15 caterpillers and they shall lift up a shout aganist thee. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understand6 ing. When he uttereth [his] voice, [there is] a multitude of waters in the heavens and he cauth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makh lightnings with rain, 17 and bringeth forth the wind out of hieasures. Every man is brutish by [his] knowledge; every er is confounded by the graven image for his molten image [is] falsehood, and 18 [there is] no breath in them. They [are] vanity, the work of 19 errors in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob [is] not like them; for he [is] the former of alt things and [Israel is] the rod of his inheritance; the LORD 20 of hosts [is] his name. Thou, Cyrus, [art] my battle ax [and]

weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, 21 and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I 22 break in pieces the chariot and his rider; With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces 23 the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee 24 wil I break in pieces captains and rulers. And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD; ye 25 shall see my vengeance upon them. Behold, I [am] against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain; it shall be put out, and nothing remain but a heap of ashes 26 and cinders. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a cor

ner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for 27 ever, saith the LORD. Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her, under the government of the Medes; cause the horses to come up as the rough 28 caterpillers. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and 29 all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation 30 without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in [their] holds their might hath failed; they became as women :† they have burned Babylon is so called on account of its high walls and towers; as a burning mountain, it cast out fire, and consumed all about it.

+ This was fulfilled in Cyrus' order, that not a Chaldean should show his head on pain of death, while he went round the city after it was takɩm

31 her dwelling places; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another; to show 32 the king of Babylon that his city is taken at [one] end,* And

that the passages are stopped, by turning the course of the river, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war 33 are affrighted. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor, [it is] time to thresh her yet a little while, and the time of her 34 harvest shall come. Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out; he hath swallowed the Jews whole,as serpents do their prey, and should throw them up again. 35 The violence done to me and to my flesh, [be] upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhab36 itants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, 38 an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant. They

shall roar together like lions; they shall yell as lions' whelps. 39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD; their city shall be taken at a great festival, when most of them are drunk and asleep; and while they are engaged in their drunken revels, I will prepare a different 40 cup, a final opiate for them. I will bring them down like lambs 41 to the slaughter, like rams with he goats. How is Sheshach ta

ken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprized! how 42 is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof; vast armies are often compared to 43 waters. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth [any] son 44 of man pass thereby. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; the vessels and sacred treasures of the Jews; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him, to present their 45 offerings; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul 46 from the fierce anger of the LORD. And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come [one] year, and after that in [another] year [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler 47 against ruler. Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will

Considering the vast extent of the city, and that the palace was in the middle, it must be a long time before they knew that the enemy had gained entrance. Ancient writers say it was three days before the whole city was acquainted with it.

When war began in the country, in the first year Belshazzar's army was beaten, in the second year the city was besieged, and in the third year it was taken.

do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the 48 midst of her. Then the heaven and the earth, and all that

[is] therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come 49 unto her from the north, saith the LORD. As Babylon [hath caused] the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the 50 slain of all the earth. Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind; think not of Babylon, but return 51 to Jerusalem. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house; it is a reproach to us that the sanctuary should continue waste, when we may go 52 and rebuild it. Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images and 53 through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, [yet] from me shall spoilers come 54 unto her, saith the LORD. A sound of a cry [cometh] from

Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55 Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of

her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, 56 a noise of their voice is uttered: Because the spoiler is come upon her, [even] upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of rec57 ompenses shall surely requite. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise [men,] her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts. 58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire, though the walls are fifty feet broad, and three hundred feet high, full of towers and strong brazen gates; and the people shall labour in vain to save themselves, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

59

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And [this] Seraiah [was] a quiet prince; or rather, the chief chamberlain, who was charged with some present or trib60 ute to the king of Babylon. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, [even] all these words 61 [that are] written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Se

raiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt 62 read all these words to the captive Jews; Then shalt thou say, 63 O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind a stone to it, and

64 cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shalt Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her and they shall be weary; they shall not succeed, whatever attempts they may make for their safety. Thus far [are] the words of Jeremiah.

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REFLECTIONS.

OD's wonderful appearances for a people ought to be acknowledged in the public assembly, v. 10. Those benefits which many share, ought to be owned with united hearts and tongues, especially the blessings of peace and national prosperity. 2. It becomes us to concern ourselves in the interests of the church; to have Jerusalem in our mind, though at a distance from it. Whether in prosperity, or in trouble, still the concerns of the church should affect our hearts; and we should seek the things of Jesus Christ.

3. When we are hearing the declarations of God's word, we ought to acknowledge the truth and justice of them, v. 62. Babylon was now flourishing, its strength and populousness made it unlikely that it should be taken and destroyed; but Seraiah is directed to own, after reading the predictions against it, that they were God's declarations, and would certainly be fulfilled: and thus should we acknowledge, O Lord, thy words are true, thy judgments are right. 4. The accomplishment of this prophecy should confirm our faith in the downfall of mystical Babylon, the church of Rome; which is described in images like these; the mother of harlots, the seat of idolatry and persecution. Many passages in the Revelations are taken from this chapter; particularly the angel taking a millstone and casting it into the sea, is an allusion to the prophet's casting the book into Euphrates; and we may rest assured that it shall be fulfilled in its season. Let us pray for its accomplishment; and in the mean time, as God hath granted us deliverance from Babylon, let us declare in Zion the works of the Lord.

CHAP. LII.

This historical chapter was added by some other hand, probably by Ezra, after Jeremiah's time, to throw light upon the prophecies of this book, and to illustrate the Lamentations, which follow. It contains an account of Zedekiah's rebellion; of the siege and taking of Jerusalem; of Zedekiah's sons being killed, and his own eyes put out; and of the city being spoiled and burned.

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EDEKIAH [was] one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name [was] Hamutal the daughter of Jeremi2 ah of Libnah. And he did [that which was] evil in the eyes of

3 the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, the presence of his providence in the land, and of his grace in the temple, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

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And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, [that] Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts against it round 5 about, to prevent relief and to batter the city. So the city was 6 besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. And in the fourth month, in the ninth [day] of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the 7 land, many having fled out of the country into it.* Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which [was] by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans [were] by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.

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But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army 9 was scattered from him. Then they took the king and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Ha, 10 math; where he gave judgment upon him as a rebel. And the king of Babylon slew the sons, the young children, of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

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Now in the fifth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, which [was] the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, [which] serv, 13 ed the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, And burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great [men,] burned he with fire; the temple having been spared when the city was taken, a cruel resolution was formed a month afterward to destroy both it 14 and the city: And all the army of the Chaldeans, that [were] with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about, that it might make no further resistance. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive [certain] of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to 16 the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left [certain] of the poor of the land for vine dressers and for husbandmen.

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Also the pillars of brass that [were] in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that [was] in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the brass of them • We have a dreadful description of this in the book of the Lamentations.