11 Sharpen the arrows; take the shields. Jehovah hath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.
Harness the horses, and mount ye horsemen, and stand forth with helmets; polish the spears, put on the coats of mail!
Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, which he hath taken against Babylon, and his purposes which he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: The little ones of the flock shall certainly draw them away; he shall certainly make their habitation desolate for them.
For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon, an assemblage of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her: from thence shall she be taken. Their arrows shall be as those of a mighty expert man: none shall return empty.
Go up, ye horses, and drive furiously, ye chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Phut that handle the shield, and the Ludim that handle the bow [and] bend it.
Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against Jehovah. Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand; her ramparts are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for this is the vengeance of Jehovah. Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.
And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire; for God has given to their hearts to do his mind, and to act with one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
And this shall be the plague wherewith Jehovah will smite all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
And I will assemble all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of bewilderment unto all the peoples round about, and also against Judah shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day [that] I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone unto all peoples: all that burden themselves with it shall certainly be wounded, and all the nations of the earth shall be assembled together against it.
For the violence [done] to Lebanon shall cover thee, and the destruction of beasts which made them afraid; because of men's blood, and for the violence [done] to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein. What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it? the molten image, and the teacher of falsehood, that the maker of his work dependeth thereon, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake! to the dumb stone, Arise! Shall it teach? Behold it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But Jehovah is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!
The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitress of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
Lift up a banner in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare nations against her; call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the bristly caterpillars. Prepare nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their rulers, yea, all the land of their dominion. And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, in your sight, all their evil which they have done in Zion, saith Jehovah.
Lift up a banner towards the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his temple. Call together the archers against Babylon, all those that bend the bow: encamp against her round about; let there be no escaping: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath acted proudly against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel.
Jehovah hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for this is a work for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the land of the Chaldeans.
And Jehovah stirred up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the king's seed in Edom.
I [am] Jehovah, and there is none else; there is no God beside me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me;
Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him -- and I will loose the loins of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, and the gates shall not be shut:
Prepare the table, appoint the watch; eat, drink: arise, ye princes, anoint the shield.
A grievous vision is declared unto me: the treacherous dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, Elam! besiege, Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who do not regard silver, and as for gold, they have no delight in it. And [their] bows shall dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb: their eye shall not spare children.
And Jehovah of hosts will stir up a scourge against him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod [shall be] upon the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
They take crafty counsel against thy people, and consult against thy hidden ones: They say, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, and let the name of Israel be mentioned no more. For they have consulted together with one heart: they have made an alliance together against thee. The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur also is joined with them: they are an arm to the sons of Lot. Selah. Do unto them as to Midian; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the torrent of Kishon:
Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed. Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs. [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees; And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers. They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground. They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all ùGod's places of assembly in the land. We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever? Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,
And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom, and also in writing, saying,
And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, -- unto this day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 51
Commentary on Jeremiah 51 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 51
The prophet, in this chapter, goes on with the prediction of Babylon's fall, to which other prophets also bore witness. He is very copious and lively in describing the foresight God had given him of it, for the encouragement of the pious captives, whose deliverance depended upon it and was to be the result of it. Here is,
Jer 51:1-58
The particulars of this copious prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to so often that it could not well be divided into parts, but we must endeavor to collect them under their proper heads. Let us then observe here,
Jer 51:59-64
We have been long attending the judgment of Babylon in this and the foregoing chapter; now here we have the conclusion of that whole matter.