infanient, Pagninus,. Montanus,
fword is upon her treafures, and they foall be robbed; or they that flay with the fword, as the Targum. the foldiers, fhall feize upon her treafures, and plunder them: thus fhould fhe be exhaufted of ~ men and money, and become utterly defolate. ¥. 38. A drought is upon ber waters, and they foall be dried up, &c.] Either on the watets of the land of Chaldea in general, from whence thot follow barrennefs, and fo a want of the neceffaries of life; hence Kimchi interprets it, of a confumption of righes, and all good things; or on the waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates, which ran thro? it; the channel of which was diverted ‘by Cyrus, and drained and’made fo dry, that he marched his army up it into the city. Some fay Babylon was taken three times by this ftratagem of turning the river Euphrates another way; firlt by Semiramis; and after Cyrus by Alexander: this may well be applied to the drying up of the river Bapbrates, upon the pouring out of the fixth vial, and to the deftruétion of the antichriftian ftates, fignified by the many waters on which the great whore of Babylon-or Rome fitteth, Rev. xvi. 12. and xvii, 1, 15: for it is the land of graven images; much given to idolatry; had idols of gold, filver, brafs, iron, wood and ftone, Dan. v. 2. Rev. ix. 20: and th are mad upon their idols; greatly affected, and much devoted to them:; fuperftitionfly mad upon them: or, they gloried in them, as the Targum, Vulgate Latin verfion, and others?; they praifed and extolled them as true deities; as Bel/fhazzar and his nobles did the very night Babylon was taken, Daz. v. 4. and this their idolatry was one caufe of their ruin. The word * for idols fignifies terrors, or’terrible things; becaufe their worfhippers ftood in fear'of them, as Kimchi obferves. ‘ ¥. 39. Therefore the wild beafts of the defert, with the wild beafts of the iflands fhall dwell there, &c.
Of thefe creatures fee the note on J/ xiii. 21, 22: and the owls foall dwell therein, fo myftical Babylon. when fallen fhall become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul fpirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird, Rev. xviii. 2: and it fhall be no more inhabited for ever: neither fhall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; interpreters obferve, that this was gradually accomplifhed: it was taken by Cyrus, and made tributary to the Perfians; the feat of the empire was removed from it; its walls were demolifhed by Darius; it was drained both of its inhabitants and its riches thro’ Seleucus Nicator building the city Seleucia * near it. In Adrian’s time there was nothing but an old wall left; and in Ferom’s time it was a park for the king of Perfia to hunt in; fee the note on ¥. 13, and on J. Xiii. 20. y.40. As God overthrew Sodom and Gemorrab, and the neighbour cities thereof, faith the Lord, &c.
Admah and Zeboim: fo fhall no man abide there, neither fhall any fon of man dwell therein, the fame is faid concerning Edom, ch. xlix. 18. fee the nor there. oes —— y. 41. Bebold, a people fhall come from the nort: and a great nation, &c.| The Medes and Perfian whofe country lay north of Babylon; fee 1 on ¥..9: and many kings fhall be raifed up j coafts of the earth; the kings of Ararat, town dy ann sladie, Super ¢ ui 7 Bivinos, ne Vatablus, Tigurine © 15585) ut ftultefcant, Schmide; ut ftulte agant, Pifea and Afbchenaz, ch. li. 27. and of the Armenians and other nations that Cyrus had fubdued and brought with him in his army againft Badylon, as Xenophon * relates. ‘Ten kings fhall be raifed up again{t myftical Babylon, and hate her, and burn her with fire, Rev. xvii. 12, 16.
¥. 42. Lhey fhall bold the bow and the lance, &c.] Or /pear. Vhe Yargum interprets it, shields; as many in Cyrus’s army had‘; the one an offenfive, the other a defenfive weapon; or if bow and lance, the one is ufed at a diftance, the other when. near. The Medes and Perfians were well fkilled in handling the bow, as once and again obferved: this very properly defcribes the armour of the Per/aus; which were, as Heredotus * fays, large bows, and fhort, {pears; and Xenophon ’ obferves, that befides bows and arrows, they had two javelins or lances, birth, when her pains come upon her, «and there’s no avoiding them; tho’ when thofe who were with Gobrias and Gadates rufhed in upon him, they found him ftanding up with his {word drawn *, but unable to defend himfelf againft fuch a poffé as came in upon him,; uy!.
¥. 44. Bebold, he foall come up like a lon; from the fwelling of Fordan, 8cc.|. What is faid of Nebuchadnexzar. coming up againft Edom, is here faid of Cyrus coming up again{t Babylon, for of a king it is to be underftood,;.as the Targum,.“¢ behold, ** aking with his army fhall come up againft them, ** as a lion from the height of Fordan;” fee ch: xlix. 19. unto the habitation, of the strong, to Babylon; where dwelt the king, his nobles,,and. his mighty men: dut I will make them fuddenly. run away from her, as they did from,her king Be/- one of which they caft, and the other they held fAazzar, when Gobrias.and Gadates entered: the royal and ufed in their hands, as they found neceflary; and fo Cyrus *, in a fpeech,of his fays, that. they had breaft-plates to cover their bodies, and lances or javelins which they could ufe by throwing or holding, as they pleafed: they are cruel, and, will not foew mercy; not even to infants, but dafh them again{t the ftones, P/. cxxxvii. 8, 9. fee J. xiii, 17,
18, and the notes there; hence orribilis Medus, in Horace’: their voice foall roar like the fea, when there is a tempeft gn it. This does not defign the fhout of the foldiers, when beginning the onfet in battel, or making an attack upon a city befieged; but the noife of their march, their foot, and horfe, and chariots, and the clafhing of their army;_ all which, by reafon of their numbers, would be very clamorous and terrible: and they fhall ride upon horfes; the Perfians had a large cavalry, their country abounding in horfes: every one put in array like a man to the battel, againft thee, O daughter of Babylon, furnifhed with armour, and put in a proper difpofition, all in rank and file, well accoutred, and full of fpirit, prepared to engage in battel, with you, O ye inhabitants of Babylon.
y. 43. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, &c.| Belhazzar, as Kimchi, he had the report brought him of the invafion of his land by them; of their approach to Babylon, and defign upon it; and of their number, character and force: and his hands waxed feeble, as they did when he faw the hand-writing upon the wall, Daz. v. 6: anguifh took bold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail; a fudden pannic feized him, and he was quite difpirited at once, as a woman in child-
HIE former part of this chapter is a continuation of the prophecy of the preceding chapter, concerning the deftruction of Babylon, y. 1—s58. the latter part of it-contains a prophecy of ‘¥eremiah fent to the captives in Babylon, by the hand of Seraiah, with the copy of the above prophecy again{t Babylon, and an order to faften a itone to it, and caft it into the river Euphrates, as a fign, confirming the utter and irreparable ruin of Babylon, ¥. 59—64.
yt. a. Thus faith the Lord, behold, I will raife up againft Babylon, &c.] This is not a new pro- palace, and feized upon him.*; azd who is a chofen man, that I may appoint over her? or,.a young man”? fuch an one Cyrus was, who, by divine appointment, became mafter and governor of Babylon: and whe will appoint me the time? to enter the lifts with me, and litigate the point with me in a court of judicature, or contend with me in battel: and who is that fhepherd that will ftand before me? or king? not bel/hazzar, he could not ftand before the Lord: fo the Targum, ‘¢ there is no king that hath ftrength “¢ before me;” that is, to withftand him, or hinder what he has appointed and ordered to be done; fee the note on ch. xlix. 19.
¥.45. Therefore hear ye the counfel of the Lord that he hath.taken againft Babylon, &c.|..The fame is faid in ch. xlix. 20. only inftead of Edom, Babylon is here put, and in the next claufe: and his purpofes that he hath purpofed againft the land of the Chaldeans; inftead of the inhabitants of Zeman, the land of the Chaldeans: furely the leaft. of the flock foall draw them out; the weakeft and moft feeble in the army of Cyrus fhould be an over-match for any in Babylon, and fhould draw them -out, and devour them, as dogs and wolves the fheep out of the flock: furely he fhall make their habitation defolate with them; fee the note on ch. xlix. 20.
¥. 46. At the noife of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, &c.| It being fo fudden and unexpected, and fo very aftonifhing: and the cry is heard among the nations; that Babylon is fallen; which, as applied to myftical Babylon, will be matter of joy to fome, and of lamentation to others 5 fee Rev. xiv. 8. and xviii. 2, g—19.
phecy, but a continuation of the former, and an enlargement of it. The Babylonians being the laft and moft notorious enemies of the ews, their deftruction is the longer dwelt upon; and as they were againft the Lord’s people, the Lord was againft them, and threatens to raife up inftruments of his vengeance againft them: and againft them that dwell in the midjt of them that rife up againft me; that dwell in Babylon, the metropolis of the Chaldeans, the feat and center of the enemies of God and his people. It is a periphrafis of the Chaldeans; and fo the Targum renders it, ** againft
-* the inhabitants of the land of the Chaldeans;”
and fe the Septuagint verfion, againft the Chaldeans; and Farchi and Kimchi obferve, that according to Athbafh, a rule of interpretation with the Fews, the letters in Leb Kame, rendered the midft of them that rife up againft me, anfwer to Cafbdim, or the Chaldeans; however, they are no doubt defigned; for they rofe up againft God, by fetting up idols of their own; and againft his people, by taking and carrying them captive: and now the Lord fays he would raife up againft them, a deftroying wind; a northern one, the army of the Medes and Perfians, which fhould fweep away all before it. The Targum is, ‘ people that are flay- ** ers; whofe hearts are lifted up, and are beauti- *¢ ful in ftature, and their fpirit deftroying.”
y¥. 2. And I will fend unto Babylon fanners, that frall fan ber, and foall empty her land, &c.| Or, fivangers that fhall fan her*; meaning the Medes and Perfians, who fhould be like a ftrong wind upon the mountains, where corn having been threfhed, was fanned, and the chaff carried away by the wind; and fuch would the Chaldeans be in the hand of the Perfians, {cattered and difperfed among the nations as chaff with the wind, and their cities be emptied ef inhabitants, and of their wealth and riches. ‘The Zargum is, ‘* I will fend ** againft Babylon fpoilers, that fhall fpoil and exs¢ hauft the land:” for in the day of trouble, they foall be againft ber round about; in the time of the fiege they fhall furround her on all fides, fo that none might efcape; as Babylon had been a fanner of the Lord’s people, now fhe fhould be fanned herfelf, and {tripped of all fhe had; fee chap.
ae Againft him that bendeth, let the archer bend his bow, &c.} ‘Thefe are either the words of the Lord to the Medes and Perfians, to the ‘archers among them, to bend their: bows, and level their arrows againft the Chaldeans, who had bent their bows, and fhot their arrows againft others; or of the Medes and Perfians ftirring up one another to draw their bows, and fight manfully againft the enemy: aud againft him that lifteth up bimfelf in his brigandine; or coat of mail; that fwaggers about in it, proud of it, and putting his confidence in it, as if out of all danger. The fenfe is, that they fhould direct their arrows both againft thofe that were more lightly or more heavily armed; fince by them they might do execution among the one and the other: and fpare ye not her young men, becaufe of their youth, beauty and ftrength: de- Stroy ye utterly all her hoft, her whole army, whether officers or common foldiers; or let them be accoutred in what manner they will. The Zargum is, ** confume all her fubftance.”
—. 4. Thus the flain fhall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, &c.] By the fword, or by the arrows and darts of the Medes and Perfians: and they that thruft thro’ in her fireets; either by the one or by the other, efpecially the latter, fince they only are mentioned; fee the note on ch. I. 30.
¥. 5. For Irael hath not been forfaken, nor Fudah of bis God, of the Lord of hofts, &c.| That is, not totally and finally; for tho’ they might feem to be forfaken, when carried captive by their enemies, yet they were not in fuch fenfe, as a woman is deprived of her hufband when dead, and fhe is become a widow, as the word‘ ufed may fignity; or when divorced from him’ or as chil~ dren are deprived of their parents, and” become orphans; but fo it was not with J/rae/; for tho’ they were under the frowns of providence, and the refentment of God they had finned ‘againft, yet the relation between them ftill fubfifted 5 he was their covenant-God and Father, their hufband and protector, and who’would vindicate them, and’aven:
them on their enemies: tho’ their land was fi with fin againft the boly one of I/rael, which was 'the reafon why they were carried captive, and fofeemed to be forfaken of God; or tho’ their land was filled. with punifkment, with devaftation ‘and’ de- {truction, yet neverthelefs God would appear for them, and reftore that and them unto it; of father this is to be underftood of the land of the Chaldeans, as it is by Farchi and Kimebi, and be rendered, for their land is filled with panifhment for fin, from, or by, or because of the holy one of Tfrael*; by which it appears, that the people of God were not forfaken by him, and were not with- pout a patron and defender of them; finee it was a plain cafe that the land of the Chaldeans was filled with the punifhment of the fword and other calamities by the holy one of J/racl, becaufe of the fins they had committed againft him, and: the in- Juries they had done to his people. So the Jar gum, “* for their land is filled with (punifhment ** for) the fins of murder, by the word of the ** holy one of J/rael.”
¥.6. Flee out of the midft of Babylon, &c.\ This is faid either to fuch as were there of other nations upon trade and bufinefs, as Kimchi, to get out of it as faft as. they could, that they might not be confumed; or to the J/raelites, as farchi, the Jews that were captives there. This is applied to the people of God in myftical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 4: and deliver every man his foul; or life; from the deftruction coming on the city, and the inhabitants of it: be not cut off in her iniquity, ox, that be be not cut of‘; with her, in the punifhment infliéted upon her for her iniquities; which is the fame as partaking of her plagues, Rev. xviil. 4: fortis is the time of the Lora’s vengeance, the time fixed by him to take vengeance on Babylon for her fins againft him, and the wrongs done to his people: de will render unto ber a recompence;, the yuft demerit of their fins; a recompence or reward by way of punifhment for them; fee Rev. xviii. 6, x. 7. Babylon hath been a golden cup in thé hand of the Lord, &c.] Either fo called from the liquor in it, being of a yellow colour, or pure as gold, as the Yewi/b commentators generally; or from the matter of it, being made of gold, denoting the grandeur, fplendor and riches of the Babylonian ‘empire; which, for the fame reafon, is called the ‘head of gold, Daz. ii. 38. this was in the hand of the Lord, under his direction, and at his difpofe; an inftrument he made ufe of to difpenfe the cup — of his wrath and vengeance to other nations, or to inflict punifhment on them for their fins; fee ch. XXV. 15—26. or elfe the fenfe is, that by the p miffion of God, Babylon had by various i pretences drawn the nations of the earth in fi dolatry, and other fins, which were as poifon in a golden cup, by which ‘they had been deceived;— terra illorum repleta eft delito, five reatu, vel peena, Grotius; fo fome in Gataker. Ser wrypD a fancto Mraelis, Mons and this fuits beft with the ufe of the phrafe in Rev. xvii. 4: that made all the earth drunken; either difturbed them with wars, fo that they were like a drunken man that reels to. and fro, and falls, as ‘they cid, into ruin and deftruction; or made them drunk with the wine of her fornication, with ido- Jatry, fo that they were intoxicated with it, as the whore of Rome, myftical Babylon, is faid to do, Rev. xvii. 2: the nations have drunken of ber wine, therefore the nations are mad; they drunk of the wine of God’s wrath by her means, being engaged in wars, which proved their ruin, and deprived them of their riches, {tcength and fubftance, as mad men are of their reafon; or they. drank in her errors, and partook of her idolatry, and ran mad, upon her idols, as fhe did ch. 1. 38. fee Rev. XVili., 3.
¥.8. Babylon is fuddenly fallen and deftroyed, 8cc.
Or broken ®*; even into fhivers, as a cup is; for when it had been ufed to anfwer the purpofes. designed by the Lord, he let it fall out of his hands at once, and it was broken; or rather he dafhed it in pieces, as a potter’s veflel. The deftruction of Babylon was brought about in a very fhort time, confidering the ftrength of it; and was unexpected by the inhabitants of it, and by the nations round about;. but when it was come, it was irreparable; fo the deftruction.of myftical Babylon will be in one. hour, and it will ‘be an utter and entire deftruction, Rev. xviii. 8: bowl for ber; as the inhabitants of Babylon, and her friends and allies that Joved her did no doubt; and as the kings and merchants of the earth, and others, will howl for fpiritual Babylon, Rev. xviii. g—19: take balm for her pain, if fo be foe may be healed; or balfam; fee ch. xlvi. 11. which is faid by way of irrifion and mockery, as Kimchi and Adarbinel obferve; or in an ironical and farcaftic manner; fuggefting, that let what means foever be made ufe of, her wound was incurable, her ruin inevitable, and her cafe irrecoverable. __
¥.9. We would have healed Babylon, but fhe is not healed, &c.} Thefe are either the words of the friends of Babylon, of her auxiliaries and allies, who did all they could to defend her againft the Perfians, but to no purpofe; it was not in their power to help her; the time of her deftruction was come, and there was no avoiding it: or of the prophets and good people of the Fews that were in Babylon, that took pains to convince the inhabitants of Babylon of their idolatries and other fins, and reform them, that fo they might not be their ruin; but all inftruétions and admonitions were in vain; in like manner many worthy reformers have laboured much to reclaim myftical Babylon, or the church of Rome, from her errors and idolatries; but ftill the retains them; wherefore it follows: forfake her, and let us go every one into bis own sountry; fo faid the auxiliary troops that were in the fervice of the king of Babylon; fince we can do him no good, and are ourtfelves expofed to danger, let us defert him, and provide for our fafety by haftening to’ our own country as faft as we can: this was really the cafe after the firft battle of Cyrus with the Babylonians, im which their king Nerigliffar was flain: Cre/fus and the reft of the allies feeing their cafe fo diftreffed and helplefs, left them to fhift for themfelves, and fled by night ": or fo might the Yews fay when the city was taken, and they were delivered out of the hands of their oppreffors; and fo will the people of God fay, who {hall be:called out of myftical Babylon juit before its ruin, Rev. xviii. 4: for ber judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the Jeies; that is, her. fins were fo many, that they reached even to heaven; and were taken notice of by God that dwelleth there; and wére the caufe of judgment or punifhment being from thence inflicted on her, which was unavoidable, being the decree of heaven, and the juft demerit of her fin; and therefore no help could be afforded her; nor was there any fafety by being in her; fee Rev. XViii. 5.
y.10. The Lord hath brought forth our righteoufnefs, &c.] Or righteoufneffes', This, as Kimchi obferves, is fpoken in the perfon of the J/raelites not as tho’ the Fews had done no iniquity, for which they were carried captive; they had committed much, and were far from being righteous in themfelves, but were fo in comparifon of the Chaldeans; and who had gone beyond their commiffion, and had greatly oppreffed them, and ufed thenr cruelly; and now the Lord, by bringing deftruction upon them, vindicated the caufe of his people, and fhewed it to-be a righteous one; and that the religion they profeffed was true, and which the Chaldeans had derided and reproached: this righteoufnefs, not of their perfons, but of their caufe, and the truth of their holy religion, the Lord now brought forth to the light, and made it manifeft, by taking their parts, and deftroying their enemies: come, and let us declare in Zion, the work of the Lord our God; the ‘ews encourage one another to return into their own land, rebuild theit temple, and fet up the worfhip of God in it; and there declare the wondrous work of God, in the deftruction of Babylon, and their deliverance from thence; giving him. the. praife and glory of it and exciting others to join with them in it, it being the Lord’s work, and marvellous in their eyes; and fo when myftical Babylon is deftroyed, voices will be heard in heaven, in the church, afcribing falvation, honour and glory to God, Rev. xix. 1,2. All this is true inan evangelic fenfe, of fuch as are redeemed by Chrift, and brought out of my- {tical Babylon, and are effectually called by the grace of God; to thefe the Lord brings forth the righteoufnefs of Chrift, which he makes their own, by imputing it to them; and he brings it near to them, and puts it upon them; it is revealed unto them from faith to faith; it is applied to them by the Spirit of God, and put into their hands to plead-with God, as their juftifying righteoufnels 5 and which is brought forth by him on all occa fions, to free them from all charges exhibited againft them by law or juftice, by the world, fatan, or their own hearts, Rom. viii. 33. and it becomes: fuch perfons to declare in Zion, in the church of God, the works of the Lord; not their own, which won’t bear the light, nor bear {peaking of; but’ the works of God, of creation and providence s but more efpecially of grace, as the great work of redemption by Jefus Chrift,; and particularly. the Spirit’s work of grace upon their hearts, which is: not the work of men, but of God; being a new: creation-work; a regeneration; a refurreétion from the dead; and requiring almighty power, to which man is unfit and unequal: this lies in the quickening of men dead in trefpaffes and fins; in enlightening fuch as are darknefs itfelf; in an im-
644 iif BOR plantation of the principles of grace and holinefs in them; in giving them new hearts, and new fpirits; and in bringing them off of their own righteoufnefs, to depend on Chrift alone for falvation; and which work, as it is begun, will be carried on, and performed in them, until the day of Chrift; and wherever it is, fhould not be concealed, but fhould be declared in the gates of Zion, publickly, freely, and fully, and faithfully, to the glory of the grace of God, and for the comfort of his people, to whom every fuch declaration is matter of joy and pleafure; fee Pf Ixvi.16. Mark v.19.
¥. 11. Make bright the arrows, &c.] Which were covered with ruft; fcour them of it; anoint them with oil, as armour were wont to be; make| them neat, clean and bright, that they may pierce the deeper; hence we read of a polifhed shaft, or arrow, one made bright and pure, J/- xlix. 2. agreeable to this fome render the word, /harpen the arrows *; fo the Targum. ‘The word has the fignification of chufing; but, as Gufetius obferves ', whether the direction be to chufe the beft arrows, or to fcour clean and polifh them, the end is the fame; namely, to have fuch as are moft fit for ufe. ‘Fofepb Kimchi derives the word from another, which fignifies a feather; and fo renders it, feather the arrows ™; that they may fly the fwifter. ‘Thefe and what follow, are either the words of God, or of the prophet; or, as fome think, of the Fews about to return to fudea, whofe words are continued, exhorting the Medes and Perfians to go on with the war againft the Chaldeans; but they rather feem to be addrefied to the Chaldeans themfelves, putting them upon doing thefe things; and fuggefting, that when they had done all they could, it would be to no purpofe: gather the /hields, which lay fcattered about and neglected in time of peace: or, fill them; fill the hands with them; or bring in a full or fufficient number; fince there would be now occafion for them to defend them againft the enemy. The Zargum, and feveral verfions render it, fill the quivers"; that is, with arrows; and fo Farchi: or, fill the fhields °; that is, with oil; anoint them, as in J/) xxi. 5. The Lord hath raifed up the fpirit of the kings of the Medes; of Cyaxares, or Darius the Mede, and of Cyrus, who fucceeded his uncle as king of Media; and indeed the army that came againft Badylon was an army of Medes joined by the Perfians, Cyrus being employed as general of it by his uncle. The Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic verfions read it, the /pirit of the king of the Medes; with which the following claufe feems to agree: for his device is againft Babylon to deftroy it; the device of the king of the Medes, Darius; or rather the device of the Lord, who ftirred up the fpirit of the kings of the Medes, put it into their hearts to fulfil his will; and gave them wifdom and {fkill, courage and refolution, to do it; and as he will tothe kings of the earth againft myftical Babylon, Rev. xvii. 16,17: becaufe it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of bis temple; his vengeance on Babylon, for the deftruction of he temple, and the profanation of it; fee ch. 28.
¥. 12. Set up the ftandard upon the walls of Babylon, &c.] This is not faid to the Medes and Perfians, to put up a flag on the walls of Bady-
™ Ponite pennas in fagittis, fo fome in Vatablus:
lon, asa fign of victory, as Kimchi, Abarbinel, and others think; for as yet the city is not fuppofed to be taken by what follows; but rather to the Babylonians, to fet up an enfign on their walls, to gather the inhabitants together, to defend their city, and the bulwarks of it; which, with what follows, is ironically fpoken: make the watch firong, to guard the city; obferve the motions of the enemy, and give proper and timely notice; increaié and double it: jet up watchmen; meaning the keeper of the walls; place them upon them, to keep a good look out, that they might not be furprized: this feems to refpect the great carelefihef$ and fecurity the whole city was in the night it was taken; being wholly engaged in feafting and revelling, in rioting and drunkennefs, having no fear of danger, or concern for their fafety; with which they are tacitly upbraided: prepare the ambufbes; or, Hers in wait®; to fecond or relieve thofe on the walls upon occafion; or feize unawares the befiegers, fhould they attempt to fcale the walls, and enter — the city: for the Lord hath devifed and done that which he [poke againft the inhabitants of Babylon, or as he hath devifed, fo hath he done, or will D; his purpofes cannot be fruftrated, his counfel tha ftand; and therefore had the Babylonians been ever fo induftrious in their own defence, they could never have prevented their ruin and deftruétion, which was refolved upon, and accordingly effected.
¥. 13. O thou that dwelleft upon many waters, &c.] Here Babylon is addreffed, either by the Lord, or by the prophet, or the godly ews; who is defcribed by her fituation, which was by the great river Euphrates; which being branched out into feveral canals or rivers, both ran thro’ it, and encompaffed it; hence mention is made of the rivers of Babylon, Pf. cxxxvii. 1. and a fit emblem this city was of myftical Babylon, which is alfo faid to fit on many waters, interpreted of people and nations,’ Rev. xvii. 1, 15. and which Kemchi here interprets of an affluence of good things, tho” he admits of the literal fenfe of the words: abundant in treafures; of corn, and of the fruits of the earth, and fo in condition to hold out a fiege, as well as ftrongly fortified by art and nature, before defcribed; and of gold and filver, the finews of war, which fhe had got together, partly by commerce, and partly by the fpoil of other nations; and yet neither her fituation, nor her affluence, could fecure her from ruin: fine end is come, and the measure of thy covetoufne/s; this flourifhing city was now near its end, and with it the whole Babylonifh monarchy; the time fixed by the Lord, for the duration of one, and the other, was now come; and whereas her covetoufnefs was infatiable, and would have known no. bounds, for
&c.] Or, by bis foul or life, which is himfel than which he cannot fwear by a greater, Hed. vi
13. and the certain performance of what he fwears unto needed not be doubted of; and indeed, the defign of the oath is to affure of the truth of the thing, about which, after this, there ought to be no hefitation: /urely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillars; or locufis"; which march in vaft numbers, and make fad defolation where they come; and to which a numerous army may fitly be compared; and which are here meant, even the army of Cyrus, that fhould enter Babylon, and fill it, as it did.. So the Targum, ‘* the Lord of hofts hath *¢ fworn by his word, if I fill them with armies «¢ of many people as locufts:” and they fhall lift up a foout againft thee, as foldiers, when they make the onfet in battel; or as befiegers, when they make their attack on a city; or as when grapegatherers bring in their vintage, or tread out their wine, to which the allufion is: it fignifies, that her enemies. fhould get an entire victory, and triumph over her..
¥. 15.:He bath made the earth by his power, &c.| The Targum prefaces the words thus, ‘ thefe things, *¢ faith he, who hath made the earth, &c.” In this, and the four following verfes, which are the fame with ch. x. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16: fee the notes there; God is defcribed by his fovereignty, power, and wifdom; and-the ftupidity of men that truft in idols, and the vanity of them are expofed, to convince the Babylonians, that the Lord, who had determined on their deftruction, would furely effect it, and that it would not be in the power of their idols to prevent it.
¥. 20. Thou art my battel-ax, and weapons of war, &c.] This is faid by the Lord, either to Cyrus, as fome, to which our verfion inclines, whom God made ufe of as an inftrument to fubdue nations and kingdoms, and deftroy them; fee J/. xiv. 1. or rather Babylon, and the. king of it, who had been the hammer of the earth, ch. |. 23. as it may be rendered here, shou art my hammer *, or, hoft been; an inftrument in his hands, of beating the nations to pieces, as ftones by an hammer, and of deftroying them, as by weapons of war: this, and what follows, are obferved to fhow, that tho’ Bebylon had been ufed by the Lord for the ‘deftruction of others, it fhould not be fecure from #t itfelf, but fhould fhare the fame fate; unlefs this is to be underftood of the church of God, and kingdom of Chrift, which in the latter day will break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, Dan. ii. 44. which fenfe feems to have fome countenance and confirmation from ¥. 24. in your fight. The Targum is, “* thou art a fcatterer before me, “© a city in which are warlike arms;” which feems to refer to Babylon: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I defray kingdoms, or, with thee I have broke in pieces, and have deflroyed; the future inftead of the paft'; as the nations and kingdoms of Fudea, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon, and others: or, that I may break in pieces", &cc. and fo it exprefies the end for which he was an hammer, as well as the ufé he had been, or would be of.. ej y¥. 21. And with thee will I break in pieces the bare and his rider, &cc.] Or, have broken, meaning charict and his rider, which were alfo ufed in war..
¥. 22. And with thee alfo will I break in pieces man and woman, &c.] Or, have broken, having no refpect to any fex, and to the propagation of pofterity: and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; not {paring men of any age, however ufeful they might be, the one for their wifdom, the other for their ftrength: ad with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid, who by procreation of children might fill and ftrengthen commonwealths.
¥. 23. And Iwill alfo break in pieces with thee the foepherd and bis flock, 8c.] Or, have broken s which Abarbinel thinks refpects the Arabians particularly, who were fhepherds, and dwelt in tents; but it rather fignifies fhepherds and their flocks in general; who were killed or feattered wherever his armies came, which fpared none, even the moft innocent and ufeful, and though unarmed: and with thee will I break in pieces the hufbandman and his yoke of oxen; with which he plowed his ground; fignifying by this, as well as the former, that thofe were not fpared, by which kingdoms were fupported and maintained, as fhepherds and hufbandmen: and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers; by whom kingdoms and {tates are governed and protected.
¥. 24. And I will render unto Babylon, and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, &c.] Or, but I will render“, 8c. tho’ I have made this ufe of Badylon, the fhall not be fpared, but receive her juft recompence of reward; not the city of Babylon only, but the whole land of Chaldea, and all the inhabitants of it: all their evil that they have done in Zion, in your fight, faith the Lord; the fenfe is, that for all the evil the Chaldeans had done in Fudea; the ravages they had made there, the blood they had fhed, and the defolation they had made; and particularly for what they had done in Feru/alem, and efpecially in the temple, burning, fpoiling, and prophaning that, God would now righteoufly punifh ‘them, and retaliate all this evil on them; and which fhould be done publickly, before all the nations of the world, and particularly in the fight of God’s own people: for this phrafe, in your fight, does not refer go the evils done in Zion, but to the recompence that fhould be made. for them.
¥. 25. Behold, I am againft thee, O defroying mountain, faith the Lord, which deftroyeft all the earth, &c.| Babylon is called a mountain, though fituated in a plain, becaufe of its high walls, lofty towers, and hanging gardens, which made it look at a diftance like an high mountain, as Lebanon, and others: or becaufe it was a ftrong fortified city; fo the Targum renders it, O deftroying city: or becaufe of its power and grandeur as a monarchy, it being ufual to compare monarchies to mountains; fee J/. ii. 2. Zech. iv. 7. here called a deftroying one for a reafon given, becaufe it deftroyed all the earth, all the mations and kingdoms of it; the fame character is given of myftical Babylon and its inhabitants, Rev. xi. 18: and I will ftretch out mine hand upon thee, in a way of the cavalry of an army, wherein lies its chief ftiength: and with thee-will I break in pieces the co. ao ut, vel quafi brucho, V. L.
vindi¢tive wrath, pouring it out upon her, and inflicting his judgments on her; laying hold Cocceius, Montanus, Grotius, Schmidt.
and feizing her in a furious manner, as a man does his enemy, when he has found him: aad roll them down from the rocks; towers and fortreffes in Babylon, which looked like rocks, but fhould be now demolifhed: and will make thee a burnt mountain; reduced to cinders and afhes by the conflagration of it: or, @ burning mountain; like tna and Vefuvius; we never read of the burning of literal Babylon, but we do of myttical Babylon; fee Rev. xviii. 8. and with this compare Rev. viii. 8. The Targum renders it, a burnt city.
¥. 26. And they fhall not take of thee a ftone. for a corner, nor a ftone for foundations, &c.] Signifying that it fhould be fo utterly confumed by fire, that there fhould not be a ftone left fit to be put into any new building, efpecially to be a corner or'
The Zargum underftands it, figuratively, ‘ and they fhall not take of thee a’
y.27. Set ye up a flandard in the land, &c.] Not in Cha/dea, but rather in any land; or in all the countries which belonged to Media and Perfia; where Cyrus’s ftandard is ordered to be fet up, to gather foldiers together, and enlift in his fervice, in order to go with him in his expedition againft Babylon: blow the trumpet among the nations, tor the fame purpofe, to call them to arms, to join the forces of Cyrus, and go with him into the land of Chaldea: prepare the nations againft ber, animate them, ftir up their fpirits againft her, and furnifh them with armour to engage with her: or, fanc- /ify* them; fele€t a certain number out of them fit for fuch work: call together the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Afhchenaz; the two former are generally thought to intend Armenia the Greater, and the Leffer; and the latter, </cania, a country in Phrygia; and certain it is, that Cyrus firft conquered thefe countries, and had many Armenians, Phrygians, and Cappadocians in his army he brought againft Babylon, as Xenophon” relates. ‘The Zargum is, ‘© declare againft her to the kingdoms of “the land of Kardu, the army of Armenia and “© Hadeb,” or Adiabene: appoint a captain againft ber; over all thefe forces thus collected: Cyrus feems to be intended; unlefs the fingular is put for the plural, and fo intends a fuficient number of general officers of the army: cau/e the borfes to come up as the rough caterpillars; or locufts *,; which though generally fmooth, yet fome are hairy and rough; to which the horfes in Cyrus’s army are compared, for their multitude, the fhape of their heads, long mains, and manner of going, leaping and pranfing. So the Targum, ‘ they fhall caufe “* the horfes to come up, leaping like the fhining) ** locuft;” that is of ‘a yellow colour, and fhines like gold. So the word the Targum here ufes, is ufed by Fonathan in Lev, xiii. 32. of hair yellow as gold, and here to be underftood of hairy locutfts; and as Ai/ianus * {ays, there were locufts of a golden colour in Arabia. And fuch may be meant here by the Chaldee paraphrafe, which well exprefles their motion by leaping; fee Yoel ij. 5. and which agrees with that of horfes..The word rendered rough, has the fignification of horror in it, fuch as makes the hair to ftand upright; fee Job iv. 45. and fo fome ® render it here. And Bochart+, from Alcamus, an Arabic writer, obferves, that there is a fort of locufts which have two hairs upon their head, which are called their horn, which ¥ erected may anfwer to this fenfe of the word; and he brings in the poet Claudian*, as defcribing the locuft by the top of its head, as very horrible and terrible; and that fome locufts have hair upon their heads, feems manifeft from Rev. ix. 8.. tho” it may be, the reafon why they are here _reprefented as fo dreadful and frightful, may, not be fo much on account of their form, as for the terror they ftrike men with, when they come in great numbers, and make fuch terrible havock of the fruits of the earth as they do; wherefore the above learned writer propofes to render the words, as the horrible locufts¢. 5
¥. 28. Prepare againft her the uations, with the kings of the Medes, &c.| At the head of them, Darius and Cyrus. The Syriac verfion has it in the fingular number, the king of the Medes:. the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion; that is, the inhabitants of it, the common people, with their princes, nobles, governors, as captains of them, under Cyrus their generaliffimo. -
¥. 29. And the land Jhail tremble, and forrew, &c.] The land of Cha/dea, the inhabitants.of it, fhould tremble, when they heard of this powerful army, invading their land, and befieging their metropolis; and fhould forrow, and be in pain as a woman in travail, as the word § fignifies: for every purpose of the Lord fhall be performed againft Babylon; or, fhall frand*, be certainly fulfilled; for his purpofes are firm and unfruftrable: zo make the land of Babylon a defolation without an inhabitant; this the Lord purpofed, and threatened to do; fee ch. 1. 39, 40. J xiii. 19, 20. -
¥. 30. Ihe mighty men of Babylon have forborn. to Jight, &c.| Or, ceafed from fighting”; for it feems, upon Cyrus’s firft coming, the king of Babylon and his army gave him battel; but being overthrown, they retired to the city’, and durft never fight more: ¢hey have remained in their holds; inthe towers and fortreffes. of Babylon, never daring to fally out of the city, or appear in the field of battel any more; even though Cyrus fent the king of Babylon a perfonal challenge, to end the quarrel by a fingle combat *: their might bath failed; their courage funk and was gone; they had no heart to face their enemy: ‘¢hey became as women; as weak as they, as the Zargum; timorous. and fearful, having no courage left in them, and behaved more like women than men: they have burnt her dwelling places; that is, the enemy burnt, their houfes, when they entred into the city, to inject terror into them: er bars are broken; the bars, of the of the city, or of the palaces of the king and bles, and of the houfes of the people, by the fol diers, to get the plunder; fee J/ xlv. 1 Seah he!
Yi gt. One poff hall run to meet another, and one meffenger to meet another, &c.| «That is, one pott fhould be after another, and one mieflenger after another, poft upon poft, and meffenger upon meffenger, as faft as they could run; when one had been with his meflage, and delivered it, and returned, he meets another; or they met ‘one another, coming from different places: to /hew the king of Babylon bis city 1s taken at one end, or, at the end"; we render it, one end, as Kimchi does; at the end where Cyrus’s army firft landed, when they came up the channel of the river Eupbrates they had drained. And fo Herodotus ™ fays, that when the Babylonians, which inhabited the extreme parts of the city, were taken, they that were in the middle of it, were not fenfible of it, becaufe of the greatnefs of the city; and the rather, becaufe they were engaged that night in feafting and dancing. Nay, /rifotle” fays, it was reported that one part of the city was taken, three days before the “other end knew it, it being more like a country than a city; which does not feem credible, nor is it confiftent with the {cripture-account of it; however, it was taken by furprize, and fome parts of it before the king was aware of it; who very probably had his palace in the middle of it, whither thefe meflengers ran one after another, or from different parts, to acquaint him with it.
¥. 32. And that the pafjages are fropped, &c.] Or taken, or feized°; where Cyrus placed foldiers to keep them; thefe were the paffages leading from the river Euphrates to the city, the keys of it; the little gates, that Herodotus » {peaks ot, leading to the river, which were left open that night. Kimchi thinks, the towers built by the river-fide, to keep the enemy out, that fhould attempt to enter, are meant; thefe were now in his hands. And the reeds they bave burnt with fire, which grew upon the banks ‘of the river, and in the marfhes adjoining to it. Some render it, the manhes*, that is, the reeds and bulrufhes in them, which ufually grow in fuch places. And Heredotus* makes mention of a marfh Cyrus came to; the reeds in it he burnt, having many torches, with which he grow to fuch a bulk, that they will fwallow whole might fet fire to them; as he propofed with deer, and even bulls; but Pofidonius * relates, that “them to burn the houfes, doors, and porches *3 | in Calefyria was one, whofe gaping jaws would ad_ either to make way for his army, which might mit of a horle and his rider: ‘and Oneficritys > hinder the march of it; or to give light, that they fpeaks of ‘two dragons in the country of “iaras might fee their way into the city the better: tho’
in India’; the one was fourfcore, and the other an fome think it was to terrify the inhabitants; which feems not fo likely, fince he marched up to the royal palace with great fecrecy. This circumftance is mentioned, to‘fhow the certainty of the enemy’s entrance, and the taking of part of the city. R. Fonab, from the Arabic language, in which the word ‘here ufed fignifies fortrefes, fo renders it hete. And the men of war are affrighted, and fo fied, and left the pafies, towers, and fortreflés, which féll into the hands of Cyrus, as foon as they perceived his army was come up the channel, and was landed, and the reeds were burnt. Babylon;
¥. 33. For thus faith the Lord of hofts, the God of Ifrael, 8c:| The Lord of bofts, the Lord God hundred and forty cubits lons. He hath filled bis de/ly with my delicates,; with the treafures of the king: and his nobles; with the veffels of the temple, and the riches of the people, which he loaded himfelf with to his full fatisfaction. So the Tergum, “ he filled his treafury with the good of my “ land.” He hath caft me out, out of my land, and carried me captive; fo'the Targum.
y.35. The violence done to me, and to my flefh, be upon Babylon, &c.] That is, let the injuries done to Zion and her children, be avenged on the hurt done to their perfons and families, and the fpoiling of their goods, and deftruction of their cities, houfes, and fubftance; foail omnipotent, and can do all things; the God of the inhabitant of Zion fay; by way of imprecation: Ujrael, and therefore will plead their caufe, and and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, fhall take vengeance on Babylon: the daughter of Bab;- lon is like a threfhing-floor; on which the nations of the earth had been threfhed, or punithed and deftroyed; and now fhe was like a threfhing-floor, unto which fhould be gathered, and on which fhould be laid, her king, princes, and the; people of the land, and be there beat and. crufhed to pieces. The Yargum renders it, the congregation of Babylon; and the Septuagint, the houfes of. the king of Babylon; fo the Arabie -verfion:, it is time to threfh ber; not the floor, but the fheaves on it: or, it is the time to tread ber“; as corn was trodden out by the oxen; or rather, as threfhing-floors, being new laid with earth, were trodden, and fo made hard and even, and by that means prepared for threfhing againft the harveft; when the corn would be ripe, cut down, and gathered in, and laid up, as follows: yet a little while, and the tinie of her barveft foall come, when fhe would’ be ripé for ruin, and God would, by his inftruments, put in the fickle of his wrath, and cut her down, her king, her princes, her cities, and her people; fee Rev. xiv. 15, 16. The argu is, ** and yet.a ‘very little while, and fpoilers fhall come. to aCe res
¥. 34. Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, &e.] Or us"; every one of us: thefe aré the words of Zion and Ferufalem, as appears from the next verfe, complaining of the injuries done them by the king of Badyloz, who had eaten them up; fpoiled their fubftancé, as the Tareum; took: their cities; plundered them of their riches, and carried them away captive: be bath crufbed me; to the earth; or druifed or broken, even all her bones; fee ch. 1,17: he hath made me an empty vefel; emptied the land of its inhabitants and riches, and left nothing valuable in it: he bath fwallowed me up like a dragon, or whale, or, any large fifh, ‘which fwallow the leffer ones whole. The allufion is to the large {wallow of dragons, which is fometimes reprefented as almoft beyond all belief; for not only Ply * from Megajthenes reports, that in Indic, ferpents, that is; dragons,
Ferufalem fay; let the guilt of it be charged upon them, and punifhment for it be inflicted on them. The Targum is, “ the fin of the innocent blood “¢ which is fhed in me;” let that be imputed to them, and vengeance come upon them for it.
y¥. 36. Therefore thus faith the Lord, &c.| In anfwer to the prayers of the inhabitants of Zion and Ferufelem, imprecating divine vengeance on Babylon: bebold, I will plead thy caufe, and take vengeance for thee; not by words only, but by deeds, inflicting punifhment on their enemies: and I will dry up her fea; the confluence of waters about Babylon; the river Euphrates, the channel of which was drained by Cyrus, by which means he took the city; and this may figuratively defign the abundance of riches and affluence of good things in Babylon, which fhould now be taken from her: and make ber fprings dry, deprive her of all the neceffaries of life; and ftop up all the avenues by which fhe was fupplied with them, and cut off all communication of good things to her.
¥. 37. And Babylon foall become beaps, &c.] The houfes fhould be demolifhed, and the ftones lie in heaps one upon another, and become mere rubbith: @ dwelling place for dragons; and other wild and favage creatures. Dragons, as Alianus * obferves, love to live in defert places, and fuch now Babylon is; it lies in ruins; and even its palace is fo full of fcorpions and ferpents, as Besjamin of Tudela * fays it was in his time, that men. durft not enter into it; fee ch.1. 39. J/ xiii. 21,22: an affonifoment, and an bhiffing without an inhabitant, an aftonifhment to neighbouring nations, and to all
‘ that pafs by; who fhall hifs at the deftruction of it, and rejoice, there being not fo much as a fingle inhabitant in it; which is its cafe to this day; fee ch. L..13, 39.
y. 38. They fhall roar together like lions, &c.] Some underftand this of the Medes and Perfans, and the fhouts they made at the attacking and taking of Babylon; but this does not fo well agree with that, which feems to have been done in a fecret and filent manner; rather according to the context the Chaldeans are meant, who are reprefented as roaring, not thro’ fear of the enemy, and diftrefs by him; for fuch a roaring would not be fitly compared to the roaring of a lion; but either this is expreffive of their roaring and,revelling at their feaft afterwards-mentioned, and at which time their city was taken; or elfe of the high fpirits and rage they were in, and the fiercenefs and readinefs they fhewed to give battel to Cyrus, when he firft came with his army againft them; and they did unite together, and met him, and roared like lions at him, and fought with him; but being overcome, their courage cooled; they retired to their city, and durft not appear more; fee the note on y. 30: they fhall yell as lions whelps. Farchi and other Rabbins interpret the word, of the braying of an afs; it fignifies, to fhake; and the Vulgate Latin verfion renders it, they fhall foake their hair; as Yons do their mains; and young lions their fhagey hair; and as bluftering bravadoes fhake theirs; and fo might the Badylonians behave in fuch a fwaggering way when the Medes and Perfians firft attacked
¥. 39. In their heat I will make their feafts, 8cc.
I will order it, that their feafts fhall be in the time of heat, that fo they may be made drunk; fo Jarchi: or when they are hot with feafting, I'll difturb their feaft by an hand-writing on the wall; fo Kimchi; fee Dan. v. 1—6. to which he direéts: or when they are inflamed with wine, I’ll put fomething into their banquets, into their cups; Pll mingle their potions with the wine of my wrath; and whilft they are feafting, ruin fhall come upon them; and fo it was, according to Herodotus and Xenophon, that the city of Babylon was taken, while the inhabitants were feafting; and this account agrees with Dan. v. 1, 30. ‘This text is quoted in the Talmud *, where the Gio/s on it fays, * this is ** faid concerning Belfhazzar and his company, when they returned from a battel with Darius and Cyrus who befieged Babylon, and Belfhazzar overcame that day; and they were weary and hot, and fat down to drink, and were drunken, ‘* and on that day he was flain;” and the Targum is, ‘* J will bring tribulation upon them:” ead I
| will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, ina
riotous and revelling way; or that they may be mad and tremble, as R. Fonab, from the ufe of the word “in the draéic language, interprets its fo drunken men are oftentimes like mad men, deprived of their fenfes, and their limbs tremble thro” the ftrength of liquor; and here it fignifies, that the Chaldeans fhould be fo intoxicated with the cup of divine wrath and vengeance, that they fhould be at their wits end; in the utmoft horror and trembling; not able to ftand, or defend themfelves; and fo the Zargum, ‘* they fhall be like drunken ‘** men, that they may not be ftrong;” but as weak as they: and fleep a perpetual fleep, and not wake, faith the Lord; not only fall afleep as drunken men do, and awake again; but fleep, and never awake more; or die, and not live again, until the refurrection-morn; no. doubt many of the Cha/- deans being in a literal fenfe drunk and afleep when the city was taken, were flain in their fleep, and never waked more. The Targum is, ** and die ‘¢ the fecond death, and not live in the world to ** come;” fee Rev. xxi. 8.
¥.40. I will bring them down like lambs to the flaughter, &c.] To the place of flaughter; who fhall be able to make no more ‘refiftance than lambs, This explains what is meant by being made drunk and fleeping a perpetual fleep, even deftruction and death: like rams with he-goats, de~ noting the promifcuous deftruction of the prince. and common people together. never
¥. 41. How is Shefhach taken? &c.] Not the city Shufhan, as Sir Fobn Marfbam thinks *; but Babylon, as is plain from a following claufe; and fo the Targum, “ how is Babylon fubdued 2” called Shefhach, by a pofition and commutation of letters, the ews call Athbafh; fo Farchi, Kimchi-and
Abarbinel account for it; or elfe from ‘their-idol —
Shach, the fame with Bel, which -was' worthi here, and had a temple ereéted for it; and w an annual feaft was kept in honour of it, called the Sacchean feaft; and which was t very time the city was taken; and may be the tru reaion of its having this name given’ it now; the note on ch. xxv. 26. the taking of which very wonderful; and therefore this queft L by way of admiration; it being fo well. rtified. hn o- en aut % and, © T. Bab, Megilla, fol 1§:2, (==
P”) a gee tel land ee = iP Me AOE eee... aoe oe > | and provided to hold out a long fiege: and bow is the praife of the whole earth jurprifed? for it was taken by ftratagem and furprife, before the king and his guards, the army, and the inhabitants of it; were aware; that city which was matter and occafion of praifé to all the world, and went thro’ it; tor the compafs of it, and height and ftrength of its walls, the river Euphrates that ran thro’ it, and flowed about it; the temple, palaces and gardens in it: how is Babylon become an aftonifhment among the nations? or, a defolation? and indeed its being a defolation was the reafon of its being an aftonifhment among the nations; who were amazed to fee fo ftrong, rich and fplendid a city brought to ruin in a very fhort time. ¥. 42. The fea is come up upon Babylon, &c.] A vait army, comparable to the great fea for the multitude thereof, even the army of the Medes and Perfians under Cyrus; fo the Targum, “ a king «¢ with his armies, which are numerous like the « waters of the fea, is come up againft Babylon:” foe is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof; being furrounded, befieged, furprifed and feized upon by the multitude of foldiers in that army, which poured in upon it unawares. Some think here is a beautiful antithefis, between the inundation of Cyrus’s army, and the draining of the river Euphrates, by which means he poured in his forces into Babylon.
¥.43. Her cities are a defolation, a dry laud, and yr a wildernefs, 8c.) Which fome underftand of Babylon itfelf, divided into two parts by the river Euphrates running in the midft of it, called by Berojus*, the inward and outward cities; tho’ rather thefe defign the reft of the cities in Chaldea, of which Babylon was the metropolis, the mother-city, and the other her daughters, which fhould fhare the fame fate with herfelf; be demolifhed, and the ground on which they ftood become a dry, barren, uncultivated and defert land: @ land whereiv no man dwelleth, neither doth any fon of man pafs theredy; having neither inhabitant nor traveller; fee ch, |. 12, 39.
y.44. And I will punifh Bel in Babylon, &c.] The idol of the Babylonians, who had a temple in Babylon, where he was worfhipped: the fame is called Belus by Zlianus *, Curtius”, and Paufanias i; perhaps the fame, Herodian © calls Belis, and fays fome take him to be Apollo; fee more of him in the notes on Jf xIvi. 1. and Jer. 1: 2. who was punifhed when his temple was demolifhed, and plundered of its wealth; this golden image of Bedus was broke to pieces, and the gold of it carried away. The Zargum is, * 1 will vifit or pu- « nifh them that worfhip Be/ in Babylou:” and I ell bring forth out of bis mouth that which be bath fwallowed up; the rich offerings made to him when victories were obtained; all fuccefs being afcribed to him; and the fpoils of conquered enemies, which were brought and laid up in his temple, particularly the vefléls of the fanctuary at Jerufalem, which were depofited there; fee 2 Chron: xxxvi. Ee 18. Dan. i. 2. and which were reftored by Cyrus, Ezra i. 7,8. which reftoration of them greatly fulfilled this prophecy; and was a refunding of what was lodged with him, or a vomiting what he had fwal- Yowed up; compare with this the ftory of Bel and
“she Dragon: and the nations foall not flow together any
) 649 their prefents to him, to ingratiate themflves with the king of Babylon: yea, the wall of Babylon foal fall; which Bel was not able to defend; and therefore fhould be deferted by his worfhippers.: The Targum renders it in the plural, the walls of Babylon, of which fee the note on ¥. 58. Some think that. not the wall of the city is here meant, but the temple of Be/, which was as a wall or fortrefs to the city; but now fhould fall, and be fo no more; fince it is not eafy to give a reafon why mention here fhould be made of the fall of the walls of the city; and feeing exprefs mention is made of this afterwards. ¥. 45. My people, go ye out of the midft of ber, &c.] This is a call of the Fews to go out of Babylon, not before the taking of the city by Grus; but when he fhould iffue out a proclamation, giving them liberty to return to their own land; which, many of them, being well fettled in Badylon, would not be ready to accept of, but chufe to continue there; wherefore they are urged to depart from thence, becaufe of the danger they would be expofed unto; for tho’ the city was not, deftroyed by Cyrus upon his taking it, yet it was by Darius Hyftafpes fome time after. ‘The fame call is given to the people of God to come out of myftical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 4.: and deliver ye every man his foul from the fierce anger of the Lord; fhewn in the deftruction of Babylon; fee the note on
¥. 46. And left your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that fhall be beard in the land, &c.} The rumour of war in the land of Chaldea; the report of the Medes and Perfians preparing to invade it, and befiege Babylon; in the peace of which city the ‘ews had peace; and therefore might fear they fhould fuffer in the calamities of it; but left they fhould, they are ordered to go out of it, and accept the liberty that fhould be granted by the conqueror, who would do them no hurt, but good 5 and had therefore nothing to fear from him; and as a token, affuring them of this, the followin things are declared; which, when they fhould obferve, they need not be troubled, being forewarned; yea, might take encouragement from it, and believe that their redemption drew nigh: @ rumour foall both come one year, and after that in another year fhall come a rumour; in one year there was 2 rumour of the great preparation Cyrus was making to invade Chaldea, and befiege Babylon, in another year, that is, the following, as the Zargum rightly renders it, there was a fecond rumour of his coming; and who actually did come into Affyria, but was {topped at the river Gyndes, not being able to pafs it for want of boats; and being enraged at the lofs of a favourite horfe in it, refolved upon the draining it; which he accomplifhed, by cutting many fluices and rivulets; in doing which he fpent the whole fummer; and the {pring following came ta Babylon, as Herodotus’ relates; when what is after prediéted followed: and violence in the land, ruler againft ruler; the king of Babylon came out with his forces to meet Cyrus, as the fame hiftorian fays; when a battel enfued, in which the former was beat, and obliged to retire into the city, which then Cyrus befieged; and thus violence and devaftations were made in the land by the army of the Medes and Perfians; and ruler was again{t
“yore unto him; either to worfhip him, or bring ruler; Cyrus againft Belhazzar, and Belfhazzar a- gainft him. Some read it, ruler upon ruler ™; that is, one after another, in a very fhort time; fo Yarchi, Kimchi and Abarbinel, thus two before Belfoazzar, then Darius, and after Darius, Cyrus.
¥.47. Therefore bebold, the days come that I will do judgment on the graven images of Babylon, &c.] Becaufe of the connexion of thefe words, fome underftand the former verfe of the report of the deliverance of the Yews time after time; and yet nothing came of it, which difheartened them; and they were ufed more cruelly, and with greater violence by the Chaldeans and their kings, one after another; and ‘therefore the following things are faid,; but the particle may be rendered, moreover *, as fome obferve; or /urely, certainly, of a truth, as in ch. v. 2. the time is haftening on, the above things being done, when judgment fhall be executed, not only upon Be/ the chief idol, ¥. 44. but upon all the idols of the Chaldeans; which fhould be broke to pieces, and ftripped of every thing about them that was valuable; the Medes and Perfians having no regard to images in their worfhip; tho’ Dr. Prideaux ° thinks, that what is here faid, and in ¥. 44. were fulfilled by Xerxes, when he deftroyed and pillaged the Babylonian temples: and her whole land foall be confounded; the inhabitants of it, when they fee their images deftroyed, in which they trufted for their fafety: and all ber flain foall fall in the midft of bers in the midi of Babylon; where the king and his army were fhut up, and durft not move out; and where they were flain when the army of Cyrus entered.
y¥. 48. Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, fhall fing for Babylon, &c. At the
deftruction of her, rejoicing at it; not at the ruin of fellow-creatures, fimply confidered; but relatively, at the righteoufnefs of God in it, and the glory of his juitice, and the deliverance of many by it from tyranny and bondage. ‘This feems to be a figurative expreffion often ufed, in which the heavens and the earth are brought in as witnefles, approvers and applauders of what is done by the Lord. Some indeed interpret it, of the angels the inhabitants of the heavens, and of the Fews dwellers on earth; and others of the church of God, in heaven and in earth; which, of the two, feems beft; the like will be done at the fall of myftical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 20: for the fpoilers foall come unto her from the north, faith the Lord; the Medes and Perfians that fhould, and did fpoil and plunder Babylon; and who came from countries that lay north to it.
¥. 49. As Babylon hath caufed the flain of I/rael to fall, 8c.) In Ferujalem, when that city was taken by the Chaldeans, and deftroyed: fo at Babylon foall fall the flain of all the earth; or land; that is, the land of Cha/dea; the inhabitants of which fled to Babylon upon the invafion of the Medes and Perfians, both for their own fafety, and the defence of that city; and where being flain, they fell; and this was a juft retaliation of them for what they had done to Jrael. Thefe words may be confidered, as they are by fome, as the fong of the inhabitants of heaven and earth obferving and applauding the juftice and equity of divine providence in this affair; fee Rev. xiii. 73 LO;
¥. 50. Ye that have efcaped the fword, go away, ftand not fill, &c.] The-Zews, who had efcaped the fword of the Chaldeans when Ferufalem was taken, and were carried captive into Badylon, where they had remained to this time; and had alfo efcaped the fword of the Medes and Perjians, when Babylon was taken; thefe are bid to go away from Babylon, and go into their Jand, and not ftay in Babylon, or linger there, as Lot in Sodom, or itop on the road, but make the beft of their way to the land of Yudea: remember the Lord afar off; the worfhip of the Lord, as the Zargam interprets it; the worfhip of the Lord in the fanétuary at Ferufalem, from which they were afar off at Babylon, and had been a long time, even feventy years deprived of it, as Kimchi explains it: and let Ferufalem come into your mind, that once famous city, the metropolis of the nation, that now lay in ruins; the temple that once ftood in it, and the fervice of God there; that upon the remembrance of, and calling thefe to mind, they might be quickened and ftirred up to haften thither, and rebuild the city and temple, and reftore the worfhip of God. It is not eafy to fay whofe words thete are, whether the words of the prophet; or of the Lord by him; or of the inhabitants of the heavens and earth, whofe fong may be here continued, and
“in it thus addrefs the Fews.
¥. 51. We are confounded, becaufe we have beard reproach, &c.] Thefe are the words of the Jews, either objecting to their return to their land; or lamenting the defolation of it; and complaining of the reproach it lay under, being deftitute of inhabitants; the land in general lying wafte and uncultivated; the city of Ferufalem and temple in ruins; and the worfhip of God ceafed; and the enemy infulting and reproaching; fuggefting, that their God could not protect and fave them; and under thefe difcouragements they could not bear the thoughts of returning to it: fhame bath covered our faces; they knew not which way to look when they heard the report of the ftate of their country, and the reproach of the enemy, and thro” fhame covered their faces: for flrangers are come into the fanétuaries of the Lord’s houfe;, the oracle, or the holy of holies; the temple, or the holy place, and the porch or court; fo Kimchi and Abarbinel; into which the Chaldeans, ftrangers to God and the commonwealth of J/rae/, had entered, to the prophanation of them, and had deftroyed y¥. 52. Wherefore behold, the days come, faith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon ber graven images, &c.] Deftroy their gods, who have reproached the God of J/rae/, and profaned his fanctuaries; and for that reafon; fee the note on ¥. 47. it is an anfwer to the objection and complaint of the Jews, and is defigned for their comfort and encouragement: and thro’ all her land the wounded foall groan; becaufe of their wounds and pain; and which their idols could not cure, eafe, or prevent.
x. 53. Tho’ Babylon fhould mount up to heaven, &c.] Could the walls of it, which were very high, two hundred cubits high, as Herodotus fays, be carried up as high as heaven; or the towers of it, which were exceeding high, ten foot higher than — the walls, as Curtius * fays, likewife be raifed to height of ber firength; make her walls and towe as ftrong as they were high; unlefs this is the fame height: and tho’ foe fhould fortify the underftood particularly of the temple
Ch. li. ¥.54—58. FLERE which was a folid tower, in length and thicknefs a furlong; and upon this tower another; ahd fo on to the number of eight towers; and inthe laft of them a large temple, as the above hiftorian ° relates: but if thefe towers could have been piled up in a greater number, even {fo as to reach to heaven, it would have availed nothing againft the God of heaven, to fecure from his vengeance. The Targum is, ** if Babylon fhould be built with buildings ** as high as heaven, and fhould fortify the ftrong ** holds on high:” yet from me Jhall {poilers come, faith the Lord, the Medes and Perfians, fent and commiflioned by him, who would pull down and deftroy her walls and towers, be they ever fo high and ftrong. ¥. 54. A found of a cry cometh from Babylon, &c.] Of the inhabitants of it, upon its being taken; which is faid to denote the certainty of it, which was as fure as if the cry of the diftreffed was then heard: and great deftruction from the land of the Chaldeans, that is, the report of a great deftruc- ‘tion there, was, or would be carried from thence, and {pread all over the world. ¥. 55. Becaufe the Lord hath fpoiled Babylon, &c.] By means of the Medes and Perfians; thefe were his inftruments he made ufe of; to thefe he gave commiffion, power and ftréngth to fpoil Babylon, and therefore it is afcribed to him: and deftroyed out of her the great,voice; the noife of people, which is very great in populous cities, where people are paffing to and fro in great numbers upon bufinefs; which ceafes when any calamity comes, as peftilence, famine or fword, which {weep away the inhabitants; this laft was the cafe of Babylon. The Targum is, “ and-hath deftroyed out of her many “ armies:” or it may defign the great voice of the roaring revelling company in it at their feafttime; which was the time of the deftruétion of the city, as often obferved: or the voice.of triumphs for victories obtained, which fhould be no more in it: or the voice of joy and gladnefs in common, as will be alfo the cafe of myftical Babylon, Rev. xviii. 22. this great voice, may not unfitly be applied to the voice of antichrift, that mouth fpeaking blafphemies, which ere long fhall be deftroyed out of Babylon, Rev. xiii. 5,6: when her waves do roar like great waters, a noife of their voice is uttered; that is, when her enemies come up againft her like the waves of the fea; a loud fhout will be made by them, which will be very terrible, and filence the noife of mirth and jollity among the Babylonians, fee ¥. 42. tho’ fome underftand this of the change that fhould be made among the Chaldeans; that inftead of the voice of joy and triumph, there would be the voice of howling and lamentation; and even among their high and mighty ones, who would be troubled and diftreffed, as great waters are, when moved by tempefts. The Targum is, ‘* and the armies of many people fhall ‘© be gathered again{t them,.and fhall lift up their ** yoice with a tumult.” ¥. 56. Becaufe the fpoiler is come upon ber, even upon Babylon, &c.| That is, Cyrus, with his army: and ber mighty men are taken; unawares, by furprife: every one of their bows is broken, they had no ftrength to withftand the enemy, and were obliged to yield at once; lay down their arms, and
MIAH. 6st fubmit: for the Lord Ged of recompences foall furely requite; that God to whom vengeance belongs, and will recompence it; who is a God of juttice and equity, the judge of all the earth; he will render tribulation to them that trouble his; and requite his enemies, and the enemies of his people, in a righteous manner, for all the evil they have done, as literal; fo myftical Babylon; fee Rev. Xvili. 6, 7, 8: ‘
¥. 57. And I will make drunk her princes, &c.] With the wine of divine wrath; that is, flay them; tho’ there may be an allufion to their being drunk with wine at the feaft Be/hazzar made for his thoufand lords; who are the princes here intended, to- ' gether with the king and his royal family, Daz. v. ° 1, 4,30: and her wife men, her captains, and her rulers, and ber mighty men, the counfellors of ftate, priefts, magicians and aftrologers; officers in the army, fuperior and inferior ones; and the foldiers and warriors, whom Cyrus and his men flew, when they enteréd the city; compare with this Rev, xix. 18: they fhall fleep a perpetual fleep, and not awake; be all afleep in their drunken fits, and be flain therein; and fo never wake, or live more. The Zargum is, ** and they fhall die the fecond death, and ** not come into the world to come;” fee the note on ¥. 39: faith the king, whofe name is the Lord of hofts; the King of kings, and Lord of lords; the Lord of armies in heaven and earth; and can do, and does what he pleafes in both worlds.
¥. 58. Thus faith the Lord of hofis, &c.| Becaufe what follows might feem incredible ever to be effected; it is introduced with this preface, exprefled by him who is the God of truth, and the Lord God omnipotent: the broad walls of Babylon fhall be utterly broken, or rafed up; the foundations of them, and the ground on which they ftood, made naked and bare, and open to public view; every one of the walls, the inward and the outward, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it. Curtius fays °, the wall of Babylon was thirty-two feet broad, and that carriages might pafs by each other without any danger. Herodotus‘ fays, it was fifty royal cubits broad, which were three fingers larger than the common meafure; and both Strado * and Diodorus Siculus “ affirm, that two chariots drawn with four horfes a-breaft might meet each other, and pals eafily; and according to Ctefias *, the breadth of the wall was large enough for fix chariots: or the words may be read, the walls of broad Babylon’; for Babylon was very large in circumference 5 more like a country than a city, as Ariflotle * fays. Hiftorians differ much about the compafs of its wall; but all agree it was yery large; the beft account, which is that of Curtius *, makes it to be three hundred and fifty-eight furlongs; with Czefias, it was three hundred and fixty; and with Clitarchus, three hundred and fixty-five, as they are both quoted by Diodorus Siculus®; according to Strabo *, it was three hundred and eighty-five; and according to Dion Caffius *, four hundred; by Philoftratus * it is faid to be four hundred and eighty; as alfo by Herodotus, and by Julian the emperor, almoft five hundred. Pliny * reckons it fixty miles: and her high gates foall be burnt with fire; there were an hundred of them all of brafs, with their pofts and hinges, as Herodotus * affirms 7 and the people fall labour in vain, and the folk im the fire, and they foall be weary, which fome underftand of the builders of the walls, gates, and city of Babylon, whofe labour in the iffue was in vain, fince the end of them was to be broken and burned; but rather it defigns the Chaldeans, who laboured in the fire to extinguifh and fave the city and its gates, but to no purpoie.
v.59. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiab, &c.] ‘This word is no other than the above prophecy concerning the deftruction of Babylon, contained in this and the preceding chap~ ter; or rather the order the prophet gave this prince to take a copy of it with him to Badylon, and there read it, and then caft it into the river Euphrates,
. with a ftone bound to it. Of this Seraiah we read no where elfe: he is further defcribed as the fon of Neriah, the fon of Maafeiah, when be went with Zedekiah the king of Fndah into Babylon, in the fourth year of bis reign, the Fews fay’, that Zedekiah in the fourth year of his reign went to Babylon, to reconcile himfelf to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and took Seraiah with him, and returned and came to his kingdom in Jeru/alem, but we have no account in feripture of any fuch journey he took. The Septuagint and Arabic verfions render it, when be went from Zedekiab, as this particle 1s fometimes “ elfewhere rendered, Gen. iv. 1. 2 Kings xxiii. 35. and fo the Targum explains “it, “ when “¢ he went on an embafly of Zedekiah;” and Abarbinel, by the command of the king; it feems he was embaflador from the king of Fudch to the king of Babylon upon fome bufinefs or another, and eremiah took this opportunity of fending a copy of the above prophecy by him, for the ends beforementioned: this was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign, feven years before the deftruction of Ferufalem, and fixty years before the taking of Ba- éylon’; fo long before was it prophefied of. The Syriac verfion wrongly reads it, in the eleventh year, the year of erufalem’s deftruction; fuppofing that Seraiak’s going with Zedekiah to Babylon was his going with him into captivity: and this Seraiah was a quiet prince, one of a peaceable difpoktion, that did not love war, or perfecution of good men; and fo a fit perfon for Zedekiab to fend upon an embafly of peace; and for eremiah to employ in fuch fervice as he did; for had he been a hot and haughty prince, he would have defpifed his orders and commands. Some render it, prince of Meauchab', taking it to be the proper name of aplace, of which he was governor; thought to be the fame with ManahatB, 1 Chron. viii. 6. The Targum and Septuagint verfion call him, the prince. of gifts; one by whom fuch were introduced into the king’s prefence that brought treafure, gifts or prefents to him, as archi inteprets it; according to Kimchi, he was the king’s familiar favourite, with whom he ufed to converfe and delight himfelf, when he was at reft and at leifure from bufinefs. Some take him to be the lord of the bed-chamber, or lordchamberlain; and others lord chief-juftice of peace. The firft fenfe feems moft agreeable.
¥. 60. So Feremiah wrote ina book all the evil that fhould come upon Babylon, &c.| Theevil of punifhment predicted and threatened: this he delivered, not by word of mouth to Seraiab, to relate when he came to Babylon; but he wrote it in a book for him to read; and he wrote it himfelf; deftruction of Babylon, as is faid concerning.