Jeremiah 51:1. _against them that dwell in Leb-kamai_ Observe mg. meaning, the centre of hostility to Jehovah. See on Jeremiah 25:26 ("Sheshach"). _a destroying wind_ or better, _the spirit of a destroyer_, cp. Jeremiah 51:11, and Haggai 1:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
_strangers_ mg. (with A.V.) _fanners_, which (differing only in vocalisation from the other reading) suits the subsequent verb. So Syr. and Targ. The figure is that of men winnowing corn.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not lift himself up, etc_.] As the mg., when compared with the text, suggests, the Heb. is difficult. It is in fact ungrammatical and probably corrupt. It seems best to omit the negatives, and make the whole _v_. (as the latter part must be in any case)... [ Continue Reading ]
_forsaken_ lit. _widowed_, cp. Isaiah 54:4. The word is masculine, contrary to the figure (e.g. Jeremiah 2:2) where Israel is the wife, and Jehovah the husband. _though their land, etc_.] i.e. in spite of the guilt of the people of Jehovah. The Heb. conjunction, however, is better rendered _for_, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Flee_ addressed to the Jewish residents in Babylon. Cp. Jeremiah 51:45 ("My people"), Jeremiah 50:6; Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a golden cup_ In ch. Jeremiah 25:15 f., Jeremiah was commanded to make the nations drink of the wine of God's wrath. Babylon is here spoken of under the same figure, as having made all the nations drunk, but the wine in this case, as the epithet "golden" suggests, denotes the influence for evil whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_take balm_ See on Jeremiah 46:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
_We would have healed, etc_.] As the _v_. cannot be taken to express Jewish sentiment, we must suppose it to be put in the mouth of the nations, intoxicated by their share in the splendour of Babylon, and so lamenting its fall and desiring to restore its fortunes. Cp. Revelation 18:9-19, and for Isr... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath brought forth our righteousness_ hath made known the justice of our cause (by our enemy's overthrow). Cp. Psalms 37:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_sharp_ For mg. cp. Isaiah 49:2 ("polished shaft"). _hold firm_ mg. _fill_. If we retain "shields" (see next note), the latter verb seems inappropriate. Cp., however, its use in 2 Samuel 23:7 R.V. mg. Gi. suggests "polish" or "furbish," but this involves a somewhat drastic change in the Heb. _shie... [ Continue Reading ]
Exhortation to commence the blockade. _watchmen_ those of the attacking force who were appointed to see that the investiture was thorough. _the ambushes_ to attack any of the besieged that ventured beyond the walls; or (better) to take advantage of a sortie to push their way through the opened gat... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon many waters_ See on Jeremiah 50:38. _abundant in treasures_ conveyed to Babylon from the conquered provinces. _the measure of thy covetousness_ better, _the cubit where thou shalt be cut off_. The metaphor is taken from weaving. "The web of thy destiny is finished. Cf. for the figure Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will fill, etc_.] rather, _Though I have filled thee_(better, _thou art filled) with men_(i.e. innumerable inhabitants), _as with locusts_(viz. in point of numbers), _they_(the assailants) _shall lift up, etc_. _cankerworm_ the locust in its early (pupa) stage. Cp. Jeremiah 51:27, where see note... [ Continue Reading ]
These _vv_. are taken almost _verbatim_from Jeremiah 10:12-16. The object of the insertion is to emphasize the powerlessness of Babylon's idols against Jehovah.... [ Continue Reading ]
_his voice_ in thunder. Cp. Jeremiah 10:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
_battle axe_ mg. _maul_, a war-club, 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 en... [ Continue Reading ]
Is it (_a_) Cyrus, as conqueror of Babylon, or (_b_) Babylon herself, that is addressed? Jeremiah 51:24 seems to support (_a_), but on the whole (_b_) is perhaps preferable. The future tenses can as well be rendered as presents, denoting what Babylon has hitherto been accustomed to do as the instrum... [ Continue Reading ]
_governors_[mg. _lieutenants and deputies_ Cp. Jeremiah 51:28_; Jeremiah 51:57_; also Ezekiel 23:6; Ezekiel 23:12-23. The names in the original are not Heb. but Assyrian, and are often found in inscriptions in that language. The former is applied to Tattenai (Ezra 5:6), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 5:14), and... [ Continue Reading ]
Babylon, after Jehovah has used it as the instrument by means of which to punish other nations, shall now be itself requited. "In your (the Jews") sight" is to be connected with the opening words of the _v_. Cp. Psalms 91:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
_O destroying mountain_ For the expression cp. 2 Kings 23:13 R.V. mg. The figure is not appropriate in a literal sense, as Babylon is situated in a plain. The sense must be that she towers in supremacy over other countries. Perhaps Ezekiel 35:3 ff. may have suggested this passage. _a burnt mountain... [ Continue Reading ]
The figure of stones, which by the action of fire have been rendered unfit for use in building, is continued in this verse. No Empire shall again have Babylon for its centre. Its position as a capital city is for ever shattered, and its glory burnt out.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Set ye up, etc_.] Cp. Jeremiah 51:12. _prepare_ For mg. _sanctify_(and so in Jeremiah 51:28) see on Jeremiah 6:4; Jeremiah 22:7. _Ararat_ the Assyrian _Urartu_, N.W. of Lake Van, and corresponding pretty closely to the Armenia of the present day. Cp. Genesis 8:4; 2 Kings 19:37. _Minni_ the _Mann... [ Continue Reading ]
_Prepare_ See on Jeremiah 51:27. _kings_ Read _king_, with LXX (cp. Jeremiah 51:11). Cyrus is meant. _governors … deputies_ See on Jeremiah 51:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
Description of the capture of Babylon. _they are become as women_ Cp. Jeremiah 50:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
_post_ lit. _runner_. The word survives in this sense in modern English only in the expression _post-haste_. For the sense here cp. "Your native town you entered like a _post_." _Coriolanus_, Act v sc. 5. First denoting that which is placed (_positum_), it came to denote a fixed spot, e.g. a mili... [ Continue Reading ]
_passages_ mg. _fords_, but perhaps we should take it as meaning here _ferries_over the Euphrates. _reeds_ mg. _marshes_, Heb. _pools_. The sense is either that the great reed beds which served as defences are burned, or (by a violent hyperbole) that the pools which protected the city are dried up.... [ Continue Reading ]
_at the time when it is trodden_ i.e. made smooth and hard in preparation for the corn which is to be threshed upon it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_me_ mg. _us_, but "me" is best throughout the _v_. as in Jeremiah 51:35. Israel suddenly becomes the speaker. For the figure cp. Isaiah 27:1. _dragon_ The Heb. _Tannin_is lit. any great monster of river or sea, e.g. the crocodile (Psalms 74:13; Ezekiel 29:3). _my delicates_ Israel's treasured pos... [ Continue Reading ]
_The violence done to me and to my flesh_ mg. _My wrong and my flesh_, i.e. the injuries which I have wrongfully suffered at the hands of Babylon. But it is possible that the Heb. translated "flesh" may here have the sense of an Arabic word of similar letters, signifying _blood-revenge_, thus making... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah replies favourably to the demand for vengeance on Babylon. _her sea … her fountain_ either the Euphrates (cp. the word "sea" as applied to the river Nile in Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 19:5; Nahum 3:8) or, better, the great lake or reservoir, four hundred and twenty furlongs in circumference, made... [ Continue Reading ]
_heaps_ "Vast -heaps" or mounds, shapeless and unsightly, are scattered at intervals over the entire region where it is certain that Babylon anciently stood." (Rawl. _Anc. Mon_. II. 521.) _hissing_ See on Jeremiah 18:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
While they are exulting over the spoil which they have won from the conquered nations I will prepare a feast for them, inducing a sleep that shall be endless. _When they are heated_ referring either to the glow of passionate indulgence, or to murderous ferocity. But Gi. would read _When I am hot_(w... [ Continue Reading ]
_lambs … rams … he-goats_ Cp. Jeremiah 50:27; Isaiah 34:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sheshach_ i.e. Babylon. See on Jeremiah 25:26. _a desolation_ mg. _an astonishment_. Cp. Jeremiah 51:43.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sea is come up_ the hostile army arriving in overwhelming force. Cp. Jeremiah 46:7-8; Jeremiah 47:2; Isaiah 17:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a desert_ Cp. Jeremiah 50:12; Jeremiah 50:40.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bel_ See on Jeremiah 50:2. _that which he hath swallowed up_ the riches of the subjugated nations. Cp. Jeremiah 51:34. Co. thinks that parallelism requires the mention of a deity, and proposes, with an alteration of MT., to render _the Desire-goddess_, the chief female deity of Babylon. He compar... [ Continue Reading ]
The LXX omit from "yea, the wall" (Jeremiah 51:44) to "the slain of Israel to fall" (Jeremiah 51:49), but the omission is probably accidental, the scribe's eye passing from the first "Babylon shall fall" to the second.... [ Continue Reading ]
_go ye out_ See Jeremiah 51:6; Jeremiah 50:8; Isaiah 52:11.... [ Continue Reading ]
_a rumour … a rumour_ Rumour shall succeed rumour, as the years go on, and disquieting revolts shall foreshadow the final break-up of the Babylonian empire.... [ Continue Reading ]
The _v_. is suspicious; for (_a_) it closely resembles Jeremiah 51:52 in language, (_b_) "Therefore" is unsuitable here, while it fits Jeremiah 51:52, from which it may be taken. Co. for "graven images," mentioned elsewhere in the immediate context (Jeremiah 51:52), proposes to read "rulers," pointi... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall sing for joy over Babylon_ shall rejoice over her fall.... [ Continue Reading ]
_As Babylon … so at, etc_.] better, as mg. _Both Babylon is to fall, O ye slain of Israel, and at, etc_., or, repeating a Heb. consonant, _for the slain of Israel_. The ground for Babylon's overthrow is to be her cruelty towards others.... [ Continue Reading ]
Let those in exile in Babylon, who have escaped death, hasten their return to Jerusalem, while yet there is time.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ashamed_ The exiles answer that they are too deeply humiliated to obey the summons; for foreigners are in possession of the holy sites. Cp. Lamentations 1:10 with note.... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Jeremiah 51:47.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Isaiah 14:12-14. _fortify_ lit. _cut off_, i.e. render inaccessible. _the height of her strength_ the height of her walls.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Jeremiah 48:3; Jeremiah 50:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the great voice_ the hum of the city's life. _and their waves_ the surging hosts which pour into the city. See on Jeremiah 51:42. _the noise of their voice_ Cp. Jeremiah 6:23; Isaiah 17:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_her governors and her deputies_ Cp. Jeremiah 51:23_; Jeremiah 51:28_, and for the latter part see on Jeremiah 51:39.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The broad walls of Babylon_ better than mg. _The walls of broad Babylon_, We should, with LXX, read _wall_. According to Herodotus, the outer wall of Babylon was 200 royal cubits (about 373 English feet) high, while it was fifty cubits wide. This, however, both from the nature of the case, and from... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seraiah … when he went with Zedekiah_ See introd. note. _chief chamberlain_ mg. (rightly) _quartermaster_, lit. CAPTAIN OF THE CAMPING PLACE. His duty, as in attendance on the king in a journey, was to arrange that matters should be in readiness at the next halting place. The LXX, however, have _c... [ Continue Reading ]
Seraiah's mission The rejection as non-Jeremianic of the preceding prophecy against Babylon (see introd. note to chs. 50, 51) by no means need involve suspicion of this section. Here impassioned denunciation finds no place and the forecast of the overthrow of the great Eastern power is quite in kee... [ Continue Reading ]
_a book_ See introd. note. The latter part of the _v_. which seems to identify this book, or rather _roll, scroll_, with the preceding prophecy, Jeremiah 50:2 to Jeremiah 51:58, is doubtless only a note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_then see … and say_ From "and say" to the end of Jeremiah 51:62 is probably the addition of a compiler; it is a needless interruption to the close connexion of the preceding words with Jeremiah 51:63.... [ Continue Reading ]
For the symbolical action cp. Jeremiah 13:1-7; Jeremiah 19:1-10; Jeremiah 27:2; Jeremiah 43:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon her: and they shall be weary_ The mg. (rightly) puts a full stop after "upon her" and a colon after "they shall be weary." These latter words (one word in the Heb.) doubtless (so Gi., Co. and others) were taken, probably by accident, from Jeremiah 51:58, when, on the addition of this short sec... [ Continue Reading ]