Ver. 1. For the Lord will have mercy upon Jacob.] And therefore destroy Babylon. [as Isaiah 13] Such is his love to his Church that for her sake, and in revenge of her wrongs, he will fall foul upon her enemies. Si in Hierosolymis fiat scrutinium, quanto magis in Babylon. And the strangers shall be joined with them.] Proselyted, especially when made partakers of the grace of the gospel. Bernard.
Ver. 2. For servants and for handmaids.] Their converts shall be willing to lay their hands under their feet, as we say, and glad to do them any service, like as Cyprian was for Caecilius, whom he called novae vitae parentem, parent of new life, and Latimer for Bilney, whom he called Blessed Bilney. See Isaiah 49:23.
Ver. 3. That the Lord shall give thee rest, &c.] The Church hath her halcyons here; neither is she “smitten as those are that smote her, but in measure, in the branches,” &c. God “stayeth his rough wind” (Isaiah 27:8) that is, such afflictions as would shake his plants too much, or quite blow them down. Yea, whether south or north wind bloweth, all shall blow good to them (Song of Solomon 4:16) Blow off their unkindly blossoms, and refresh them both under and after all their sorrow, fear, and hardship.
Ver. 4. That thou shalt take up this proverb.] Or, Taunting speech; this exultatory and insultatory song, which upon the fall of Babylon shall be in every man’s mouth. How hath the oppressor ceased!] q.d., This is wonderful and beyond all expectation. The golden city.] Or, Gold thirsty city. Carmen, ελεγκτικον και ονειδιστικον. Aurata vel auri avida.
Ver. 5. The Lord hath broken the staff.] Wherewith these exactors cudgelled men, as so many beasts, into subjection and obedience. And the sceptre.] Or Rod of the rulers who ruled with rigour.
Ver. 6. He that smote the people in wrath, &c.] This is the tyrant’s epitaph; there is at their death a general joy, as was the time when the world was well rid of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Heliogabalus, &c. When Domitian died, the senate decreed that his name should be erased, that all his acts should be rescinded, and his memorial abolished quite for ever. When Caligula was cut off, his monies were all melted by the decree of the senate; like as King Richard III’s cognisance, the white boar, was torn from every sign, that his memory might perish. Aurel. Victor. Speed.
Ver. 7. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet.] Quievit, conticuit. All is hushed that was used to be set in an uproar by these restless ambitionists. They break forth into singing.] By a wide opening of the lips and lungs, as the word signifieth. ανεπαυσατο πεποιθως.— Sept.
Ver. 8. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee.] A notable metaphor, whereby sense and speech is attributed to senseless creatures; the trees once afraid to be felled are now freed from that fear. This tyrant was the terror of things on earth, and things under earth. Hence men and trees are said to rejoice, hell to be in a hurry, &c. No feller is come up against us.] As was wont to do, for thy shipping, buildings, warlike engines, &c.
Ver. 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee.] Infernus ab inferendo; shaal, from its unsatiableness, and continual craving. Here is an ironic and poetic representation of the King of Babylon’s coming into hell, and his entertainment there; the dead kings rising from their places for reverence to receive him. Even all the chief ones of the earth.] Heb., The he-goats, such as lead and go before the flock; such rhetoric as this we meet with in Lucian’s Dialogues. Of Laurentius Valla, that great critic, who found fault with almost all Latin authors, one made this tetrastich; “ Nunc postquam manes defunctus Valla petivit, Non audet Pluto verba Latina loqui. Iupiter hunc caeli dignatus honore fuisset, Censarem linguae sed timer ipse sum.” - Trithem. From their thrones,] i.e., From their “sepulchres,” saith Piscator.
Ver. 10. Art thou also become weak as we?] Interrogatio sarcastica et insultabunda. Hast thou also a Hic situs est, here he lies, or Mortuus est, here he died, set upon thy tombstone? This if thou hadst forethought, thou wouldst have better behaved thyself while alive: the meditation of death would have been a death to thy passions, and an allay to thine insolencies. Virgil saith, if swarms of bees meet in the air, they will sometimes fight as it were in a set battle with great violence; but if you cast but a little dust upon them, they will be all presently quiet. “ Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta, Pulveris exigui iactu compressa quieseunt.” - Georg., lib. iv. Had Nebuchadnezzar or his successors bethought themselves of their mortality and of death’s impartiality, they would have been more moderate.
Ver. 11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave.] Ipsaque iusta sepulta iacent, funeral rites, those dues of the dead, are wanting to thee. This was fulfilled in Belshazzar, slain at his impious feast, while he profaned the vessels of God’s house to quaff in to the honour of Shac, his drunken god, and had no doubt variety of music. See Jeremiah 51:39,41,47 Da 5:1,30. The worm is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.] Pro linteamine tinea sternitur: pro lodice vermes superimponuntur. For sheets thou hast maggots, and for a coverlet, worms; and this the rather because, whereas the Assyrian kings, as Strabo testifieth, and the Babylonian kings, as Herodotus, were wont to be embalmed after their death, that they might keep sweet, Belshazzar was not so (Isaiah 14:19,20) These feast days were called σακεαι ημηραι, like the Roman saturnalia. Lib. xv. Lib. i.