Jeremiah 51:52

Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan. WHEREFORE, BEHOLD ... - because of these sighs of the Jews directed to God (). I WILL DO JUDGMENT UPON HER ... IMAGES. In Opposition to the Babylonian taunt, that Yahweh's religion was a thing of nought, since they had burned His temple (), I will show that, though I have thus visited the Jews' neglect of me, yet those gods of Babylon cannot save themselves, much less their votaries, who shall "through all her land." lie and "groan" with wounds....

The design of the Prophet is, as I have reminded you, to raise up the minds of the godly that they might not succumb under their trials, on seeing that they were exposed to shame and were destitute of all honors. He then says that the time would come when God would take vengeance on the _idols _of Babylon. And thus God claims for himself that power which seemed then to have almost disappeared; for the temple being overthrown, the Babylonians seemed in a manner to triumph over him, as God’s power in the temple was overcome. Then as the ruin of it, as we have said, seemed to have extinguished God’s power, the Prophet applies a remedy, and says that though the temple was overthrown, yet God remained perfect and his power unchangeable. But among other things he bids the faithful patiently to wait, for he invites their attention to the hope of what was as yet hidden. We now see how, these thi...

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...

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 ...

WHEREFORE, BEHOLD, THE DAYS COME, SAITH THE LORD, THAT I WILL DO JUDGMENT UPON HER GRAVEN IMAGES,.... Destroy their gods, who have reproached the God of Israel, and profaned his sanctuaries; and for that reason; Jeremiah 51:47; it is an answer to the objection and complaint of the Jews, and is designed for their comfort and encouragement: AND THROUGH ALL HER LAND THE WOUNDED SHALL GROAN; because of their wounds and pain; and which their idols could not cure, ease, or prevent....

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

See on Jeremiah 51:47....

D. Babylon's Retribution and Israel's Return Jeremiah 51:47-53 TRANSLATION (47) Therefore, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon, and all her land shall be put to shame; her slain ones shall fall in her midst. (48) Heavens, earth and all in them shall sing over Babylon, for spoilers shall come to her (oracle of the LORD). (49) As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land. (50) O you who have escaped the sword, Go! Do not stand around! Remember from afar the LORD, and let Jerusalem come to your mind. (51) We are ashamed for we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces for strangers have come unto the sanctuaries of the house of the LORD. (52) Therefore, behold, -days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when I will punish her graven images, and in all her land the wounded shall groan. (5

1-14. The end of Babylon arrives....