countries, have been drunk with the wine of the fury of the Lord, by the ministration of Nebuchad... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH BROUGHT FORTH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS— "The Lord hath made manifest the equity of our cause by the judgment which he hath brought upon Babylon." See Jeremiah 51:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
GATHER THE SHIELDS— _Fill the quivers._ Houbigant. Neriglissar king of Babylon having formed an alliance against the Medes, Cambyses sent his son Cyrus, with an army of thirty thousand Persians, to join the Medes, commanded by Cyaxares. This Cyaxares, king of Media, called in Scripture _Darius the M... [ Continue Reading ]
O THOU THAT DWELLS, &C.— Upon the river Euphrates, which encompassed Babylon, and was thought to render the city impregnable. _Many waters_ also signify mystically the many people over whom this was the reigning city. Compare Revelation 17:1; Revelation 17:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS WITH CATERPILLARS— _Locusts._... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HATH MADE THE EARTH— In this and the following verses we have an elegant and sublime description of the power and wisdom of the Almighty, in opposition to the weakness and inanity of idols. See Psalms 135:7. At the beginning of the 17th verse we may read, _Brutish, for want of knowledge._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PORTION OF JACOB, &C.— _Not such a one is he who hath Jacob for his portion; for he hath created all things: not such a one is he who hath the sceptre of his inheritance; whose name is the Lord of Hosts._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART MY BATTLE-AXE— _Thou hast broken for me the weapons of war; I have broken by thee the nations, and destroyed kingdoms;_ Houbigant: who renders the following verses also to the 24th in the perfect tense; and he understands the whole as spoken of the dominion of the Babylonians, and not, as i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL RENDER UNTO BABYLON— _"But,_ though I have made Babylon the instrument of my vengeance towards others, _I will render unto Babylon all the evil which they have done in Zion, and these things shall be done before your eyes, saith the Lord."_ See Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, I AM AGAINST THEE, O DESTROYING MOUNTAIN— The Vulgate renders it more properly, _O corrupting mountain, which corruptest the whole earth._ Babylon, though seated in a low watery plain, is here called a _mountain,_ not only on account of its lofty buildings, but of its pride, and as being the... [ Continue Reading ]
ARARAT, MINNI, AND ASHCHENAZ— See Isaiah 13:4. Instead of _rough caterpillars,_ Bochart reads _bristled locusts._... [ Continue Reading ]
ONE POST SHALL RUN TO MEET ANOTHER— As Babylon was taken by surprise, this occasioned many messengers to run one after another, to acquaint the king with this sudden and unexpected event. Herodotus says, that the extreme parts of the city were taken before those who lived in the centre were sensible... [ Continue Reading ]
NEBUCHADREZZAR—HATH CRUSHED ME— This is a pathetic description of the calamities brought upon the Jews by Nebuchadrezzar and his forces; who, after devouring the wealth, and laying waste the beauty of their country, carried them away captives into a strange land. The imprecation in the following ver... [ Continue Reading ]
HER SEA— That is to say, _her river_ [Euphrates]... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THEIR HEAT I WILL MAKE THEIR FEASTS— _I will give them their cup when they are now heated, and I will make them drunken, that they may be sick, and sleep,_ &c. "While they are feasting themselves, I will provide them another cup to drink; namely, that of my fury and indignation." See the note on... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW IS SHESHACH TAKEN!— That is, _Babylon;_ called _Sheshach_ from the goddess of that name, which the Babylonians worshipped, and which is supposed by Calmet to have been the same with the moon. See ch. Jeremiah 25:26. The prophet calls Babylon _the praise of the whole earth,_ as it was esteemed on... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SEA IS COME UP— A multitude of people, which, like an inundation, carry all before them.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL PUNISH BEL— _And I do take vengeance or judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will draw his morsel out of his mouth; and the nations,_ &c. That is, the presents which have been brought to his temple from foreign nations shall be restored; which was particularly verified with respect to the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LEST YOUR HEART FAINT— _Let not your heart faint, neither do ye tremble when a rumour shall be heard in the land. One year a rumour shall come, and then another rumour in the same year. Then the spoiler shall come into the land, ruler after ruler._ Houbigant. The prophet gives these tokens, that... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, BEHOLD— _For, behold._ Instead of _all her slain,_ Houbigant reads _all her wounded,_ as in Jeremiah 51:4 and Kennicott _all her soldiers:_ and so in the 49th verse, the latter reads, _as Babylon hath caused the soldiers of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the soldiers of all that... [ Continue Reading ]
SO AT BABYLON SHALL FALL THE SLAIN OF ALL THE EARTH— _So through Babylon have fallen the slain of the whole earth._ The reason is here assigned, why the heavens and the earth, and all that were therein, should rejoice at the fall of Babylon, because not only the people of Israel, but of the whole ea... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE CONFOUNDED— The prophet repeats the words of those pious exiles, when they reflected upon the desolation of God's people and sanctuary. See Lamentations 2:15. Psalms 44:15; Psalms 79:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
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, which during the time of her prosperity w... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MAKE DRUNK, &C.— See Jeremiah 51:39. This refers to the same remarkable circumstance in the capture of Babylon.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BROAD WALLS OF BABYLON SHALL BE UTTERLY BROKEN— See Isaiah 47:7; Isaiah 47:13. Houbigant reads the latter part of the verse, _And the people shall labour for a thing of nought, and exhaust their strength for the flames,_ &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORD, &C.— _This was the commandment which Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah,—when he went in the retinue of Zedekiah,_ &c. _But this Seraiah was the chief chamberlain,_ Jeremiah 51:60. _For Jeremiah, after he had written,_ &c. Jeremiah 51:61, _said to Seraiah,_ &c. Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT BIND A STONE TO IT, &C.— The prophets, as we have seen, frequently gave sensible representations of judgments which they foretold. The present was a sufficient and striking emblem of Babylon's sinking irrecoverably under the judgments here denounced against her. This threatening was in a... [ Continue Reading ]