Ver. 1. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim.] See on Jeremiah 1:2. Above twenty years had Jeremiah spent his worthy pains upon them, illi vero ne teruntio quidem meliores facti sunt, but they were nothing the better; here, therefore, is their doom most deservedly denounced. That was the first year.] This first year of Nebuchadnezzar, reigning alone after his father’s death, fell out part of Jehoiakim’s third, and part of the fourth. (Daniel 1:1)
Ver. 2. Unto all the people of Judah.] The circumstances both of time when, and of persons to whom, is thus set down, for the reason given on Jeremiah 25:1.
Ver. 3. Rising early and speaking.] A dilucula indesinenter: as good husbands use to do, taking the best times.
Ver. 4. But ye have not hearkened.] See Jeremiah 7:24,26.
Ver. 5. They said, Turn ye again.] This was the sum of all the prophet’s sermons, as of the apostles’, “Repent ye and believe the gospel.,” (Mark 1:15)
Ver. 6. And I will do you no hurt.] Heb., I will not do evil to you; as else I must. The Romans honoured their Vejoves, that they might not harm them.
Ver. 7. That ye might provoke me.] See Jeremiah 7:17,18.
Ver. 8. Because ye have not heard,] i.e., Not heeded them. [as Jeremiah 7:19]
Ver. 9. Behold, I will send and take.] By a secret instinct. [as Jeremiah 1:15] And Nebuchadnezzar my servant,] i.e., Mine executioner, the rod of my wrath, (Isaiah 10:5) and the scourge of the world, as Attila styled himself. And against all these nations round about.] Who were so infatuated that they did not combine against Nebuchadnezzar, whom the Septuagint called a dove, Jeremiah 25:38, but he was a vulture rather, and these nations were as so many silly doves, which save themselves by flight, not fight; and sitting in their dove cots, see their nests destroyed, and their young ones killed before their eyes, never offering to rescue or revenge, as other fowls do. So dealt the old Britons when invaded by the Romans; they joined not their forces against the common enemy, sed dum singuli pugnabant, universi vincebantur. but while the fought separately, they were conquered together. Tacitus
Ver. 10. Moreover, I will take from them.] See Jeremiah 7:34 Re 18:22.
Ver. 11. And this land shall be a desolation—seventy years.] Which commenced at the deportation of Jeconiah. (2 Kings 24:8 Jeremiah 29:1-3 Ezekiel 4:1 33:21) Avignon in France, was the residence of the Pope for seventy years, which time the Romans yet remember, till this day, by the name of the Babylonian captivity. Luther, when he first began to stir against the Pope, wrote a book bearing title De captivitate Babylonica, which when Bugenhagius, a Pomeranian divine, first read, he pronounced it to be the most heretical piece that ever was written, but afterwards, having better considered the contents of it, he retracted his former censure; he told his colleagues that all the world besides was in deep darkness, and that Luther alone was in the light and in the right, and him he would follow. So he did, and drew many more with him. Heyl. Cosm., fol. 188. Scult Annal.
Ver. 12. I will punish the King of Babylon.] As had been previoulsy threatened, (Isaiah 13:19-22 14:21-23 21:2-10 47:5,8,9) and was accomplished. (Daniel 5:25-28,30)
Ver. 13. And I will bring upon that land,] scil., By Cyrus and his successors, who out of the ruins of Babylon built two cities, Ctesiphon and Seleucia.
Ver. 14. For many nations.] The Medes and Persians, together with the rest that served under them. And great kings.] Cyrus and Darius especially.
Ver. 15. Take the wine cup of this fury.] Or, Take this smoking wine cup. A “cup” is oft put for “affliction,” and wine for extreme confusion and wrath. Poison in wine works more furiously than in water. (Psalms 75:8) And cause all the nations.] According to that power which I have put into thine hands. (Jeremiah 1:10) Vengeance is still in readiness for the disobedient, (2 Corinthians 10:6) as ready every whit in God’s hand, as in the minister’s mouth, who threateneth it. Utitur demonstratione seu ostento divino.
Ver. 16. And be moved and be mad.] As men that are overcome by some hot and heady liquor, are mad drunk. Because of the sword that I shall send.] For it is God who puts the sword in commission, (Jeremiah 47:6,7) and there it many times rideth circuit, as a judge, in scarlet. There are certain seasons, wherein, as the angel troubled the pool, so doth God the nations: and commonly when he doth it to one, he doth it to more, as here, and 2 Chronicles 15:5,6, and as at this day in Europe.
Ver. 17. And made all drink,] viz., In vision, and by denunciation.
Ver. 18. To wit, in Jerusalem.] Judgment beginneth at God’s house (1 Peter 4:17) [See Trapp on “1Pe 4:17”] [See Trapp on “Mt 25:41”] Sed si in Hierosolymis maneat scrutinium, quid fiet in Babylone? saith an ancient.
Ver. 19. Pharaoh king of Egypt.] Pharaohhophra, (Jeremiah 44:30) of whom Herodotus writeth that he persuaded himself and boasted, that his kingdom was so strong that no god or man could take it from him. He was afterwards hanged by his own subjects. Lib. ii.
Ver. 20. The mixed people.] That lay scattered in the deserts, and had no certain abode; Scenitae and Hamaxobii. And all the kings of the land of Uz.] Job’s country, called by the Greeks, Ausitis.
Ver. 21. Edom and Moab, &c.] By the destruction of all these nations we may make a conjecture at the destructiou of all the wicked, when Christ shall come to judgment. All that befalleth them in this world, is but as drops of wrath forerunning the great storm: or as a crack foretokening the fall of the whole house. Here the leaves only fall upon them as it were, but then the body of the tree in its full weight to crush them for ever.
Ver. 22. And all the kings of the isles.] As Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, subdued also by the Babylonian, saith Jerome, Rabanus, and Vatablus.
Ver. 23. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz.] The Hagarens or Saracens (Jeremiah 49:8) And all that are in the utmost corners.] Qui attonsi sunt in comam; Roundheads. See Jeremiah 9:26.
Ver. 24. And all the kings of Arabia.] Petraea. That dwell in the desert.] In Arabia Deserta.
Ver. 25. And all the kings of Zimri,] i.e., Of Arabia Felix. Zamarens, Pliny calleth them. Lib. vi. cap. 28.
Ver. 26. And all the kingdoms.] See on Jeremiah 25:16. And the king of Sheshak,] i.e., Belshazzar, that bezzling king of Babylon, while he is quaffing in the vessels of God’s house to the honour of Shat, the Babylonian goddess; whence those feast days were called σακεαι ημεραι, being like the Roman Saturnalia. Antichrist also, who hath troubled all the kingdoms of the earth, shall himself perish, together with his Babylon the great, which hath made the nations drunk with the wine of her fornications. Shesac, id est poculum laetitiae aut vanitatis, vel sericum tuum.
Ver. 27. Drink ye, and be drunk, and spue, and fall.] Eckius, or Eccius, otherwise by some called Jeccius, from his casting or spuing, being nonplussed by Melanchthon, and well nigh madded, started drinking, for his own solace, and drank himself to death. So should these do of the cup of God’s wrath, not only till they were mad drunk, [as Jeremiah 25:16] but dead drunk. Manlii, Loc. Com. 89.
Ver. 28. Ye shall certainly drink.] See on Jeremiah 25:15.
Ver. 29. The city that is called by my name.] Periphrasis Hierosolymae argumentosa. And should ye be utterly unpunished?] See on Jeremiah 25:18. Ye shall not be unpunished.] But suffer as surely and as sorely.
Ver. 30. The Lord shall roar from on high.] As a lusty lion, having discovered his prey, runneth upon it, roaring so horribly that he astonisheth the creatures and sets them at a stand. He will mightily roar upon his habitation.] Pliny reporteth of the lioness, that she bringeth forth her whelps dead, and so they remain for the space of three days, until the lion, coming near to the den where they lie, lifteth up his voice, and roareth so fiercely, that presently they revive and rise. The “Lion of the tribe of Judah” will roar to like purpose at the last day; and doth afore, when he pleaseth, roar terribly upon his enemies, to their utter amazement. (Joel 3:16 Amos 1:2 3:8) He shall give a shout, as those that tread the grapes.] When they have their feet in the winepress, and the new liquor in their heads, as one phraseth it.
Ver. 31. For the Lord hath a controversy with the nations.] A disceptation, which showeth that his revenge to be taken upon them shall be just and lawful. It shall well appear to be so, at that day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (Romans 2:5) Disceptatio catholica.
Ver. 32. Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation.] See on Jeremiah 25:16.
Ver. 33. And the slain of the Lord shall be, &c.] Such an utter destruction of the wicked is expected by the Jews at the coming of their Messiah, as of all people under heaven they are the most apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage, being light, aerial, fanatical.
Ver. 34. Howl, ye shepherds.] Ululate, volulate. Shriek and roll. This is spoken to the governors and grandees; for in public calamities such usually suffer more than meaner men. The corks swim, saith one, when the plummets sink. If a tree have thick and large boughs, it lieth more open to lopping. And ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel,] i.e., Irremediably. Like as a crystal glass or China dish once broken cannot be pieced again.
Ver. 35. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee.] Who had formerly divers strongholds. See Amos 2:14.
Ver. 36. For the Lord hath spoiled their pastures,] i.e., Their kingdoms and states, or their flocks.
Ver. 37. And the peaceable habitations.] Heb., The habitations or folds of peace. The fierce anger of the Lord hath unrooted them, their dwellings are demolished.
Ver. 38. He hath forsaken his covert, as a lion.] God hath, or, as some will, Nebuchadnezzar hath. He is come out of Babylon his den, to range about for prey. Ut in praeda involet. Because of the fierceness of the oppressor.] Of the dove, say some, who also tell us that the Chaldees had in their standard this picture of a dove. But of that there is no such certainty.