And against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: And spare ye not her young men ; Destroy ye utterly all her host. Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, And they that are thrust through in her streets. For Israel hath not been forsaken, Nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; For this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; He will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, The nations have drunken of her wine; Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: brigandine] see note on xlvi. 4. 4. Thus the slain shall fall...and they that are thrust through] rather, And they shall fall slain...and thrust through. 5. For] The reason of the overthrow of the Chaldaeans is that God remembers Israel, and again the reason of His remembering Israel is the wickedness of Chaldaea. This is the connexion of thought and consequently though of the Eng. Vers. should also be for, their referring to the Chaldaeans. Forsaken is literally widowed. sin] rather, guiltiness. the Holy One] The Septuagint here, as elsewhere also, render holy ones, without any authority. 6. soul] life. be not cut off] See note on xlix. 26. 7. a golden cup] In chap. xxv. 15, 16 it was Jeremiah himself who was commanded to make the nations drink of the wine of God's wrath. Inasmuch however as Babylon was the means which God employed for their overthrow, she is here spoken of under the same figure, as having made all the nations drunk. She is called a golden cup from the splendour and glory which belonged to her as an empire. For the New Test. application of the figure to the spiritual Babylon see Rev. xvii. 4, 5. 8. howl for her] This is addressed to the Jews and other nations, held captive in Babylon. The terrible character of her fall is most 5 7 9 ΙΟ II 12 Take balm for her pain, If so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: Forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country : For her judgment reacheth unto heaven, And is lifted up even to the skies. The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: The work of the LORD our God. Make bright the arrows: gather the shields: The LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the For his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, skilfully suggested by the prophet when he thus calls upon those who had suffered most grievously at her hands to have compassion upon the ills of their former oppressor. take balm] compare xlvi. 11. 9. We would have healed] literally, We have healed, i.e. We have tried to heal. The Jews speak in the name of all the exiles in Babylon. her judgment] her guilt. skies] literally, clouds. 10. hath brought forth our righteousness] hath made known the justice of our cause (by thus delivering our enemy over to the sword). God has at length judged that the idolatry of the people has been sufficiently punished, and thus they are again to be treated as righteous. 11. Make bright] or, sharpen. gather] literally, fill, i.e. place your arms within, or your bodies behind, them. Compare the expression in margin of 2 Kings ix. 24, "filled his hand with a bow," i.e. grasped it. shields] The Septuagint, who vary much in their rendering of the Heb. word, here and in Ezek. xxvii. II have quivers, and they are followed by the Vulgate, but this rendering seems to have been adopted merely as being apparently most suited to the present context. Both here and in the other passages where the Hebrew word occurs, it is best taken to mean shields. the kings of the Medes] Media was a country lying north-west of Persia. It consisted in early times of a number of small tribes, whose leaders are here called 'kings.' It was the Medo-Persian empire that succeeded by conquest to the dominions of Babylon. For the last words of this verse compare 1. 28 with note. 12. upon] against. Although the Heb. preposition is not free from Make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, For the LORD hath both devised and done That which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in 13 treasures, Thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. 15-19. The Creator of the Universe alone is God. He hath made the earth by his power, He hath established the world by his wisdom, And hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. 14 15 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters 16 in the heavens ; And he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: ambiguity, yet the words 'prepare the ambushes' that follow, seem to decide that throughout the verse the besiegers and not the besieged are addressed. the ambushes] to attack any of the besieged that ventured beyond the walls. 13. upon many waters] See note on 1. 38. abundant in treasures] conveyed to Babylon from the conquered provinces. the measure of thy covetousness] the measure of thy gain. Some would render the last word cutting off, i.e. in the web of thy destiny the limit has been reached, at which the thread is to be cut. Although the Heb. root may in itself bear this sense, it is best to render it in its more usual sense, as above, which is also better adapted to the mention of treasures immediately preceding. 14. I will fill] literally, I have filled, the thing is viewed as though it had already taken place. Babylon shall swarm with the hostile armies. They shall effect an entrance. caterpillars] locusts. a shout] the vintage song, see note on xxv. 30. 15-19. THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE ALONE IS GOD. 15-19. These verses are all but identical with x. 12-16. This need not the least surprise us in the case of a writer like Jeremiah. It is obvious however, that the other, and not this, is the original place for the words. There they form a natural sequence with that 17 18 19 20 He maketh lightnings with rain, And bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures. Every man is brutish by his knowledge; Every founder is confounded by the graven image: For his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, the work of errors: In the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them; For he is the former of all things: And Israel is the rod of his inheritance: 20-58. Amplification of the description of Babylon's doom. Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: For with thee will I break in pieces the nations, which precedes, assuring the Israelites that they need not fear the power of false gods, while here they are quoted by the prophet as a solemn declaration to the Chaldaeans that their idols will prove worthless in the day of their calamity. The omission of the word Israel in the Heb. of ver. 19 here, and one or two minor differences in the original, are the only points of distinction between the two passages. Pascal gives verse 18 an application which shews that he understands it, not of the idols, but apparently of their worshippers. "Thus you see, fathers, that ridicule is in some cases a very appropriate means of reclaiming men from their errors, and that it is accordingly an act of justice, because, as Jeremiah says, "the actions of those that err are worthy of derision, because of their vanity'." (Provincial Letters, XI.) 20-58. AMPLIFICATION OF THE DESCRIPTION OF BABYLON'S DOOM. 20. Thou art my battle axe] Although Cyrus, and again Israel have been suggested by some, there can be little doubt that Babylon is the subject of the address in this and the succeeding verse. Compare chap. 1. 23, where she is likened to a hammer. It is clear from the tense of the oft repeated verb in the original that she is thought of as still in the height of her power and in the midst of her oppressive treatment of the nations of the earth. battle axe] mace. "The Assyrian mace was a short thin weapon, and must either have been made of a very tough wood, or-and this is more probable-of metal. It had an ornamented head, which was sometimes very beautifully modelled, and generally a strap or string at the lower end, by which it could be grasped with greater firmness." (Rawlinson's Anc. Mon. I. p. 458.) for] and. 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 break in pieces the chariot and his rider; With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; 21 22 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his 23 flock; And with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; And with thee will 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. 24 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith 25 the LORD, 22. old and young] literally, old man and boy. 23. captains and rulers] The two original words are uncertain in their origin and exact sense. They both occur again in ver. 28 and the second (sagan) also in ver. 57. The former (pekhah) seems a title given to provincial governors below the first rank. It is applied to Tatnai (Ezra v. 6), Nehemiah (Neh. v. 14), and Zerubbabel (Hag. i. 1). It may possibly be identical in root with the word pasha, but almost all that can be ascertained about the word is that it is probably Assyrian. Thus Babylon carried her severity even to the extent of ill-treating her own subordinate governors. 24. I will render...in your sight] These words are to be joined in sense. The Jews are to have the satisfaction of seeing the requital of their enemy. For this thought compare Ps. xci. 8. 25. O destroying mountain] The same phrase is used in 2 Kings xxiii. 13 (Eng. Vers. "the mount of corruption") of the Mount of Olives the scene of pernicious idolatry. Here Babylon receives the title, as at once hurtful and conspicuous. It is not quite clear whether the figure of a volcano is meant throughout the verse, with rocks mingled with burning lava rolling down its sides. At any rate the last words mean that it will be reduced, as it were, to a cinder, its power for evil exhausted. "Such was Babylon. Its destructive energy under Nebuchadnezzar was like the first outbreak of volcanic fires, its rapid collapse under his successors was as the same volcano when its flames have burnt out, and its crater is falling in upon itself." (Sp. Comm.). |
