11 Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out [the grain], and neigh as strong horses;
I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; on the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke.
They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me; All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they shall be like me.
This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.
Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
For thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a spoil to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Hosts has sent me.
Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their lords, "Bring, and let us drink."
Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; So I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods.
Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste: therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity; therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall lay my vengeance on them.
and tell the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because you said, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity: therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in you, and make their dwellings in you; they shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and you shall know that I am Yahweh. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have clapped your hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of your soul against the land of Israel; therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand on you, and will deliver you for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish out of the countries: I will destroy you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations;
Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked. The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.
All that pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, [saying], Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you; They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up; Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked: You have grown fat, you are grown thick, you are become sleek; Then he forsook God who made him, Lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy they don't judge.
They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.
I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.
Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.
> God, don't keep silent. Don't keep silent, And don't be still, God. For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones. "Come," they say, "and let's destroy them as a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more." For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you.
> God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, The flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, Which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived. Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary. Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes, Cutting through a thicket of trees. Now all its carved work They break down with hatchet and hammers. They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling-place of your Name. They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Jeremiah 50
Commentary on Jeremiah 50 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 50
Jer 50:1-46. Babylon's Coming Downfall; Israel's Redemption.
After the predictions of judgment to be inflicted on other nations by Babylon, follows this one against Babylon itself, the longest prophecy, consisting of one hundred verses. The date of utterance was the fourth year of Zedekiah, when Seraiah, to whom it was committed, was sent to Babylon (Jer 51:59, 60). The repetitions in it make it likely that it consists of prophecies uttered at different times, now collected by Jeremiah to console the Jews in exile and to vindicate God's ways by exhibiting the final doom of Babylon, the enemy of the people of God, after her long prosperity. The style, imagery, and dialogues prove its genuineness in opposition to those who deny this. It shows his faithfulness; though under obligation to the king of Babylon, he owed a higher one to God, who directed him to prophesy against Babylon.
1. 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, 27), [Maurer].
Bel—the tutelary god of Babylon; the same idol as the Phœnician 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 (Ne 9:38; 10:29). The full event is yet to come (Jer 31:9; Ho 1:11; Zec 12:10).
weeping—with joy at their restoration beyond all hope; and with sorrow at the remembrance of their sins and sufferings (Ezr 3:12, 13; Ps 126:5, 6).
seek … Lord—(Ho 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; 3:6, 23).
resting-place—for the "sheep," continuing the image; Jehovah is the resting-place of His sheep (Mt 11:28). They rest in His "bosom" (Isa 40:11). Also His temple at Zion, their "rest," because it is His (Ps 132:8, 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, 3; compare Zec 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; Da 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; 91:1). Alluding to the tabernacle, or, as in Eze 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, 45; Isa 48:20; Zec 2:6, 7; Re 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 (Ezr 1:5, 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 (2Sa 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 (De 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 (Da 5:2).
15. Shout—Inspirit one another to the onset with the battle cry.
given … hand—an idiom for, "submitted to" the conquerors (1Ch 29:24, Margin; La 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 (Re 18:6). This is right because "it is the vengeance of the Lord"; but this will not justify private revenge in kind (Mt 5:44; Ro 12:19-21); even the Old Testament law forbade this, though breathing a sterner spirit than the New Testament (Ex 23:4, 5; Pr 25:21, 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; 49:19).
Assyria—(2Ki 17:6, Shalmaneser; Ezr 4:2, Esar-haddon).
Nebuchadnezzar—(2Ki 24:10, 14).
18. punish … king of Babylon—Nabonidus, or Labynitus.
as … punished … Assyrian—Sennacherib and other kings [Grotius] (2Ki 19:37).
19. (Isa 65:10; Eze 34:13, 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" (Zec 14:2; 13:8, 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 50:17-20, 33; especially Jer 50:18).
Pekod—(Eze 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 (Da 5:30, 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; Da 1:2; 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 (Re 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; Zec 3:1-5; 1Jo 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 14:6-8).
35-37. 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; Ro 1:21-25; 1Co 1:20).
37. as women—divested of all manliness (Na 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, 47, 52; Da 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, Re 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.
41-43. (Compare Jer 6:22-24). 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.
44-46. Repeated mainly from Jer 49:19-21. 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.