Jeremiah 51:23

_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 WILL I BREAK IN PIECES CAPTAINS AND RULERS._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Revelation 18:9; Revelation 18:19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and su...

CAPTAINS ... RULERS - Jeremiah 51:28. Pashas and Sagans. The prophet dwells at length upon Babylon’s destructiveness....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 51:1 AGAINST THEM THAT DWELL IN THE MIDST OF THEM THAT RISE UP AGAINST ME. The Hebrew has _lēb-kāmai_, which is _Kasdim_, or _Chaldea, _written in the cypher called Athbash (see on Jeremiah 25:26); just as _Sheshach_ in Jeremiah 51:41 is equivalent to Babel. The question arises whether the prophet himself is responsible for this covert way of writing, or a scribe in later times (so Ewald). In favour of the former view it may be urged that Babylon and Chaldea receive symbolic names (though not in Athbash) in the connected chapter ...

AND I WILL ALSO BREAK IN PIECES WITH THEE THE SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK,.... Or, have broken; which Abarbinel thinks respects the Arabians particularly, who were shepherds, and dwelt in tents; but it rather signifies shepherds and their flocks in general; who were killed or scattered wherever his armies came, which spared none, even the most innocent and useful, and though unarmed: AND WITH THEE WILL I BREAK IN PIECES THE HUSBANDMAN AND HIS YOKE OF OXEN; with which he ploughed his ground: signifying by this, as well as the former, that those were not spared, by which kingdoms were supported and maintained, as shepherds and husbandmen: AND WITH THEE WILL I BREAK IN PIECES CAPTAINS AND RULERS; by whom kingdoms and states are governed and protected....

CHAPTER S 50-51 BABYLON These two final Chapter s contain a great prophecy concerning Babylon, her overthrow and doom. The fifty-first chapter closes with the statement “thus far are the words of Jeremiah.” There is a direct statement that Jeremiah wrote all these words. We find it at the close of Jeremiah 51:59. “Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.” It would be a brazen infidelity which says Jeremiah did not write all these words. Yet the almost universally accepted view of the critics is that these Chapter s cannot be the work of Jeremiah. The German infidel, Professor Eichhorn, the man who coined the phrase “higher criticism,” started this denial; Kuenen, Budde and others have followed in his steps. Others have modified this radical view and concede the possibility that Jeremiah may have b

JEREMIAH 50:1 TO JEREMIAH 51:58. BABYLON. This long and monotonous prophecy, which is without order or logical development of ideas, is largely a compilation from the prophetic writings of Jeremiah and others (_cf., e.g.,_ Jeremiah 50:41 ff., Jeremiah 51:15). It presupposes the destruction of Jerusalem, apparently as a remote rather than a recent event. Its idea of Babylon is that of a cruel tyrant to be punished by Yahweh, not that of a Divinely commissioned agent of Yahweh's wrath against Israel, as Jeremiah teaches. We are not at liberty to make it contemporaneous with such exilic writings as Isaiah 13, 40-55, because

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 instrument of Jehovah. This view also harmonizes with Jeremiah 51:14 (while we omit 15 19; see note there), as well as with Jeremiah 51:25 ff., where Babylon is certainly the subject....

D. Divine Destruction Jeremiah 51:11-26 TRANSLATION (11) Polish the arrows! Fill the shields! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the king of the Medes; for His purpose is against Babylon to destroy it. For it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His Temple. (12) Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set the guard! Prepare the ambushments! For the LORD has purposed and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. (13) O you who dwells beside many waters, abundant in treasure, your end has come, the measure of your gain. (14) The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself: Surely I will fill you with men as with locusts and they shall lift up a shout over you. (15) He who made the earth in His strength, and established the world in His wisdom, and in His understanding spread out the heavens, (16) when He utters His voi

51:23 rulers. (a-39) As vers. 28,57. see Ezra 9:2 ....