← Back to the beginning of Jeremiah 50
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.