Ver. 1. The word that the Lord spake against Babylon.] Which was built by Nimrod, as Nineveh was afterwards by his nephew Ninus. (Genesis 10:11) Of the greatness of this city, besides what we read in holy writ, much may be read in Herodotus and Pliny. It was the head city of the Assyrian and Chaldean monarchy, which lasted above seventeen hundred years, till Cyrus the Persian took the kingdom. Isaiah prophesied against it in several chapters. Habakkuk maketh it his whole business. Jeremiah had set forth how Sheshach, that is, Belshazzar, should drink the dregs of the cup of God’s wrath. (Jeremiah 25:26) Here, and in the next chapter, he discourseth it more at large, showing how it was that Babylon was to drink of that cup; and for more certainty, it is spoken of in this prophecy as already done.
Ver. 2. Declare ye among the nations.] Let all take notice of the good news; there shall be a general jail delivery, sing therefore Io triumphe. Say, Babylon is taken.] So Isaiah 21:9. Bel is confounded.] This Bel was Nimrod, whose nephew Ninus set him up for a god. Merodach (a restorer of their empire, whereof Nimrod had been founder) was likewise idolised. They are called “dirty deities”— foedites et stercora, a name good enough for them—and said to be confounded. See Isaiah 46:1. “Sorrows” also; because “their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God.” (Psalms 16:4) Merodach σκηπρουχος sive Sceptrifer Chaldaica appellatione.
Ver. 3. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her,] i.e., Out of Media and Persia, which lay northward from Chaldea. The Jews had their bane out of the north (as had been foretold, Jeremiah 1:14,15), scil., from Babylon. And now Babylon is to be baned from the same quarter. This was some comfort, doubtless, to the poor Jews in captivity. Which shall make her land desolate.] This was not fulfilled till many years after. Cyrus indeed began it, but Seleucus Nicanor finished it, by building near unto it another great city called Seleucia. Plin., lib. vi. cap. 26.
Ver. 4. In those days, and at that time.] Destructio Babel salus est populo Dei; so shall it be at the ruin of Rome. The children of Israel shall come, and the children of Judah together.] In better times they could not agree; but when they were both in a weeping condition, misery bred unity, as it did also between Hooper and Ridley, when they were both in prison for the truth. Going and weeping.] Tears of sorrow for their sins, and tears of joy for their deliverance by Cyrus, but especially by Christ. They shall go and seek the Lord their God.] Whom they had long been without, and do now long and linger after.
Ver. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward,] As intent upon it, and minding nothing else in comparison. It is good for a man to have his face set towards heaven, and to make religion his business, looking at other things by the by, and out at the eye’s end, as it were. Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord.] Be so joined to the Lord, so glued unto him, as to be one spirit with him in a conjugal perpetual covenant. Accurate sciscitabuntur. Indivulse adhaerebunt Domino.
Ver. 6. My people have been lost sheep.] Per avis peccatorum aberrantes; lost in the maze of sin and misery. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray.] True also of Papists and sectaries, miserably misled by their pretended pastors—impostors rather.
Ver. 7. All that found them have devoured them.] As ravenous creatures do wandering sheep. Stragglers are a fit prey for seducers. And their adversaries said, We offend not,] i.e., God will have it so; (Jeremiah 40:2) but this was no good plea. (Jeremiah 2:3) The habitation of justice.] Or, In the habitation of justice; in a land of uprightness have they dealt unjustly, (Isaiah 26:10) which was no small aggravation of their sin. Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.] But these, as degenerate children, have no such hope.
Ver. 8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon.] “Ho, ho, come forth.” [as Zechariah 2:6] “Away, this is not your rest, for it is polluted.” (Micah 2:10) See Isaiah 48:20 Re 18:4. Be as the he-goats.] That lead the flocks, generose et festinanter, freely and readily. Sheep are fearful, and therefore go behind; goats are not so, and therefore go before. There is good hope, saith one, that we are going out of Babylon, when the he-goats go before the flock; when men of public place and authority are active for reformation.
Ver. 9. From the north country.] See on Jeremiah 50:3. Their arrows shall be as a mighty expert man.] Or, Of a potent prosperous man, that can hit where he pleaseth, and that without fail. None shall return in vain.] No shaft shall, or no soldier shall miss of booty; for whereas Babylon, like a sea, had taken in the wealth of all nations, so it was meet that it should be exhausted, like as Rome was by the Goths and Vandals, and as Constantinople was by the Turks and Tartars.