L. The long continuous prophecy which occupies the place of a great finale in the collection of Jeremiah’s writings (Jeremiah 50, 51.) is in many ways the most important of the whole book. It presents an aspect of the prophet’s mind and character which elsewhere is almost or altogether latent. For t... [ Continue Reading ]
BY JEREMIAH THE PROPHET. — Literally, _by the hand of Jeremiah._ The phrase is not found elsewhere in Jeremiah’s writings, with the one exception of Jeremiah 37:2. It probably indicates that the prophecy that follows was written with his own hand, and not dictated. (See Jeremiah 51:60.)... [ Continue Reading ]
SET UP A STANDARD. — Better, _lift up a signal._ The noun is the same as in Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 4:21. Here, however, its use is not that of furnishing a rallying point for an army, but that of a means of rapid communication, like the succession of beacon-fires in the opening of the _Agamemnon_ of... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THE NORTH THERE COMETH UP A NATION. — It is significant that the very phrase which had described the danger that threatened Judah from Babylon (Jeremiah 1:10) is now used for the danger that threatened Babylon itself from Media. It is as though the prophet watched that northern quarter of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SHALL COME... — The union of the divided sections of the people is significant as being that which the prophet had all along hoped for (Jeremiah 3:14). And the united people are to return with tears of mingled joy and penitence (comp. Ezra 3:13; Ezra 8:21), no longer worshippi... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL ASK THE WAY TO ZION WITH THEIR FACES THITHERWARD. — Literally, _hitherward._ The correction is not without significance, as showing that the prophecy was written in Judah, and therefore as far as that fact goes, as being in favour of Jeremiah’s authorship. A PERPETUAL COVENANT. — The pro... [ Continue Reading ]
MY PEOPLE HATH BEEN LOST SHEEP... — We note as interesting the dominance of this imagery here as in Isaiah 53:6; Ezekiel 34:5. The “shepherds” are, as ever, the kings and civil rulers of the people. In the “mountains” and “hills” we see partly the natural surroundings of the imagery, partly a specia... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR ADVERSARIES SAID, WE OFFEND NOT... — The words are suggestive as indicating a special aspect of the thoughts of the prophet as to the idolatry of Judah. What was to him its extremest humiliation. was that it put a taunt into the mouths of the enemies of her people. They were able to say, “We a... [ Continue Reading ]
REMOVE OUT OF THE MIDST OF BABYLON... — The prophet re-echoes almost the very words of Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11. It is obviously in marked contrast with the counsels in Jeremiah 29:5 that the exiles should build houses and plant gardens, and seek the peace of the city of their conquerors. That was... [ Continue Reading ]
AN ASSEMBLY OF GREAT NATIONS FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY. — Like all the great monarchies of the East, the Medo-Persian kingdom, which was to be the destroyer of Babylon, was made up of a congeries of many different races. Herodotus (vii. 61-69), in his account of the army of Xerxes, names twenty-two, fr... [ Continue Reading ]
CHALDEA. — The same word is used as for Chaldæans, but it is treated as the name of the country, and is therefore joined with a verb in the feminine singular.... [ Continue Reading ]
DESTROYERS OF MINE HERITAGE. — Better, _plunderers_ or _robbers._ YE ARE GROWN FAT AS THE HEIFER AT GRASS. — Better, the Hebrew text being in the singular, _thou leapedst as the heifer while threshing._ The rule of Deuteronomy 25:4 (“Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn “) made t... [ Continue Reading ]
YOUR MOTHER SHALL BE SORE CONFOUNDED... — The prophet speaks to the people of Babylon, and the city is therefore described as their mother. THE HINDERMOST OF THE NATIONS SHALL BE A WILDERNESS... — The interpolated words mar the force of the sentence. Better, _behold the hindermost of the nations, a... [ Continue Reading ]
EVERY ONE THAT GOETH... — We note the reproduction of the formula of Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 49:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL YE THAT BEND THE BOW. — The words are descriptive of the light-armed troops that formed the strength of the Medo-Persian army (see Jeremiah 49:35; Jeremiah 1:14). The words belong properly to the previous clause, and the colon should come after them. Stress is laid in the latter clause on the fa... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE HATH GIVEN HER HAND. — The words paint the attitude of one who submits and stretches forth his hand, as a sign that he gives himself into the power of the conqueror. (Comp. Ezra 10:19; 2 Chronicles 30:8; Lamentations 5:6.) So in Latin “_dare manum_” was a synonym for submission (Cic. _de Amic._... [ Continue Reading ]
CUT OFF THE SOWER... — The rich alluvial plains of Babylon, so plentiful that they yielded an increase of two hundred-fold (Herod. iii. 8), were to be laid waste. There may, possibly, be a special reference to the fields within the walls of the city, upon which the population largely depended, and w... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL IS A SCATTERED SHEEP... — The words paint vividly the two blows that had fallen on Israel, as a sheep driven from the fold: first from the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom by Salmaneser, and then, when, as it were, the carcase was half devoured and only the bones left, from that of J... [ Continue Reading ]
AS I HAVE PUNISHED THE KING OF ASSYRIA. — Nineveh had fallen before Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, and Babylon was in like manner to fall before Cyrus. The one judgment was the pledge and earnest of the other.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING ISRAEL AGAIN TO HIS HABITATION. — Better, _to his pasturage_ (as in Jeremiah 10:25; Jeremiah 23:3), as keeping up the figure of Jeremiah 50:17. The “scattered sheep” was to be brought back and to find pasture. The regions named are the representatives of the most fertile districts of Pa... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS, AND IN THAT TIME... — The formula is that which in prophetic language points to the far-off times of the Christ. Their restoration to their earthly homes was but a small thing. That which was to the prophet the great blessing of the future was that it would bring with it the New Coven... [ Continue Reading ]
GO UP AGAINST THE LAND OF MERATHAIM. — No such name is found in Babylonian inscriptions or is mentioned by historians. The most probable explanation of its use is that the prophet coined it as a descriptive word (= land of two rebellions), and then substituted it, after his manner (as with Sheshach,... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW IS THE HAMMER OF THE WHOLE EARTH CUT ASUNDER...! — The image had been used before (Jeremiah 23:29) of the might of right as seen in the words of Jehovah. Here it describes the right of might as seen in the despotism of Babylon. The name of Charles Martel and, according to one etymology, that of... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE LAID A SNARE FOR THEE. — The two captures of Babylon by Cyrus and Darius both answered to this description. Cyrus turned aside the waters of the Euphrates into another channel, and entered by the river-bed, so that the city was taken before those who lived in the middle of the city knew that... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH OPENED HIS ARMOURY. — The word is the same as that for “treasures” in Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16, the choice of the appropriate English word being determined, in each case, by the context. Here the figure is that of a mighty king going to his arsenal and equipping himself with the... [ Continue Reading ]
OPEN HER STOREHOUSES. — The noun is not found elsewhere. Probably _granaries_ would be a better rendering. The word for “heaps” is used in Song Song of Solomon 7:2; Ruth 3:7 for “heaps of corn,” and this is probably its meaning here. In Nehemiah 4:2, however, it is used of heaps of rubbish. The stor... [ Continue Reading ]
SLAY ALL HER BULLOCKS. — The words are probably to be taken figuratively of the captains and men of war of Babylon, as in Psalms 22:12; Isaiah 34:7; Jeremiah 48:15 (see Note), and Jeremiah 51:40.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE VOICE OF THEM THAT FLEE... — The abruptness of the opening words, as if the prophet heard the cry of the escaping exiles, would be perhaps best represented by _Hark, the voice..._ The words that follow define the cry as coming chiefly from the captive Jews, who see in the destruction of Babylon... [ Continue Reading ]
RECOMPENSE HER ACCORDING TO HER WORK... — As before, in Jeremiah 50:15, the prophet sees in the fall of Babylon the working of the Divine law of retribution. In “the Holy One of Israel” we note the occurrence, for the first time in Jeremiah, of the characteristic name which is so prominent in Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE SHALL HER YOUNG MEN FALL... — The verse is reproduced almost _literatim_ from the prophecy against Damascus in Jeremiah 49:26.... [ Continue Reading ]
O THOU MOST PROUD. — Literally, _O Pride,_ the prophet using the word (_Zadon_) as a proper name for Babylon, as he had before used Merathaim and Pekod (Jeremiah 50:21). It is analogous in its meaning to the Rahab of Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 87:4; Psalms 89:10, as the name of Egypt. The word points, perh... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE MOST PROUD SHALL STUMBLE... — As before, _Pride._ The gender of the pronoun in “none shall raise _him_ up” is determined by that of the Hebrew noun. The words furnish a striking illustration of the teaching of Proverbs 16:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
WERE OPPRESSED. — Better, _are oppressed,_ and so on through the verse. The English tense is misleading. The prophet, having described the doom that lies in the future, now returns to the present, and finds in the actual state of Israel that which made the destruction of Babylon a necessary conditio... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR REDEEMER IS STRONG. — The word for “Redeemer” (_Goël_) includes, as elsewhere (Numbers 35:12; Ruth 4:1; Ruth 4:8; Job 19:25), the thought of “the next of kin,” with whom the right of redemption (in the technical sense) rested, and to whom belonged the duty of pleading for and avenging his kins... [ Continue Reading ]
A SWORD IS UPON THE CHALDEANS. — Better, _A sword upon the Chaldeans._ Here, and in the verses that follow, the interpolated verb weakens the force of the passage. Jehovah is represented as calling the “sword” and the “drought” to do their work of destruction. UPON HER WISE MEN. — The term points e... [ Continue Reading ]
A SWORD IS UPON THE LIARS; AND THEY SHALL DOTE. — The Hebrew word for “liars” — literally, _boastings_ — implies the falsehood of folly rather than of purpose. Better, perhaps, _the prating fools._ The marginal readings “chief stays” and “bars” rest on no adequate authority. Here the word applies to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND UPON ALL THE MINGLED PEOPLE... — The phrase is the same as in Jeremiah 25:20. Here it is used of the auxiliaries of Babylon, which were probably as numerous, and to a large extent the same, as those of Persia. (See Note on Jeremiah 50:9.) The “treasures” point to the wealth in which Babylon exul... [ Continue Reading ]
A DROUGHT IS UPON HER WATERS. — Better, _A sword._ The Hebrew word for “drought” has the same consonants as that for “sword,” with different vowel-points. In the original text the form of the two words must have been identical, as the vowel-points were of later introduction. The editors of the prese... [ Continue Reading ]
WILD BEASTS OF THE DESERT... — The combination of the two forms of animal life seems taken from Isaiah 13:21. In the original the two words _tziyyim_ and _iiyyim_ have a kind of emphatic assonance. The English word in the first case answers to the etymology, but the animal referred to has been ident... [ Continue Reading ]
AS GOD OVERTHREW SODOM... — The whole verse is reproduced from Jeremiah 49:18. We enter here, indeed, upon a mosaic of quotations, or at least recollections of other prophecies. Thus Jeremiah 50:41 are taken from Jeremiah 6:22, “Babylon” being substituted for “Zion,” and “the king of Babylon” for “w... [ Continue Reading ]