In this chapter, and that which follows, we have the judgment of Babylon, which is put last of Jeremiah’s prophecies against the Gentiles because it was last accomplished; and when the cup of God’s fury went round the king of Sheshach, Babylon, drank last.

I. Here is a word spoken against Babylon by him whose works all agree with his word and none of whose words fall to the ground. The king of Babylon had been very kind of Jeremiah, and yet he must foretel the ruin of that kingdom; for God’s prophets must not be governed by favour or affection.

God is here by his prophet, as afterwards in his providence, proceeding in his controversy with Babylon. Observe, I. The commission and charge given to the instruments that were to be employed in destroying Babylon.

Here, 1. The forces are mustered and commissioned to destroy Babylon, and every thing is got ready for a descent upon that potent kingdom: Go up against that land by Merathaim, the country of the Mardi, that lay part in Assyria and part in Armenia; and go among the inhabitants of Pekod, another…

We have in these verses, I. Israel’s sufferings, and their deliverance out of those sufferings. God takes notice of the bondage of his people in Babylon, as he did of their bondage in Egypt; he has surely seen it, and has heard their cry. Israel and Judah were oppressed together, Jer. 50:33.