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.
Ver. 10. And Chaldea shall be a spoil.] See on Jeremiah 50:9.
Ver. 11. Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced,] scil., In a thing of naught, [as Amos 6:13] and in the miseries of my people ye were madly merry; therefore shall ye be let bleed in the vena cava, hollow vein. Because ye are grown fat.] Ye have laughed yourselves fat, you have fatted yourselves as in a day of slaughter or of good cheer. It was at a feast that Babylon was taken. And bellow as bulls.] Or, Neigh as steeds, lusty steeds. Causam ponit petulantiam et dicacitatem. -Oecol.
Ver. 12. Your mother shall be sore confounded,] i.e., Babylon, your mother city, or Babylonia, your country; or your monarchical greatness, which being in the last place laid waste after other nations, [as Jeremiah 25:25,26 was foretold] shall with shame cry out, Heu tam cito me quae primas obtinebam, &c. How is it that I, who was the head of nations, am now the tail, &c.
Ver. 13. It shall not be inhabited, but be wholly desolate.] Babylon standeth not now in the same place as of old, nor is there hardly any ruins of the old city remaining, as travellers tell us. Pausanias saith that in his time there was nought to be seen of it but the walls only; and Jerome saith that in his it was turned into a park for deer. Omne in medio spatium solitude est. See on Jeremiah 50:3. Lib. viii. in Isa. xiii.
Ver. 14. For she hath sinned against the Lord.] Yea, she is a sink of sins, the contagion of the world, the shop of Satan, the adversary of the saints, &c. So, and much more than so, is spiritual Babylon, Cito itidem casura, ei essetis viri (said Petrarch long since), that groaneth for a downfall.
Ver. 15. Shout against her round about.] As they did once at Jericho; she shall come down assuredly. She hath given her hand,] i.e., She hath yielded, and cried quarter; add hereunto that two princes of Babylon, being displeased by Belshazzar, sent for Cyrus to take the city, and showed him how he might best do it. This was “giving the hands” saith Calvin. As she hath done, do unto her.] Neque enim lex iustior ulla est. See Judges 1:5. [See Trapp on “Jud 1:5”] Deditionis est signum. Dare manus est fateri ae victum. “ Victum tendere palmas Ausanii videre.’’—Virg.
Ver. 16. Cut off the sower.] Leave not so much as a husbandman alive, who yet are generally spared, as harmless and useful; they were left and let alone by the Chaldeans when they carried away the Jews. (2 Kings 25:12) But here is enjoined a more severe execution.
Ver. 17. First the king of Assyria hath devoured him.] Many Assyrian kings successively, but especially Sennacherib. Hath broken his bones.] Heb., Hath boned him hath left nothing of him but the bare bones.
Ver. 18. As I have punished the king of Assyria.] And accordingly so he did; for as Sennacherib first lost his army, and then his life, and then soon after that monarchy was dissolved; so after that Belshazzar was slain, the empire was translated unto the Persians.
Ver. 19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation.] Or, To his fold, or his pastures. See Jeremiah 50:6,17.
Ver. 20. The iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for, and there shall be none.] Because to the justified no sin is imputed. Nihil oblivisci solet praeter iniurias. He forgetteth nothing but injuries only, said Cicero of Caesar, flatteringly, say we of God truly. This to have known is to feed in those soul fatting pastures. (Jeremiah 50:19) For I will pardon them whom I reserve.] Tegam quod fuit; quod erit, regam. I will cover what was; which will be, for I will rule.
Ver. 21. Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the inhabitants of Pekod.] Two Babylonian provinces. (Ezekiel 23:23) Calvin rendereth it, The land of exasperators, and the inhabitation of visitation, i.e., that deserve to be punished. This is God’s commission to Cyrus. Utterly destroy after them,] i.e., Their posterity. [as Daniel 4:11]
Ver. 22. A sound of battle is in the land.] Barrites militaris; this is, not the joyful, but the woeful sound; for war is a woe which no words, however wide, can sufficiently set forth. Sequitur executio. -Oecol.
Ver. 23. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder!] Babylon was the maul or hammer of many nations, Nimrod began it, and his successors took after him. Charles Martel, King of France, was so called for like cause. Augustine also was worthily styled Haereticorum malleus, the hammer of heretics; and Mr Arthur Hildersam, Schismaticorum malleus, the maul of schismatics.
Ver. 24. I have laid a snare for thee.] Thou wild bull. (Jeremiah 50:27) Babylon was unexpectedly taken by a stratagem, while they were in the midst of their revels. And thou wast not aware.] The palace was suddenly seized upon; but some parts of the city knew not that the enemy was entered till three days after; for it was the greatest city that ever the sun beheld, saith Pausanias, and the most suddenly surprised. Because thou hast striven against the Lord.] Heb., Hast mingled thyself with the Lord, in certamen scilicet, to wrestle a fall with him, and to try masteries. Aristot., Polit., Paus., Arcad.
Ver. 25. The Lord hath opened his armoury.] Heb., Treasury. Now God’s armoury is omne id sub coelo, usque ad diabolos; all things, both in heaven and under the cope of heaven, as far as the very devils, whereby he is able to subdue his enemies, and to bring them to nothing. Out of this treasury God took Darius and Cyrus, with their forces, and set them upon this expedition.
Ver. 26. Come against her.] This he speaketh to the Medes and Persians, who, though they were farther remote than they that could hear the prophet, yet God, who spake by him, could and did speak home to their hearts, stirring them up by a secret instinct to do this execution.
Ver. 27. Slay all her bullocks.] Heb., Sword them, sheath your swords in their sides. See Jeremiah 50:24.
Ver. 28. The vengeance of his temple.] Spoiled and burnt by the Chaldeans, those wasters, as their name also signifieth. Woe, then, to such as destroy God’s living temples!
Ver. 29. According to all that she hath done.] See Jeremiah 50:15. For she hath been proud against the Lord.] Who setteth himself in battle array against the proud. (1 Peter 5:5)
Ver. 30. Therefore shall her young men.] See on Jeremiah 49:26.
Ver. 31. Behold, I am against thee, O most proud.] Heb., O pride, in the abstract— i.e., O Belshazzar; as of a certain Pope was said, “ Conditur hoc tumulo et scelus et vitium. ”
Ver. 32. And the most proud shall stumble.] Heb., Pride, or that man of pride. Praefractarius ille, so Oecolampadius rendereth it, that stubborn man, who will do wickedly against conviction of conscience.
Ver. 33. The children of Judah and the children of Israel were oppressed together.] Or, Were oppressed alike— scil., in their several deportations; and God, mindful of his covenant, showeth himself sensible of it, though for the present he seemed not to care what became of either of them; — “ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox. ”
Ver. 34. Their Redeemer is strong.] Or, But their strong avenger, whose name is the Lord of hosts; he shall thoroughly plead their cause— i.e., right their wrongs. That he may give rest to the land.] See on 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9.
Ver. 35. A sword is upon the Chaldeans.] Those sworn swordsmen of the devil.
Ver. 36. A sword is upon the liars,] i.e., The prognosticators and wizards. Mendaces nominat divines, as it was wont here to be said—a friar, a liar.
Ver. 37. A sword is upon their horses.] Upon all their military preparations; whereof see Herodot., lib. i. They shall become as women.] Elumbes, cowardly and crest fallen. A sword is upon her treasures.] Which bow inestimable they were, see Strabo, lib. xv., and Plin., lib. xxxiii, cap. 3.
Ver. 38. A drought is upon her waters.] Which Cyrus did so drain by many outlets, that without any great difficulty he took the city, assaulting it on two sides. Frontinius saith, that thrice Babylon was taken by this stratagem; (1.) By Semiramis; (2.) By Cyrus; (3.) By Alexander the Great. And they are mad upon their idols.] Deos terrificos et truces, statues of their kings and worthies, which were of a huge, vast stature. See Daniel 3:1. Lib. iii. c. 7. s. 4. ειδωλομανεις.
Ver. 39. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert.] See Isaiah 13:21.
Ver. 40. As God overthrew Sodom.] See Isaiah 13:19 Jer 49:18.
Ver. 41. Behold, a people shall come from the north.] As Jeremiah 50:3,9 6:22.
Ver. 42. Against thee, O daughter of Babylon.] In like sort as thou didst once against God’s Israel. (Jeremiah 6:23) Now thou shalt meet with thy match.
Ver. 43. The king of Babylon, &c.] See Jeremiah 6:24 Da 5:6.
Ver. 44. Behold, he shall come up.] See Jeremiah 49:19.
Ver. 45. See on Jeremiah 49:20.
Ver. 46. See on Jeremiah 49:21.