Jeremiah 51
PATPersians removing the seat of empire from Babylon, the glory of it was much diminished. And when Alexander proposed to restore it to its ancient greatness, he was prevented by death, before he could make any progress in that work. Under his successors it still decayed more and more, first by the neighbourhood of Seleucia, built upon the Tigris, by Seleucus Nicator: afterward by the building of Ctesiphon, on the other side of that river: so that at last it was reduced to utter solitude, and continued so in Strabo (k’b. xvi.) and Pliny’s time. (See his Nat. Hist. lib. vi. cap. 26.) See the Argument of the foregoing chapter. as followed him out of Asia. [Xenophon informs us, that there were both Phrygians and Cappadocians in Cyrus’s army. Cyropaed. lib. 7. p. 188, 189. edit. Leunclav.] Appoint a captain against her.’] Compare 1. 44. The word tiphsar, captain, is supposed by Grotius to be derived from the Persian word satrapas; the letters being transposed. Cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.’] Or, the rough locust, as Bochart renders it, who observes that there are some insects of that kind rough and hairy, (Hierozoicon, p 456.) Locusts represent horses, not only in their swiftness, but likewise in the shape of their heads: the figure of which may be seen in’Ludolphus’s note on his Ethiopic History, p. 177. (Compare Rev. ix. 7, 8.) [The war-horse may be compared to caterpillars, because their backs were bristled with sheaves of arrows.] in the first place, relate to those Jews who had undergone all the hardships and dangers that attended a long captivity in an enemy’s country: but I conceive it is to be understood of those who are elsewhere called the remnant. (See the note on 1. 20.) These are exhorted to flee as fast as they can to Babylon, and join themselves in heart and mind with God’s church and people. Grotius judiciously observes, that this chapter could not be added by Jeremiah, because a great part of it is a repetition of what he himself had related in the thirty-ninth and fortieth chapters of his prophecy. Therefore it is much more probable, that this chapter was added by
Jeremiah 51:1
_Z WILL raise up against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me. Or, them that dwell in the midst of mine enemies; that is, them that dwell in the metropolis or chief city of tho Chaldeans. A destroying wind.] See iv. 11.
Jeremiah 51:2
And I will send unto Babylon fanners that shall fan her. Ho persists in the metaphor of the foregoing verse: as the wind drives and scatters chafF in a thrashingfloor, so shall the Persian armies make aperfect riddance of every thing that is valuable. (Compare xv. 7.)
Jeremiah 51:3
Against him that bendeth, let the archer bend his bow,&c. Sec 1. 14.
Jeremiah 51:5
For Israel has not been [or shall notbc. forsaken, nor Judah of his God.] Though God was justly displeased with his people, yet he will not cast them off utterly, or deprive them of his protection.
Jeremiah 51:6
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, deliver every man his soul, &c. God’s people arc exhorted to flee out of Babylon with all haste, as Lot did out of Sodom, lest they be consumed in the iniquity of that place. (See 1. 8.)
Jeremiah 51:7
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that hath made all the earth drunken. She has recommended her idolatries to the world by several specious pretences, as well as by her authority arid example. So that they have been like poison set off by a golden cup, which hath enticed men to drink without being aware of the danger; and all this by God’s permission, in order to the accomplishing some great ends of his providence. The expressions allude to the practice of harlots, in giving lovepotions to their gallants, which were made up of such ingredients as disturbed their brain&, arid made them rim mad. The sense of this verse is plainly applied by St. John to spiritual Babylon, which has used the most plausible methods to disguise her id6latrous practices. (Sec Rev. xiv.8. xvii.4.)
Jeremiah 51:8
Babylon is suddenly fallen. It is one aggravation of the punishment of Babylon, that her destruction should come tipon her suddenly and unexpectedly; (compare 1. 24.) in one day, as the prophet Isaiah Expresses it, xlvii. 9. (See the note upon that place, and compare Rev. xviii. 8. 10. 17. 19.) Howl for her.] Compare xlviii. 20. S6 the kin£s, the merchants, and other factors, are described as lamenting the destruction of Babylon, Rev. xviii. 9. 11. 17. Take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed, &c] This is spoken ironically, implying that her ruin is irrecoverable. (See the note on xlvii. 11.)
Jeremiah 51:9
We would have healed Babylon, but she is hot healed, &c. This is spoken in the name of God’s prophets, and the other witnesses of his truth, importing that they had sufficiently testified against her errors and idolatries, but she was irreclaimable: and therefore it was time for all the lovers of truth to depart out of her, lest they be involved in her punishments. (See ver. 6.) [Her judgment reacheth unto heaven.] As sin is sometimes used for the punishment due to sin, by a metonymy of the cause for the effect: so here judgment is taken for sin which brings down God’s judgments, by a metonymy of the effect for the cause.]
Jeremiah 51:10
The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness, &c. He hath declared our cause to be just,, (compare Psal. xxxvii. 6.) by bringing such remarkable judgments upon our enemies: and therefore we ought to give glory to him in the assemblies of his church, arid in the most public manner imaginable.
Jeremiah 51:11
Make bright the arroivs, gather the shields. Prepare the instruments of war. (See xlvi. G.) The Lord hath raised up the spwit of the king of the- Medes.] [Ncriglissorus king of Babylon having formed an alliance against the Medes, Cambyscs sent his son Cyrus with an army of thirty thousand Persians to join the Medes commanded by Cyaxares. See Xenophon Cyropsed.lib. i.] This Cyaxares king of Media, called Darius the Mede in Scripture, was Cyrus’s uncle; and it^as properly his army that made the expedition against the Babylonians, he employing Cyrus as his general. Persia was then a small part of the empire of Media, and was of little account till Cyrus made a figure in the world: and even then it was called the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, the Medes having still the preference. And, in aftertimes, the Greek 4R2 Microsoft®.A COMMENTARY [chap, ll historians stylo those wars in which their country encountered with Xerxes, by the name of the Median wars, Ta M>i&k-a, because the Mcdcs were the founders of that empire. Because it is the vengeance of tlte Lord, the vengeance of his temple.’] See 1. 28..
Jeremiah 51:12
Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, &c.J Give a signal to the inhabitants of Babylon, to come • together speedily for the defence of their walls and ramparts. To this sense some understood those words of Isaiah, (xiii. 2.) Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountains, meaning Babylon, called so in the twenty-fifth verse of this chapter* (See the note there.) In these and the following words, the prophet ironically encourages the Babylonians to use their best skill and courage for the defence of their city: which yet he foresees will be to no purpose. (Sec the like figure, ver. 8. and xlvi. 4.)!. For the Lord hath devised, and done that which he spake, &c] Or, For as the Lord hath devised, so hath he done: and thus the particle gam, being repeated, is translated ver. 29. of this chapter..
Jeremiah 51:13
O thou that divellest upon many waters. Upon the river Euphrates, which encompassed Babylon, and ran through it, and by means of which it thought itself secure and impregnable. Many waters do likewise mystically signify the many people over which this was the reigning city. (Sec Rev. xvii. 15.) And the measure of thy covet ousness.] God has put a bound to thy covctousness, which it shall not go.beyond.
Jeremiah 51:14
I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars. Or, locusts, as Bochart saith the word properly signifies. Armies are often compared to caterpillars, locusts, and such-like devouring insects. (See Nahum iii.15, 16/ Joel ii. 2, 3, &c.).:.. -. s •
Jeremiah 51:17
He hath made the earth by his power, &c. An elegant and lofty description of God Almighty’s power and wisdom, in opposition to the weakness and unprofitableness of idols: the same which we had before, x. 12. where see the notes. This is a powerful argument to encourage our trust in God, and to assure us, that he will in due time assert his own authority against all the encroachments of idol-worship and false religions..
Jeremiah 51:20
Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war, &c. God speaks here to Cyrus, and tells him, that he will make use of him as an instrument of Providence, for the destroying of the whole power of the Babylonian empire, and of all orders and degrees of men in it; as he had formerly made that empire the executioner of his judgments upon other countries: (sec 1. 23.) or else the words may be understood of the church, and imply, that God will destroy all those earthly powers and kingdoms, which arc adversaries to God’s truth and people, in order to establish and advance his church. This will be fulfilled at the fall of mystical Babylon, when God’s kingdom shall break inpiecesall the kingdoms of the earth, in the destruction of that remnant of the fourth monarchy, according to Daniel’s prophecy, ii. 44. (Compare Obad. ver. 18. Micah v. 10, &c. Hag. ii. 21— 23. Zech. xii. 3. 6. and see below the note, on ver. 24.)
Jeremiah 51:24
And I will render unto Babylon— all the evil that I have done to Zion.~\ See ver. 11. and 1. 28. Jn your sight. This expression confirms the latter interpretation given of ver. 20. the same persons being spoken of here in the plural number, which arc there mentioned in the singular, that is, God’s church orfaithful servants. The cnallage or change of numbers is frequent in Scripture, (sec Psal. xii. 7.) and indeed in all writers when they speak of collective bodies.
Jeremiah 51:25
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain — that destroyest the ivhole earth. Or, as the words may be more fitly rendered, O corrupting mountain, that corruptest the whole earth. Babylon was situate in a plain, (see ver. 13. and Gen. xi.,2.) but is called a mountain here, by reason of/ its lofty edifices, walls, and towers. (Compare Isa. xiii. 2. Zech. iv. 7.) It is called here the mountain of corruption, a name given by way of reproach to the Mount of Olives, after it was’defilcd by idolatry, (2 Kings xxiii. 13.) by a slight changing of the Hebrew name, Har Miscah, into Har Maschith. The same appellation is here given to Babylon, because it was the scat of idolatry; from whence it was derived into other countries under its government and jurisdiction. Which is remarkably true of mystical Babylon. (See Rev. xvii. 5.) I will — roll thee doivn from the, rocks, and make thee a burnt mountain.] I will dismantle all thy walls and forts, and then destroy thee with fire; (compare ver. 58, 59.) that thou shalt appear like a great mountain covered with fire and smoke. (Compare Rev. viii. 8.) We do not find that Babylon itself was ever destroyed by fire, but that mystical Babylon shall be so destroyed is plain from Rev. xvii. 16. xviii. 8, 9.
Jeremiah 51:26
And they shall not take of thee a sto?ie for a corner, &c. There shall not be left an entire stone fit to use. (Seel. 40.) <Ver. 27. Set ye up a standard in the land, blow ye the trumpet among the nations.] These were common signals for assembling armies together. (Sec Isa. xiii. 2. xviii. 3.) Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz.] These were countries under the dominion of the Medes. The two former arc probably the same with the greater and lesser Armenia. Cyrus’s first expedition in this war, was for reducing the Armenians, w T ho had revolted from the government of the Medes, who upon this conquest were obliged to send their usual quota of auxiliaries to the carrying on the war against the Babylonians. (See Xenophon, Cyropaed. lib. iii.) Ararat is a place noted for the resting of the ark after the deluge, wiiich is commonly supposed to be the same with the Gordicean mountains; Minni is the country called Mynias, by Nic. Damasccnus, in Joscphus, (lib. i. cap. 4.) and Mylias by Strabo and Pliny: and is described by Damasccnus as situate under the mountain Baris: that word signifies a ship in the Persian language, and was a name given to Mount Ararat, from the ark’s resting there. (Sec Huetius’s Demonstr. Evangel, prop. iv. cap. 2. n. 40.) By Ashchenaz, Bochart understands Phrygia and Troas, where there were footsteps of the name remaining in aftertimes; part of that country being called Ascania by Homer, and a lake and haven of the same name is mentioned by Strabo and Pliny. And since Cyrus had conquered Croesus, and subdued several nations, from the yEgeau Sea to Euphrates, before he marched against Babylon, as both Herodotus (lib. i.) and Xenophon (Cyropocd. lib. vii„) testify, it is very probable that a great part of his army might consist of such troops
Jeremiah 51:28
Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes. The several princes or viceroys of the provinces belonging to the Median empire with their people, (Compare I. 41.) All princes and governors are called kings in the Hebrew language. (See Isa. x. 8. and the note on xxv. 10.)
Jeremiah 51:29
The land shall tremble and sorroiv. An expression commonly used to denote the confusion of the inhabitants under some great calamity. (See viii. 16. x. 10. Joel iL 10. Amos viii. 8.) For every purpose of the Lord shall be performed — to make the land of Babylon a desolation, &c] Sec the notes onl. 16. 39,40.
Jeremiah 51:30
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds, their might hath failed. The year before the siege of Babylon, Cyrus overthrew Belshazzar in battle, whereupon his army retreated within the walls, where they were shut up by him and besieged. Afterward, when Cyrus entered the city, he ordered public proclamation to be made, that all persons should keep within their houses, and whoever was found abroad should be put to death: and threatened to set their houses on fire, if any offered to hurt the soldiers from the tops of their houses. (See Xenophon Cyropaed. lib. vii. p. 171. 192.) Tltey became as women.] See the note on xlviii. 41. They have burnt her dwelling-places.] See ver. 25. Her bars are broken.] All her fortresses, and what she confided in as her chief defence against the enemy. (Compare Lam. ii. 9. Amos i. 5. Nahum iii.13.),
Jeremiah 51:31
One post shall run to meet another, &c. Babylon was taken by surprise, by unexpectedly draining the river Euphrates, and entering through the channel into the city, as Herodotus, (lib. i.) and Xenophon, (lib. vii. Cyropaed.) relate. For the carrying on this stratagem, Cyrus took the opportunity of a public festival, when the whole night was usually spent in rcvellings, and all manner of disorders. (Sec ver. 39.) In this time of riot, the gates leading down to the river, that used to be shut every night, were left open, and gave a passage to Cyrus and his army into the city: which he became master of, while they thought themselves in the utmost security, both from the height and strength of their walls, and depth of the river: Cyrus hav-< ing as yet made little progress in the siege, though he had invested the city with his army two years before.. This surprise caused so many messengers to run one after the* other, to acquaint the king with this unexpected news. The vast compass of this city has been observed in the notes on 1. 16* Herodotus takes notice, that the extreme parts of the city were taken before they who dwelt in the middle of it were sensible of the danger. (Lib. i. n. 191.) Aristotle mentions it as a common report, that one part. of the city had been taken three days before the other end knew it, (Politic, lib. iii. cap. 3.) which may probably be understood of this surprise by Cyrus. *
Jeremiah 51:32
And that the passages are stopped. Or rather surprised. (See ver. 41. of this chapter.) CyrusV forces made themselves masters of the gates and passages that led from the riveT to the city. The reeds they have burnt with fire.] The word agammim, translated reeds, properly signifies marshes or lakes: and the phrase here imports, that the enemies have burnt up all the outworks belonging to the marshy grounds about the river Euphrates.
Jeremiah 51:33
The daughter of Babxjlon is like a thrashingfloor. God’s people have been sorely bruised by the Babylonians, and trodden under foot by them as corn in a floor. (See the notes on Isa. xxi. 9.) It is time to thrash her.] It is time for her to feel the same miseries she has made others suffer. (See 1. 15. 29.) The word thrash often signifies to subdue by force and power. (See Isa. xli. 15. Hos. i. 3. Micah iv.13. Habak. iii. 12.) Yet a little while, and the times of her harvest shall comeJ] There shall be a clear riddance made of her inhabitants and their treasures, as the harvest clears the fields, and leaves them empty and bare. (See Isa. xvii. 5. Hos. vi. 11.)
Jeremiah 51:34
Nebuchadnezzar — hath devoured me, &c. A pathetical description of the calamities brought upon the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar and his forces, who, after they had devoured the wealth, and laid waste the beauty of their country, then turned them out of it, and led them captives into a strange land.'
Jeremiah 51:35
Tlie violence done to me and my flesh, be upon Babylon, &c. Let God return upon herself the violence she has done to me and to my children. (See the note on 1. 29.) Our nearest relations are called our flesh in Scripture. (See Judg. ix. 5. 2 Sam. v. 1. Nehem. v. 5.) To this sense the Hebrew word shear, which signifies remainder, or posterity,is used, Lev. xviii. 12. 17. xxi. 2. xxv. 49. Ver..30. Behold, I will plead my cause.] See the note on 1. 11. 34. And I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.] I will exhaust her multitudes and their wealth. (See ver. 13. compare Isa. xix. 5.) This was likewise literally fulfilled in Cyrus’s draining.the river, and thereby gaining an entrance into the city. All great waters ai 3 called seas in the Hebrew language.
Jeremiah 51:37
And Babylon shall become heaps, &c. See i.
Jeremiah 51:38
They shall roar together like lions. Either for grief and anguish of mind; (compare Isa. lix. 11. Zech.xi. 3.) or else the prophet describes the revels and riotous noise that they made upon the night of that public festival, on which the city was taken. (See the following verse.)
Jeremiah 51:39
In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken. While they are feasting themselves, I will provide them another cup to drink; viz. that of my fury and indignation. (See thenoto on xxv. 15.) Babylon was taken upon a night of a public festival, as hath been observed upon ver. 31. Tliat they may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep, &c] That in the midst of their jollity and security they may sleep the sleep of death: not such a sleep as proceeds from wine, which refreshcth andenliveneth.
Jeremiah 51:40
I to ill bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, &c. I will cut off both great and small. (See the note on 1. 27. and compare Isa. xxxiv. 6.)
Jeremiah 51:41
Behold, a people shall come from the north. See ver.-9. And many kings shall be raised from the coasts of the earth.] See ver. 26. i. 15. li. 27. How is Sheshach taken?] Some commentators suppose Babylon called here by the name of Sheshach, because the city was taken at the time of the festival called Sacchcea. (See the note on xxv. 26.) How is thepraise of the whole earth surprised /J Compare xlix. 25. Isa. xiii. 19. Dan. iv. 30. Babylon was esteemed the wonder of the world, for the height, breadth, and compass of her walls, and the palace and hanging gardens belonging to it, for the temple of Belus, for the banks and facing of the river, and the artificial lakes and canals made for the draining of it.
Jeremiah 51:42
They shall lay hold on bow and spear. See vi. 23. (Compare ver. 9. 14. of this chapter.) They are cruel and will shew no mercy] See Isa.xiii. It is a common observation, that in those extraordinary commendations Xenophon gives of Cyrus’s clemency and other virtues, he rather wrote an exact character of a perfect prince, than a narrative of matter of fact. However, in the taking of cities, several outrages are usually committed contrary to the will and intent of the chief commanders. Their voice shall roar like the sea.] The noise of an army is fitly compared to the roaring of the sea, when it rages and is tempestuous. (See Isa. v. 30.) The sea is come up upon Babylon, &c] Multitudes are resembled to waters (see ver. 13. of this chapter), especially an army is fitly represented by an inundation which carries all before it. (See Psal.xviii. 16. cxliv. 7. Isa. viii. 7. Dan. ix. 26.) There is likewise an opposition elegantly implied in the words between the inundation of Cyrus’s army, and the draining the river Euphrates, which was one of the chief defences of the city. The words may be taken in a more literal sense.- (See the note on ver. 64.)
Jeremiah 51:43
The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands are waxed feeble. Belshazzar was of himself a weak and dissolute prince, and dismayed upon the first apprehension of danger, (see Dan. v. 6.) when he understood that Cyrus’s army laid siege to the city. Ver. 44— 4G. Behold, he shall come tip like a lion.’] See xlix. 19—21. And the cry is heard among the nations.] Who shall be astonished at the unexpected downfal of so great a city and potent an empire. (Compare Rev. xviii. 9.) Her cities are a desolation, &c J When the seat of the empire was removed from Babylon to Shushan, the consequence of that translation was the decay of Babylon itself, and all the lesser cities within its territories: (see likewise the notes upon 1. 39, 40.) or else the words may be understood of the cities belonging to the Babylonish empire, which Cyrus took in his expedition from Asia to Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:44
And I will punish Bel and Babylon. See ver. 47. and the note on 1. 2. I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swalloived up,] The; heathens ascribed the honour of all their successes to their idols, and upon any great victory offered the best part of the spoils to their gods, and deposited them in their temples, as a grateful acknowledgment that the success was owing to their assistance. So Nebuchadnezzar, upon every victory over the Jews, carried away part of the furniture of the sanctuary, and put it in the temple of his idol. (See 2 Chron. xxxvi. 7. Dan. i. 3. 2 Kings xxv. 13, &c.) The restoring of the holy vessels to their right owner, and their former use, is what is here particularly foretold; which was done by Cyrus upon his. proclamation for rebuilding the temple, Ezra i. 7. (Compare ver. 11. 31. of this chapter, and 1. 28.) The farther accomplishment of this prophecy, Dr. Prideaux places in Xerxes’s demolishing the temple of Belus, and plundering it of its vast wealth; which, from Diodorus Siculus’s account of it, he computes to amount to twentyone millions of our money. (See his Connect, of Script. Hist. p. 100, 101.) [The words may be explained from the apocryphal history of Bel and the Dragon, where the idol is supposed to have been daily fed with the choicest provisions, which his priests pretended were devoured by him: ver. 6. 11, &c. Here the prophet saith, there shall be no more such provisions made for him, and the idol itself shall be broken in pieces, to make him restore, if it were possible, what he has consumed.] And the nations shall not any more flaw unto him."] There shall be no more costly presents brought by foreign nations unto the temple of Bel, as a compliment to that monarchy: just as, under the Roman empire, people that were conquered by them, sent golden crowns to Jupiter Capitolinus. Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.] Sec ver. 58.
Jeremiah 51:45
My people, go ye out of the midst of her, &c. See the note on 1. 8.
Jeremiah 51:46
And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be in the land. Lest the rumours of new forces ready to join themselves to the Babylonians, dishearten you, and make you despair of seeing so great an empire subdued by any human power. A rumour shall both come one year, and after that a rumour shall come another year.] The prophet gives these tokens, whereby they may know the time of the dissolution of that empire drawing near; viz. that the first rumour of w r ar denounced against the head of that empire shall be the year before the siege, when Cyrus and Nabonnidus (or Belshazzar) shall engage in a battle; and the latter shall be overcome, upon which defeat the conqueror should in the following year lay siege to the city itself. (See Archbishop Usher, ad An. M. 3464.) Violence in the land, ruler against ruler.] This should bo a time of hostile depredations and invasions: Cyrus and the king of Babylon should now appear at the head of two contending armies.
Jeremiah 51:47
I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon. See 1. 2. Dr. Pridcaux supposes this prophecy fulfilled, when Xerxes pillaged and destroyed the Babylonish temples. (See his Connect, of Script. Hist. p. 242.) Taking this prophecy in its full extent, it comprises the fall of mystical Babylon, which is represented here, and in the parallel places of Isaiah and the Revelation^ as a decisive stroke, which should thoroughly vindicate the cause of oppressed truth and innocence, and put a final period to idolatry, and to all the oppressions of God’s people. Andallher slain shall fall in the midst of her.] See 1. 35, 36.
Jeremiah 51:48
Tlien the heavens and the earth and all that are therein shall sing for Babylon. God’s mercy to his church, and his judgments upon idolaters, shall be matter of joy and thankfulness to all God’s faithful servants. (Compare ver. 10. and 1. 28, 29. Isa. xliv. 23. xlviii. 20. Rev. xviii. 20.) For the spoilers shall come to her from the north.] See
Jeremiah 51:49
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, &c. God will reward her according to her works. (Sec 1. 29.) Vcn 50. Ye that are escaped the sivord.~] The verse may,
Jeremiah 51:51
We are confounded, became we have heard reproaches, &c. The prophet represents the words of these pious exiles, when they reflected upon the desolation of God’s people and sanctuary, whereby they were not only exposed themselves to the scorn and reproach of their enemies, but God’s name and truth were blasphemed by strangers and heathens, who profaned his sanctuary, as if he were not able to protect his temple and worshippers. (Compare Psal. xliv. 15, 16. lxxix. 4. Lam. ii. 15, 16.) Into the sanctuaries of the Lord.) The word sanctuaries, in the plural, is likewise used Psal. lxxiii. 17. though our English reads there sanctuary; and the word is either an allusion to the several courts of the temple, or else it may comprehend those private oratories, which religious persons built for performing their devotions, who lived at a distance from the temple. (See Psal. lxxiv. 8. and the notes uponxli. 5.)
Jeremiah 51:52
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, &c. See vcr. 47. Vcr. 53. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, &c] Though she prides herself in the glory of her empire, placed above the common height of human greatness; (compare Isa. xlvii. 7, 8.) though she thinks herself never so secure in her high gates, (ver. 58.) and strength of her walls, which were three hundred and fifty feet high, according to Herodotus; (lib. i. cap. 178.) yet this shall not place her out of the reach of my vengeance. (Compare xlix. 16.)
Jeremiah 51:55
Because the Lord — hath destroyed out of her, the great voice when the waves do roar, Sec. As multitudes are compared to waters, (see ver. 13.) so the noise and stirs that are heard in populous cities are resembled to the waves of the sea; (compare Isa. xxii.2.) and when they arc.depopulated, they are reduced to silence. (Sec Isa, xv. 1. Ivii. 5.) The same is expressed, xxv. 10. by taking away the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, &c. A judgment threatened to mystical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 23. Some render the latter part of the verse thus, When their waves roar, &c. and explain it of the Medes and Persians coming up like a flood against Babylon. (See ver. 42.)
Jeremiah 51:56
Her mighty men are taken, &c. See the notes upon ver. 30. For the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite.] See I. 29.
Jeremiah 51:57
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, &c. See ver. 39. and I. 35.
Jeremiah 51:58
Tlie broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire. The walls were eighty-seven feet in breadth, according to Herodotus, (Iib.i. cap. 178.) Ctesias saith, they were so wide, that six chariots might meet upon them; (apud Diodor. Sicul. lib. ii.) their height was three hundred and fifty feet, as was observed before: on each square of the walls were twenty-five gates of brass, mentioned Isa. xlv. 2. These were taken away by Darius, when he took the city, (see tho notes upon 1.16.) who likewise brought down their walls to the height of fifty cubits only. Berosus affirms, that Cyrus ordered the outward walls of the city to be pulled down: (see his words in Josephus, lib. i. contra App. p. 1045.) though Herodotus and Xcnophon take no notice of this circumstance. And the people shall labour in vain, and the folks in the fire, and they shall be weary.] If the Chaldeans take never so much pains to quench the fire, it shall be to no purpose. (Compare ver. 64.) And all their efforts to preserve their empire arid city shall be as insignificant, as if men wrought in the fire, which immediately destroys all the fruits of their labours. The words may be better translated, And the people shall labour for a thing of nought, and the folks shall weary themselves for that which shall be fuel for the fire: that is, the works which have been erected with such incredible labour and expense shall at last fall to ruin, and be a prey to the flames. (Compare ver. 25. Habak. ii. 13. and see Noldius’s Concordance, p. 185.)
Jeremiah 51:59
When he went with Zedekiah king of Judah. Or rather, from Zedekiah, or, on the behalf of Zedekiah, as our margin reads. (See Noldius’s Concordance, p. 114.) And this Seraiah was a quiet prince^] Tfie chief chamberlain, as the margin reads, with a better sense: the chief of those that waited upon the king in his bedchamber.
Jeremiah 51:60
So Jeremiah wrote in a book, &c. Compare xxx. 2. He might perhaps make use of Barnch as his amanuensis. (See.xxxvi. 2. 4.)
Jeremiah 51:61
And shalt see, and shalt read all these words. He was enjoined to read this prophecy to the Jews that were carried away to Babylon in Jehoiakim’s captivity: (see xxix. 1, 2.) to comfort them under their exile.
Jeremiah 51:63
Thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it t7tto the river Euphrates, &c. The prophets sometimes gave sensible representations of the judgments they foretold. (See xix. 10.) This was a significant emblem of Babylon’s sinking irrecoverably under the judgments here denounced against her. (Compare Rov. xviii. 21.) This threatening was in a literal sense fulfilled, by Cyrus’s breaking down the head or dam of the great lake, that was on the west side of the city, in order to turn the course of the river that way: for no care being afterward taken to repair that breach, the whole country about it was overflown and drowned: and that prophecy of Isaiah, (xiv. 23.) of making the country of Babylon a possession for the bittern and pools of water, was literally fulfilled. (See Dr. Prideaux, p. 104. 123,
Jeremiah 51:64
And they shall be weary. They shall be like men that strive against an enemy that is too hard for them, where all their labour is but in vain. (See ver. 58.) Thus far arethe words of Jeremiah.] This is added, to shew, that the next chapter was added by Ezra or Baruch, or whoever collected this prophecy into one volume. CHAP. LTi;