VW-Edition Bible (2010)

1The Word that Jehovah spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. 2Declare among the nations, proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim and do not hide it; say, Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is broken in pieces; her images are withered up, her idols are broken in pieces. 3For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land a waste, and no one shall dwell in it. They shall flee, they shall depart, both man and beast. 4In those days, and at that time, says Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping. They shall go and seek Jehovah their God. 5They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces headed there, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten. 6My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. 7All who have found them have devoured them. And their enemies said, We have done no wrong, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers. 8Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be like the rams before the flocks. 9For, lo, I am stirring up and bringing up against Babylon a company of great nations from a northern land. And they shall array themselves against her. She shall be captured there. Their arrows shall be as those of a skillful, mighty man; none shall return in vain. 10And Chaldea shall be a spoils; all who plunder her shall be satisfied, says Jehovah. 11Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O destroyers of My inheritance; because you are fat like a heifer in lush grass, and bellow like bulls; 12your mother shall be deeply ashamed; she who bore you shall be embarrassed. Behold, the last of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. 13Because of the wrath of Jehovah it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly a waste. Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and hiss at all her plagues. 14Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around; all you who bend the bow, shoot at her, and spare no arrows; for she has sinned against Jehovah. 15Shout against her all around. She has given her hand; her foundations have fallen, her walls have been thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Jehovah. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, do unto her. 16Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn, each one to his people; and they shall flee, each one to his own land. 17Israel is like scattered sheep, driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has crushed his bones. 18Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 19And I will bring Israel back to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. 20In those days, and at that time, says Jehovah, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and it shall not be found; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I spare. 21Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and exterminate after them, says Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded you. 22A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 23How the hammer of the whole earth is chopped off and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations! 24I have laid a trap for you, and you have also been caught, O Babylon, and you did not even know it. You have been found and also captured, because you have fought against Jehovah. 25Jehovah has opened His armory, and has brought forth the weapons of His indignation. For this is the work of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. 26Come against her from the border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her completely. Let nothing of her be left. 27Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their punishment. 28The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of His temple.  29Summon the archers against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, camp against it all around; let none of them escape. Repay her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her. For she has been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be silenced in that day, says Jehovah. 31Behold, I am against you, O proud ones, says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts; for your day has come, the time that I will judge you. 32And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and no one shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall consume everything all around him. 33Thus says Jehovah of Hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together. And all who captured them have held them fast; they have refused to let them go. 34Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of Hosts, is His name. He shall thoroughly plead their case, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 35A sword is upon the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her rulers, and upon her wise men. 36A sword is upon the liars, and they shall become fools. A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. 37A sword is upon their horses and their chariots, and upon all the mixed people in her midst; and they shall become as women. A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed. 38A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up. For it is the land of graven images, and they act madly and are in dread. 39Therefore the beasts of the desert shall dwell there with the howling beasts. And the young owls shall dwell in it. And it shall not again be inhabited forever; it shall not be lived in from generation to generation. 40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says Jehovah, so no man shall remain there, nor shall any son of man live in it. 41Behold, a people shall come from the north, even a great nation; and many kings shall be aroused from the ends of the earth. 42They lay hold on the bow and spear; they are cruel and shall not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride on horses, set in array like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon. 43The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands became feeble. Anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in labor. 44Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan against the dwelling of the strong. But I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen one whom I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? And who will set My appointments? And who is that shepherd who will face Me? 45Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah that He has taken against Babylon; and His purposes which He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall drag them; surely He shall make their dwelling desolate to them. 46At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth quakes, and a cry is heard among the nations.


Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary
 1   BABYLON'S COMING DOWNFALL; ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION. (Jer. 50:1-46)
Compare Isa. 45:1-47:15. But as the time of fulfilment drew nearer, the prophecies are now proportionally more distinct than then.

 2   Declare . . . among . . . nations--who would rejoice at the fall of Babylon their oppressor.
standard--to indicate the place of meeting to the nations where they were to hear the good news of Babylon's fall [ROSENMULLER]; or, the signal to summon the nations together against Babylon (Jer 51:12, Jer 51:27), [MAURER].
Bel--the tutelary god of Babylon; the same idol as the Phśnician Baal, that is, lord, the sun (Isa 46:1).
confounded--because unable to defend the city under their protection.
Merodach--another Babylonian idol; meaning in Syria "little lord"; from which Merodach-baladan took his name.

 3   a nation--the Medes, north of Babylon (Jer 51:48). The devastation of Babylon here foretold includes not only that by Cyrus, but also that more utter one by Darius, who took Babylon by artifice when it had revolted from Persia, and mercilessly slaughtered the inhabitants, hanging four thousand of the nobles; also the final desertion of Babylon, owing to Seleucia having been built close by under Seleucus Nicanor.

 4   Fulfilled only in part when some few of the ten tribes of "Israel" joined Judah in a "covenant" with God, at the restoration of Judah to its land (Neh 9:38; Neh 10:29). The full event is yet to come (Jer 31:9; Hos 1:11; Zech 12:10).
weeping--with joy at their restoration beyond all hope; and with sorrow at the remembrance of their sins and sufferings (Ezra 3:12-Ezra 3:13; Ps 126:5-Ps 126:6).
seek . . . Lord-- (Hos 3:5).

 5   thitherward--rather, "hitherward," Jeremiah's prophetical standpoint being at Zion. "Faces hitherward" implies their steadfastness of purpose not to be turned aside by any difficulties on the way.
perpetual covenant--in contrast to the old covenant "which they brake" (Jer 31:31, &c.; Jer 32:40). They shall return to their God first, then to their own land.

 6   (Isa 53:6).
on the mountains--whereon they sacrificed to idols (Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6, Jer 3:23).
resting-place--for the "sheep," continuing the image; Jehovah is the resting-place of His sheep (Matt 11:28). They rest in His "bosom" (Isa 40:11). Also His temple at Zion, their "rest," because it is His (Ps 132:8, Ps 132:14).

 7   devoured-- (Ps 79:7). "Found them" implies that they were exposed to the attacks of those whoever happened to meet them.
adversaries said--for instance, Nebuzara-dan (Jer 40:2-Jer 40:3; compare Zech 11:5). The Gentiles acknowledged some supreme divinity. The Jews' guilt was so palpable that they were condemned even in the judgment of heathens. Some knowledge of God's peculiar relation to Judea reached its heathen invaders from the prophets (Jer 2:3; Dan 9:16); hence the strong language they use of Jehovah here, not as worshippers of Him themselves, but as believing Him to be the tutelary God of Judah ("the hope of their fathers," Ps 22:4; they do not say our hope), as each country was thought to have its local god, whose power extended no farther.
habitation-- (Ps 90:1; Ps 91:1). Alluding to the tabernacle, or, as in Ezek 34:14, "fold," which carries out the image in Jer 50:6, "resting-place" of the "sheep." But it can only mean "habitation" (Jer 31:23), which confirms English Version here.
hope of their fathers--This especially condemned the Jews that their apostasy was from that God whose faithfulness their fathers had experienced. At the same time these "adversaries" unconsciously use language which corrects their own notions. The covenant with the Jews' "fathers" is not utterly set aside by their sin, as their adversaries thought; there is still "a habitation" or refuge for them with the God of their fathers.

 8   (Jer 51:6, Jer 51:45; Isa 48:20; Zech 2:6-Zech 2:7; Rev 18:4). Immediately avail yourselves of the opportunity of escape.
be as . . . he-goats before . . . flocks--Let each try to be foremost in returning, animating the weak, as he-goats lead the flock; such were the companions of Ezra (Ezra 1:5-Ezra 1:6).

 9   from thence--that is, from the north country.
expert--literally, "prosperous." Besides "might," "expertness" is needed, that an arrow may do execution. The Margin has a different Hebrew reading; "destroying," literally, "bereaving, childless-making" (Jer 15:7). The Septuagint and Syriac support English Version.
In vain--without killing him at whom it was aimed (2Sam 1:22).

 11   (Isa 47:6).
grown fat--and so, skip wantonly.
at grass--fat and frisky. But there is a disagreement of gender in Hebrew reading thus. The Keri is better: "a heifer threshing"; the strongest were used for threshing, and as the law did not allow their mouth to be muzzled in threshing (Deut 25:4), they waxed wanton with eating.
bellow as bulls--rather, "neigh as steeds," literally, "strong ones," a poetical expression for steeds (see on Jer 8:16) [MAURER].

 12   Your mother--Babylon, the metropolis of the empire.
hindermost--marvellous change, that Babylon, once the queen of the world, should be now the hindermost of nations, and at last, becoming "a desert," cease to be a nation!

 13   (Isa 13:20).

 14   Summons to the Median army to attack Babylon.
against the Lord--By oppressing His people, their cause is His cause. Also by profaning His sacred vessels (Dan 5:2).

 15   Shout--Inspirit one another to the onset with the battle cry.
given . . . hand--an idiom for, "submitted to" the conquerors (1Chr 29:24, Margin; Lam 5:6).
as she hath done, do unto her--just retribution in kind. She had destroyed many, so must she be destroyed (Ps 137:8). So as to spiritual Babylon (Rev 18:6). This is right because "it is the vengeance of the Lord"; but this will not justify private revenge in kind (Matt 5:44; Rom 12:19-Rom 12:21); even the Old Testament law forbade this, though breathing a sterner spirit than the New Testament (Exod 23:4-Exod 23:5; Pro 25:21-Pro 25:22).

 16   Babylon had the extent rather of a nation than of a city. Therefore grain was grown within the city wall sufficient to last for a long siege [ARISTOTLE, Politics, 3.2; PLINY, 18.17]. Conquerors usually spare agriculturists, but in this case all alike were to be "cut off."
for fear of . . . oppressing sword--because of the sword of the oppressor.
every one to his people--from which they had been removed to Babylon from all quarters by the Chaldean conquerors (Jer 51:9; Isa 13:14).

 17   lions--hostile kings (Jer 4:7; Jer 49:19).
Assyria-- (2Kgs 17:6, Shalmaneser; Ezra 4:2, Esar-haddon).
Nebuchadnezzar-- (2Kgs 24:10, 2Kgs 24:14).

 18   punish . . . king of Babylon--Nabonidus, or Labynitus.
as . . . punished . . . Assyrian--Sennacherib and other kings [GROTIUS] (2Kgs 19:37).

 19   (Isa 65:10; Ezek 34:13-Ezek 34:14).

 20   The specification of "Israel," as well as Judah, shows the reference is to times yet to come.
iniquity . . . none--not merely idolatry, which ceased among the Jews ever since the Babylonian captivity, but chiefly their rejection of Messiah. As in a cancelled debt, it shall be as if it had never been; God, for Christ's sake, shall treat them as innocent (Jer 31:34). Without cleansing away of sin, remission of punishment would be neither to the honor of God nor to the highest interests of the elect.
whom I reserve--the elect "remnant" (Isa 1:9). The "residue" (Zech 14:2; Zech 13:8-Zech 13:9).

 21   Merathaim--a symbolical name for Babylon, the doubly rebellious, namely, against God. Compare Jer 50:24, "thou hast striven against the Lord"; and Jer 50:29, "proud against the Lord." The "doubly" refers to: first, the Assyrian's oppression of Israel; next, the kindred Chaldean's oppression of Judah (compare Jer 50:17-Jer 50:20, Jer 50:33; especially Jer 50:18).
Pekod-- (Ezek 23:23); a chief province of Assyria, in which Nineveh, now overthrown, once lay. But, as in Merathaim, the allusion is to the meaning of Pekod, namely, "visitation"; the inhabitants whose time of deserved visitation in punishment is come; not, however, without reference to the now Babylonian province, Pekod. The visitation on Babylon was a following up of that on Assyria.
after them--even their posterity, and all that is still left of Babylon, until the very name is extinct [GROTIUS]. Devastate the city, after its inhabitants have deserted it.
all . . . I . . . commanded--by Isaiah (Isa 13:1, &c.).

 23   hammer--that is, Babylon, so called because of its ponderous destructive power; just as "Martel," that is, "a little hammer," was the surname of a king of the Franks (Isa 14:6).

 24   I--Thou hast to do with God, not merely with men.
taken . . . not aware--HERODOTUS relates that one half of the city was taken before those in the other half were "aware" of it. Cyrus turned the waters of the Euphrates where it was defended into a different channel, and so entered the city by the dried-up channel at night, by the upper and lower gates (Dan 5:30-Dan 5:31).

 25   weapons of his indignation--the Medes and Persians (Isa 13:5).

 26   from the utmost border--namely, of the earth. Or, from all sides LUDOVICUS DE DIEU].
storehouses--or, "her houses filled with men and goods" [MICHAELIS]. When Cyrus took it, the provisions found there were enough to have lasted for many years.
as heaps--make of the once glorious city heaps of ruins. Vast mounds of rubbish now mark the site of ancient Babylon. "Tread her as heaps of corn which are wont to be trodden down in the threshing-floor" [GROTIUS].

 27   bullocks--that is, princes and strong warriors (Jer 46:21; Ps 22:12; Isa 34:7).
go down to . . . slaughter--The slaughterhouses lay low beside the river; therefore it is said, "go down"; appropriate to Babylon on the Euphrates, the avenue through which the slaughterers entered the city.

 28   declare in Zion . . . temple--Some Jews "fleeing" from Babylon at its fall shall tell in Judea how God avenged the cause of Zion and her temple that had been profaned (Jer 52:13; Dan 1:2; Dan 5:2).

 29   archers--literally, "very many and powerful"; hence the Hebrew word is used of archers (Job 16:13) from the multitude and force of their arrows.
according to all that she hath done--(See on Jer 50:15).
proud against the Lord--not merely cruel towards men (Isa 47:10).

 30   (See on Jer 49:26).
in the streets--The Babylonians were so discouraged by having lost some battles that they retired within their walls and would not again meet Cyrus in the field.

 31   most proud--literally, "pride"; that is, man of pride; the king of Babylon.
visit--punish (Jer 50:27).

 33   Israel and . . . Judah were oppressed--He anticipates an objection, in order to answer it: Ye have been, no doubt, "oppressed," therefore ye despair of deliverance; but, remember your "Redeemer is strong," and therefore can and will deliver you.

 34   strong--as opposed to the power of Israel's oppressor (Rev 18:8).
plead . . . cause--as their advocate. Image from a court of justice; appropriate as God delivers His people not by mere might, but by righteousness. His plea against Satan and all their enemies is His own everlasting love, reconciling mercy and justice in the Redeemer's work and person (Mic 7:9; Zech 3:1-Zech 3:5; 1John 2:1).
give rest . . . disquiet--There is a play on the similarity of sounds in the two Hebrew verbs to express more vividly the contrast: "that He may give quiet to the land of Judah (heretofore disquieted by Babylon); but disquiet to the inhabitants of Babylon" (heretofore quietly secure) (Isa 14:6-Isa 14:8).

 35   The repetition of "A sword" in the beginning of each verse, by the figure anaphora, heightens the effect; the reiterated judgment is universal; the same sad stroke of the sword is upon each and all connected with guilty Babylon.
wise men-- (Isa 47:13). Babylon boasted that it was the peculiar seat of wisdom and wise men, especially in astronomy and astrology.

 36   liars--Those whom he before termed "wise men," he here calls "liars" (impostors), namely, the astrologers (compare Isa 44:25; Rom 1:21-Rom 1:25; 1Cor 1:20).

 37   as women--divested of all manliness (Nah 3:13).

 38   drought--Altering the pointing, this verse will begin as the three previous verses, "A sword." However, all the pointed manuscripts read, "A drought," as English Version. Cyrus turned off the waters of the Euphrates into a new channel and so marched through the dried-up bed into the city (Jer 51:32). Babylonia once was famed for its corn, which often yielded from one to two hundredfold [HERODOTUS]. This was due to its network of water-courses from the Euphrates for irrigation, traces of which [LAYARD] are seen still on all sides, but dry and barren (Isa 44:27).
their idols--literally, "terrors." They are mad after idols that are more calculated to frighten than to attract (Jer 51:44, Jer 51:47, Jer 51:52; Dan 3:1). Mere bugbears with which to frighten children.

 39   wild beasts of the desert--wild cats, remarkable for their howl [BOCHART].
wild beasts of the islands--jackals (See on Isa 13:21).
owls--rather, "female ostriches"; they delight in solitary places. Literally, "daughters of crying." Compare as to spiritual Babylon, Rev 18:2.
no more inhabited for ever--The accumulation of phrases is to express the final and utter extinction of Babylon; fulfilled not immediately, but by degrees; Cyrus took away its supremacy. Darius Hystaspes deprived it, when it had rebelled, of its fortifications. Seleucus Nicanor removed its citizens and wealth to Seleucia, which he founded in the neighborhood; and the Parthians removed all that was left to Ctesiphon. Nothing but its walls was left under the Roman emperor Adrian.

 40   (Isa 13:19). Repeated from Jer 49:18.

 41   (Compare Jer 6:22-Jer 6:24). The very language used to describe the calamities which Babylon inflicted on Zion is that here employed to describe Babylon's own calamity inflicted by the Medes. Retribution in kind.
kinds--the allies and satraps of the various provinces of the Medo-Persian empire: Armenia, Hyrcania, Lydia, &c.
coasts--the remote parts.

 42   cruel--the character of the Persians, and even of Cyrus, notwithstanding his wish to be thought magnanimous (Isa 13:18).
like a man--So orderly and united is their "array," that the whole army moves to battle as one man [GROTIUS].

 43   hands waxed feeble--attempted no resistance; immediately was overcome, as HERODOTUS tells us.

 44   Repeated mainly from Jer 49:19-Jer 49:21. The identity of God's principle in His dealing with Edom, and in that with Babylon, is implied by the similarity of language as to both.

 46   cry . . . among the nations--In Edom's case it is, "at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red Sea." The change implies the wider extent to which the crash of Babylon's downfall shall be heard.