19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling A. C. 595. of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd ✩ or, convent that will stand before me?

20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.

21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the † Red sea.

22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah : and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

*

me in judg ment.

x Job xli. 10.

y ch. 1. 45.

+ Heb. Weedy

sea.

23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow § on the sea; it cannot be Heb. melted, quiet.

24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and spoil

the men of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.

Or, as on the

sea.

z Amos i. 4.

30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O ye inhabit- a ver. 8. ¶ ants of Hazor, saith the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Heb.it Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived

a purpose against you.

*

greatly

*

31 Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that or, that is dwelleth without care, saith the LORD, which hath neither at ease. gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude

*

A. C. 595. of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the LORD.

Heb. cut off

into corners,

or, that have

the corners of their hair polled.

b ch. xlviii. 47. ver. 6.

33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them :

38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.

39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.

SECTION IX.

Prophecy against Babylon.

JEREMIAH L".

1, 9, 21, 35 The judgment of Babylon. 4, 17, 33 The redemption of Israel.

1 The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and Heb. by the against the land of the Chaldeans + by Jeremiah the prophet.

hand of Jeremiah.

11 We learn from chapter li. 59. that Zedekiah went to Babylon attended by Seraiah, and probably for the purpose of paying the tribute which Nebuchadnezzar had imposed on him. The prophet embraced the opportunity of sending various predictions to his brethren of the captivity. Ezekiel had not yet received his commission to execute the prophetic office, and it belonged therefore to Jeremiah to watch over their spiritual welfare.

These chapters contain a most animated and distinct prophecy of the fall of Babylon, intermixed and contrasted with predictions concerning the return of Israel and Judah to Zion; who were not like their predecessors to be destroyed, but on their repentance and conversion to be pardoned and restored. This prophecy was delivered in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, (ch. li. 59;) and Jeremiah desired after it had been read at Babylon, it should be sunk to rise no more, in the river Euphrates; thereby intimating the perpetual destruc

2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set A. C. 595. up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.

4 ¶ In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.

5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.

*Heb. lift up.

+ Heb. place to lie down in.

ch. 6, 45.

8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out cxlviii, 20. of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before Rev. xviii. 4, the flocks.

9¶ For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the LORD.

+ Or, destroyer.

11 Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown § fat as the Heb. big, or, heifer at grass, and || bellow as bulls;

12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

corpulent.

|| Or, neigh as steeds.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that d ch. xlix. 17.

tion of that proud city. More than two thousand years have passed since Cyrus took possession of Babylon, from which time it began to decay, and has now, for a long period, been "a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby." (ch. li. 43.) So literally has this prediction been accomplished.

A.C.595. goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.

ye

:

15 Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand her foundations are fallen, her walls thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that han*Or, scythe. dleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

+ Or, of the rebels.

17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away; first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

21 Go up against the land + of Merathaim, even against Or, visita. it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

tion.

Heb. from

the end.
Or, tread
her.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruc

tion.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.

25 The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GoD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her § from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the

slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time A. C. 595. of their visitation.

28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD.

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou* most proud, saith ⋆ Heb. pride. the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that

I will visit thee.

32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and + Heb. pride. none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.

33 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

stays.

36 A sword is upon the § liars; and they shall dote: a Or, chief sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed. § Heb. bars, 37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.

38 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

39 Therefore the wild beast of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

e

ch. xlix. 18.

40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the e Gen. xix. 25. neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.