IN THE MIDST OF THEM THAT RISE UP AGAINST ME - Or, in Leb-kamai, the cipher for Kasdim, i. e., Chaldaea. This cipher was not necessarily invented by Jeremiah, or used for concealment. It was probaby first devised either for political purposes or for trade, and was in time largely employed in the cor... [ Continue Reading ]
FANNERS - Or, winnowers.... [ Continue Reading ]
The man who bends the bow, and the heavy-armed soldier who vaunts himself in his coat of mail (Jeremiah 46:4 note), represent the Babylonians who defend the city.... [ Continue Reading ]
Translate it: “And they,” i. e., the young men who form her host Jeremiah 51:3, “shall fall slain in the land of the Chaldaeans, and pierced through in her streets,” i. e., the streets of Babylon.... [ Continue Reading ]
Literally, “A golden cup is Babel in the hand of Yahweh, intoxicating the whole earth.” Jeremiah beholds her in her splendor, but the wine whereof she makes the nations drink is the wrath of God. As God’s hammer Jeremiah 50:23, Babylon was strong: as His cup of gold, she was rich and beautiful, but... [ Continue Reading ]
DESTROYED - literally, broken, as was the hammer Jeremiah 50:23. The cup, though of metal, is thrown down so violently as to be shattered by the fall. HOWL FOR HER - The persons addressed are the many inhabitants of Babylon who were dragged from their homes to people its void places, and especially... [ Continue Reading ]
Omit would. All was done that it was possible to do to heal her. TO THE SKIES - Or, to the clouds.... [ Continue Reading ]
Yahweh hath brought to the light those things which prove us to be righteous: i. e., by punishing Babylon He hath justified... [ Continue Reading ]
MAKE BRIGHT - Rather, Sharpen. The Medes Genesis 10:2 were a branch of the great Aryan family, who as conquerors had seized upon the vast regions extending from the Caspian Sea to the eastern borders of Mesopotamia, but without being able to dispossess the Turanian tribes who had previously dwelt t... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THE WALLS OF BABYLON - Or, “against the walls.” The King James Version takes the word ironically, as a summons to Babylon to prepare for her defense; others take it as a summons to the army to make the attack.... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON MANY WATERS - The great wealth of Babylonia was caused not merely by the Euphrates, but by a vast system of canals, which served for defense as well as for irrigation. THE MEASURE OF THY COVETOUSNESS - i. e., the appointed end of thy gain. Some render it: the ell of thy cutting off, i. e., the... [ Continue Reading ]
Rather, “Surely I have filled thee with men as with locusts, and they shall sing over thee the vintage-song.” The vintage-shout suggests the idea of trampling Babylon under foot, as the vintagers trample the grapes; a metaphor of the divine wrath.... [ Continue Reading ]
A transcript of Jeremiah 10:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
Or, Thou art my maul, weapons of war etc. The maul or mace Proverbs 25:18 only differs from the hammer Jeremiah 50:23 in being used for warlike purposes. Omit the “will” in “will I break.” The crushing of the nations was going on at the time when the prophet wrote. Most commentators consider that B... [ Continue Reading ]
CAPTAINS ... RULERS - Jeremiah 51:28. Pashas and Sagans. The prophet dwells at length upon Babylon’s destructiveness.... [ Continue Reading ]
O DESTROYING MOUNTAIN - A volcano which by its flames and hot lava-streams “destroys the whole land.” A BURNT MOUNTAIN - A burned-out mountain, of which the crater alone remains. Such was Babylon. Its destructive energy under Nebuchadnezzar was like the first outbreak of volcanic fires; its rapid c... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet means that: (1) Babylon would never again be the seat of empire. Nor (2) would any new development of events take its rise thence.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ararat, see the Genesis 8:4 note. Minni, probably the western portion of Armenia, as Ararat was that in the center and to the east. Armenia was at this time subject to Media. Ashchenaz was between the Euxine and the Caspian Seas. A CAPTAIN - Some prefer the Septuagint rendering in Nahum 3:17 : “a m... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS DOMINION - This belonged not to the subordinate rulers, but to the chief, e. g., to Cyrus.... [ Continue Reading ]
The literal translation is: Then the earth quaked and writhed; For the thoughts of Yahweh against Babel have stood fast; To make Babel a waste without inhabitant.... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE FORBORN TO FIGHT - Or, have ceased to fight: in despair when they saw that the conflict was hopeless. HOLDS - The word properly means an acropolis, and so any inaccessible place of refuge. THEY HAVE BURNED - i. e., the enemy have burned. BARS - i. e., fortifications (compare Amos 1:5).... [ Continue Reading ]
The royal palace was a strong fortification in the heart of the city. The messengers thus met one another. AT ONE END - Rather, from all sides, entirely, completely.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PASSAGES ARE STOPPED - The ferries are seized, occupied. The historians state that when Cyrus captured the city his troops moved down the bed of the river and occupied all these ferries, finding at each of them the gates negligently left open. See the Daniel 5:1 note. THE REEDS - literally, the... [ Continue Reading ]
Translate, “The daughter of Babylon is as a threshing-floor at the time when it is trampled,” i. e., trodden hard in readiness for the threshing: “yet a little while and the harvest-time” shall come to her, i. e., overtake her. In the East, the grain when reaped is carried at once to the threshing-f... [ Continue Reading ]
Literally, “Nebuchadrezzar ... hath devoured us, hath crushed us, he hath set as aside as an empty vessel, he hath swallowed as like a crocodile, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies Genesis 49:20, he hath cast us out. My wrong and my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitress of Zion say: an... [ Continue Reading ]
HER SEA - Probably the great lake dug by Nitocris to receive the waters of the Euphrates. HER SPRINGS - Her reservoir; the whole system of canals dug Jeremiah 51:13. The wealth of Babylonia depended upon irrigation.... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAPS - Of rubbish, formed in this case by the decay of the unburned bricks of which Babylon was built. It is these heaps which have yielded such a large wealth of historical documents in our own days. DRAGONS - Jackals Jeremiah 10:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
YELL - Or, growl.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THEIR HEAT ... - While, like so many young lions, they are in the full glow of excitement over their prey, God prepares for them a drinking-bout to end in the sleep of death. Compare Daniel 5:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
LAMBS ... RAMS ... HE GOATS - i. e., all classes of the population (see Isaiah 34:6 note).... [ Continue Reading ]
SHESHACH - Babylon: see the Jeremiah 51:1 note. SURPRISED - i. e., seized, captured.... [ Continue Reading ]
By a grand metaphor the invading army is compared to the sea.... [ Continue Reading ]
A WILDERNESS - Or, a desert of sand. A LAND WHEREIN - Rather, “a land - no man shall dwell in them (i. e., its cities), and no human being shall pass through them.”... [ Continue Reading ]
The sacred vessels plundered from Jerusalem, and laid up in the very temple of Bel, should be restored; the men and women dragged from other lands to people the city, released; and its wall falling would show the insignificance to which it should be reduced.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIERCE ANGER OF THE LORD - i. e., against Babylon. The people of God are to flee away that they may not be involved in the miseries of Babylon. See the Jeremiah 50:8 note.... [ Continue Reading ]
Literally, “And beware lest your heart faint, and ye be afraid because of the rumour that is heard in the land: for in one year shall one rumour come, and afterward in another year another rumour; and violence shall be in the land etc.” The fall of Babylon was to be preceded by a state of unquiet, m... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE - The exiles were to note these things as signs of the approach of God’s visitation. CONFOUNDED - Or, ashamed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Render, “As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so because of Babylon, hare fallen the slain of (or, in) the whole earth.” Babylon has to answer for the general carnage caused by its wars.... [ Continue Reading ]
AFAR OFF - Or, from afar, from Chaldaea, far away from Yahweh’s dwelling in Jerusalem. The verse is a renewed entreaty to the Jews to leave Babylon and journey homewards, as soon as Cyrus grants them permission.... [ Continue Reading ]
CONFOUNDED - Or, ashamed. The verse is a statement of the wrong done to the exiles by Babylon, and so leads naturally to Babylon’s punishment Jeremiah 51:52.... [ Continue Reading ]
A CRY - i. e., the war-cry.... [ Continue Reading ]
Render, “For Yahweh wasteth Babylon, and will make to cease from her the loud noise (of busy life); and their wares (the surging masses of the enemy) roar like many waters: the noise of their shouting is given forth, i. e., resounds.”... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY ONE ... - Or, “Their bows are broken, for Yahweh is a God of recompenses; He will certainly requite.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BROAD WALLS - Herodotus makes the breadth of the walls 85 English feet. BROKEN - See the margin. i. e., the ground beneath them shall be laid bare by their demolition. THE PEOPLE - Or, peoples. Jeremiah concludes his prophecy with a quotation from Habakkuk; applying the words to the stupendous... [ Continue Reading ]
Historical appendix. In his fourth year Zedekiah journeyed to Babylon either to obtain some favor from Nebuchadnezzar, or because he was summoned to be present on some state occasion. Jeremiah took the opportunity of sending to the exiles at Babylon this prophecy. Jeremiah 51:59 SERAIAH - Brother... [ Continue Reading ]