Ver. 1. Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst,] scil., Of the land of Chaldea, in the royal seat and centre of that great monarchy. A destroying wind.] Blasting and boisterous. See Jeremiah 4:11,12. Ventum pestilentem. -Vulg, υβριστας.— Septuag.
Ver. 2. And I will send unto Babylon farmers.] Who shall make as clean work as they once did in Judea, disperse her inhabitants, and dissipate her riches.
Ver. 3. Against him that bendeth.] Periphrasis Babylonii, omnibus gentibus infesti.
Ver. 4. Thus the slain shall fall.] Both within the walls a nd without, των φονων ουτ αριθμος ουθ ορος, there shall be neither measure nor end of manslaughter, as Plutarch saith of Rome in Sulla’s time.
Ver. 5. For Israel hath not been forsaken.] Heb., Widowed. Though their land was filled with sin.] Heb., Guilt, or delinquency, or devastation. The Scripture hath been fully made good to us of this nation, while the fulness of sin in us hath not yet abated the fulness of grace in God toward us. See those four gracious yets, Zechariah 1:17. [See Trapp on “Zec 1:17”]
Ver. 6. Flee out of the midst of Babylon.] See Jeremiah 1 8. So, in the Hew Testament, we are called upon to flee and avoid the corruptions of the world and of Antichrist. (1 John 2:7,8 Ephesians 5:6 Revelation 14:3-5 18:4) For this is a time, &c.] As Jeremiah 50:15,25,27,28 46:10.
Ver. 7. Babylon hath been a golden cup.] See Jeremiah 25:15 Re 17:4. In the Lord’s hand,] i.e., Oeconomia et dispensatione eius: He had the mixing and distributing of it.
Ver. 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen.] Jeremiah 50:2. So ruet alto a culmine Roma So Rome will be destroyed from its highest heights. (Revelation 14:8 18:2,10) If so be she may be healed,] q.d., Try you may, but it is to no purpose. See Jeremiah 46:11.
Ver. 9. We would have healed Babylon.] Say the foreign nations that came to help her, or the people of God, say others, that were kept captive by her, as Daniel and the rest. But she is not healed.] Or, She could not be healed. See Hosea 7:1. For her judgment reacheth unto heaven.] It coelo clamor, proportionable to her sin. (Revelation 18:5) Vox electorum. -Oecolamp.
Ver. 10. The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness,] i.e., Our just cause, and the righteousness of our religion, derided by the Babylonians.
Ver. 11. Make bright the arrows,] q.d., Do so, O Chaldeans, if ye think it will boot you anything at all for the shoring up of your tottering state, whereas the Lord is resolved to bring it down.
Ver. 12. Set up the standard.] An irony all along, as Jeremiah 51:11. Hortatio ironica. -Piscator.
Ver. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters.] Euphrates and Tigris especially, famous rivers running from Babylonia into the Persian Sea. Hence most geographers hold, and not improbably, that that land was a part of the garden of Eden; fruitful it was beyond credulity. Thine end is come, and the measure (Heb., the cubit) of thy covetousness.] Cuius avaritiae totus non sufficit orbis. The covetous cormorant’s mouth, with his Give, give, shall shortly be stopped with a spadeful of mould, and his “never enough” quit with fire enough in the bottom of hell.
Ver. 14. Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillers.] So they shall seem both for multitude and humming noise, barritu militari. They shall lift up a shout against thee.] As peasants did at their harvest home. See Jeremiah 48:33.
Ver. 15. He hath made the earth by his power.] And can therefore easily and quickly unmake this great monarchy. See Jeremiah 10:12. [See Trapp on “Jer 10:12”]
Ver. 16. When he uttereth his voice, &c.] See Jeremiah 10:13.
Ver. 17. Every man is brutish.] See Jeremiah 10:14.
Ver. 18. They are vanity.] See Jeremiah 10:15.
Ver. 19. The portion of Jacob, &c.] See Jeremiah 10:16.
Ver. 20. Thou art my battle axe, and weapon of war.] Cestra fuisti mihi, Thou hast been my pole axe, such as horsemen use to batter their enemies’ helmets and other harness.
Ver. 21. And with thee.] O Babylonian king. Will I break in pieces.] Or rather, Have I broken in pieces. And hence thy perdition.
Ver. 22. With thee also will I break (or, By thee have I broken) in pieces man and woman.] But especially my people of the Jews, whom I more valued than all the men and women in the world besides.
Ver. 23. The shepherd and his flock, the husbandman and his yoke, &c.] This particular enumeration is very emphatic. [so Jeremiah 50:35,37,38]
Ver. 24. And I will render unto Babylon.] See Jeremiah 50:15,29 Isa 47:6,8 10:5,6,12. In your sight.] You, my prisoners of hope, shall live to see it. (Psalms 79:10)
Ver. 25. O destroying mountain.] O Babylon, thou that art amplitudine et altitudine instar montis; for thy large command and lofty buildings like a mountain, and that dost abuse thy power to other men’s destruction. And will make thee a burnt mountain.] A great heap of ashes and rubbish, such as burned and ruined cities are.
Ver. 26. And they shall not take of thee a stone.] Thou shalt never be re-edified. So it is foretold of Rome, “ Tota eris in cineres quasi nunquam Roma fuisses. ”
Ver. 27. Set up a standard.] Thus God the great Induperator bespeaketh the Medes and Persians as his field officers. Prepare the nations against her.] Heb., Sanctify, call them together to wage this sacred war against Babylon. Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz,] i.e., Of both the Armenias and of Aseania, subdued by Cyrus before he marched against Babylon. Vatablus will have Ashchenaz to be Gothland; the Jews, Germany; but these were too far remote. Xenoph., Cyrop., lib. vii.
Ver. 28. Prepare against her.] Heb., Sanctify. [as Jeremiah 51:27] With the kings of the Medes.] Darius and Cyrus.
Ver. 29. And the land shall tremble and sorrow.] As a travailing woman, so shall it be pained.
Ver. 30. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight.] At Cyrus’s first coming they gave him battle; but being worsted, they from thenceforth remained in their holds till Babylon was taken. Their might hath failed.] Or, Their courage is shrunk, as Jacob’s sinew did. (Genesis 32:32) They became as women.] See Jeremiah 50:37.
Ver. 31. One post shall run to meet another.] Observe how punctually all things were foretold in the several circumstances more than fifty years before. At one end,] sc., Where Euphrates had run, till diverted and dried up by Cyrus. See on Jeremiah 50:38.
Ver. 32. And that the passages are stopped.] Or, Taken, seized, surprised. [as Jeremiah 48:41] And the reeds.] Or, Marshes, made by Euphrates overflowing. It is well observed that the Babylonians might by this prophecy have been forewarned and forearmed against Cyrus’s stratagem; but they slighted it, and never inquired after it likely.
Ver. 33. The daughter of Babylon.] Proud of her wealth and strength, as young maids many are of their beauty. And the time of her harvest shall come.] When God shall put in his sickle, and cut her down, being ripe and ready. See Revelation 14:16 Ge 15:16.
Ver. 34. Nebuchadnezzar…hath devoured me, he hath crushed me.] A graphical description of the Babylonian cruelty. He hath cast me out.] He hath gorged himself with me, and laid up his gorge.
Ver. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh.] Torn and tossed as carrion by that ravenous beast; the Lord look upon it and requite it.
Ver. 36. Behold, I will plead thy cause.] Not so much verbally as really. Here is a present answer to Israel’s cry.
Ver. 37. And Babylon shall become heaps.] See Jeremiah 50:39.
Ver. 38. They shall roar together like lions.] When hunger bitten. The Babylonians terrified, and the Persians tumultuating together. The old Latin version hath it, They shake their shaggy hair.
Ver. 39. In their heat I will make their feasts.] Or, I will dispose their drinkings—that is, I will pour into their cups the wine of my wrath. Now, poison mixed with wine worketh the more furiously. God can punish one kind of drunkenness with another worse. That they may rejoice.] That they may revel it and sleep their last; and so they did, as being slain in a night of public solemn feasting and great dissoluteness, which was soon turned in moerorem et metum, into heaviness and horror. Ecce, hic compotationum est finis. Behold this is the end of the party. And not wake.] Till awakened by the sound of the last trump. The Chaldee here hath it, They shall die the second death, and not be quickened in the world to come— sc., unto life everlasting.
Ver. 40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter.] All that which followeth here to the end of this oration is no less easy than elegant in holding forth the power, justice, and truth of God in fulfilling this prophecy exactly, though serveral years after.
Ver. 41. How is Sheshach taken?] i.e., How is Babylon destroyed beyond all expectation? See Jeremiah 25:26.
Ver. 42. The sea is come up upon Babylon.] A sea of hostile forces; what wonder, therefore, though she be taken?
Ver. 43. Her cities are a desolation.] See Jeremiah 2:6 9:12.
Ver. 44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon.] Nimrod was after his death called the Babylonian Saturn; Belus, who succeeded him, the Babylonian Jupiter, as Berosus testifieth. This idol of massy gold, and of a huge size, was carried away by Cyrus; thus Bel was punished. And I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up.] Bolum ex ore Bell. Such an elegance there is also in the original. Of the rich presents, spoils, costly furniture found in Bel’s temple, see Diodore, lib. ii. Those taken from God’s temple at Jerusalem, and laid up in his, (2 Chronicles 36:7) he was forced to regurgitate. (Ezra 1:7 5:14 Job 20:12,15) Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.] Which yet was strong to a miracle, as being two hundred cubits high—of the king’s cubits, which were larger than ordinary—and fifty cubits thick, having a hundred brazen gates, and many stately towers, &c.; all shall down, saith the prophet. Plotinus ap August., De Civit. Dei, lib. ix. cap. 16.
Ver. 45. My people, go ye out of the midst of her.] This is much pressed, (Jeremiah 48:6) and it was but need; for many of the Jews were as hardly drawn to depart thence as a dog, ab uncto corio, from a fat morsel.
Ver. 46. And lest your heart faint.] Or, And let not your hearts faint. And ye fear for the rumour,] sc., Of Cyrus’s coming. Fear it not, all is for the best to you; your redemption draweth nigh. A rumour shall both come one year,] sc., Of Cyrus’s preparation, and then another of his expedition toward Babylon. Ruler against ruler,] i.e., Cyrus against Belshazzar; so Constantine against Maxentius, Maximinus, Lucinius, &c.; this was for the best to the poor Church of Christ.
Ver. 47. I will do judgment, &c.] See Jeremiah 43:12,13 Ex 12:12. And all her slain shall fall.] Her dancers, one rendereth it; their merry dance shall end in a miserable downfall.
Ver. 48. Then the heaven and the earth, &c., shall sing.] Est hyperbolica prosopopoeia. This is an exagerated personification. There shall be, as it were, a new face set upon the world, and all the creatures shall appear to be well paid at the downfall of Babylon, under the oppressions whereof they even groaned and laboured. See what a similar general joy there will be at the ruin of Rome! (Revelation 18:20)
Ver. 49. So at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.] Or rather, Of all the land— i.e., of all Babylon, or Assyria. When God once cometh to make inquisition for the blood of his saints, woe to the wicked, &c.
Ver. 50. Ye that have escaped the sword,] sc., Of the Medes and Persians, who at the taking of the city killed all promiscuously. Go away, stand not still.] Haste home to your own country, for therefore hath the Lord delivered you from so many deaths and dangers. See Jeremiah 51:25. Remember the Lord afar off.] Should not we mind heaven, and hasten thither? If a heathen could say, ought we not much more, Fugiendum est ad clarissimum patriam; ibi Pater, ibi omnia, Haste we home to heaven; there is our Father, there are all things.
Ver. 51. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach.] This is the Jews’ lamentation, as in the next verse we have the answer to it.
Ver. 52. Wherefore, behold, the days come.] So soon is God up at the cry of his poor people. (Psalms 12:5) I will do judgment.] See Jeremiah 51:37,49.
Ver. 53. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven.] As her walls are said to have been of an incredible height (see on Jeremiah 51:44), and her tower to have been little less than four miles high, threatening heaven, as it were.
Ver. 54. A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon.] See Jeremiah 48:3.
Ver. 55. Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon.] Heb., Is spoiling. For it was long in doing; but as sure as if done together, and at once. In like sort many of the promises are not to have their full accomplishment till the end of the world; as those about the full deliverance of the godly, the destruction of the wicked, the confusion of Antichrist, &c. And destroyed out of her the great voice.] Of the revellers and roaring boys; or of their enemies, as some rather sense it, breaking in upon them.
Ver. 56. For the Lord God of recompenses.] Princeps ille et arbiter iustae talionis. God, who loveth to retaliate.
Ver. 57. And I will make drunk.] See Jeremiah 51:39.
Ver. 58. The broad walls of Babylon.] See on Jeremiah 51:44. Or, The walls of broad Babylon, that greatest of all cities, saith Strabo; the compass whereof within the walls was near upon seventy miles, saith Pliny. Lib. xvi. Lib. vi. cap. 26.
Ver. 59. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah.] This is now the last part, viz., a type used for confirmation of this long time preceding prophecy, uttered at Jerusalem haply in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and now to be read at Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah, which was seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and above sixty years before the destruction of Babylon. God loveth to foresignify, but Babylon would not be warned, which was a just both desert and presage of her ruin. When he went with Zedekiah.] In company with him, say some, out of the Jews’ chronicle. At which time Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him king, took an oath of him to be true to him, which he afterward brake, and was punished accordingly. (2 Chronicles 36:13) Others think that Seraiah went not with Zedekiah, but for him, and from him, with a present to Nebuchadnezzar, that he might keep his favour, or that he might he reconciled unto him after his revolt from him. (2 Kings 24:20) And this Seraiah was a great prince.] One that opposed the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, or a peace maker at court, or the great chamberlain. Heb., A prince of rest; or, Prince of Menucha, a place so called, (Judges 20:43) or a quiet, honest, and humble prince; otherwise he would not have been thus commanded by a poor prophet, especially in a matter of so great danger, as it might have proved if publicly noticed.
Ver. 60. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil.] For Babylon’s commination, if at least the book were read publicly, as some hold it was, and the Jewish captives’ consolation.
Ver. 61. When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see,] sc., The sinfulness as well as the stateliness of that city. And shalt read all these words.] Or, Then shalt thou read all these words. They who hold he did it publicly, extol the authority of the prophet, the boldness of Seraiah, and the mildness of the King of Babylon, somewhat like that of the King of Nineveh; (Jonah 3:6-9) but the most think he read it privately, yet not in some closet apart by himself, but in some private house to his countrymen who came unto him.
Ver. 62. Then shalt thou say, O Lord, &c.] The promises are to be prayed over, and then we may expect their accomplishment. Prayer also added to the outward sign, according to God’s holy Word, maketh it a sacramental sign.
Ver. 63. Thou shalt bind a stone to it.] See the like symbol or chria, Revelation 18:21, where, by the mighty angel, Alcazar understandeth the prophet Jeremiah.
Ver. 64. Thus shall Babylon sink.] Ceremonies are to little purpose unless they have divine expositions annexed unto them. And they shall be weary.] That seek either to save it or to restore it. Thus far the words of Jeremiah,] sc., Concerning Babylon. See the like concerning Moab. (Jeremiah 48:47)