Jer. 50 The judgment of Babel, and the land of Chaldea, for their idolatry, tyranny, and pride; with gracious promises of the redemption of Israel intermixed, Jer. 50:4–5, Jer. 50:19–20, Jer. 50:34.

The prophet having from the 46th chapter been denouncing the judgments of God against the other Gentiles, the Egyptians, Moabites, Philistines, Ammonites, Edomites, Syrians, Kedarens, Hazorites, Elamites or Persians, (the most of which had been enemies to the Jews,) in these two chapters he…

The prophet calls to men to publish it amongst other nations, and to set up a standard, to make some signal to gather all people together to hear what he had to say from God against Babylon, which had been an instrument of great mischief unto most people that lived about them, to whom it would…

From Media, which lay northward to Babylon and Assyria, through which Cyrus’s way to Babylon lay. This prophecy seemeth not to relate only to Cyrus’s first taking of Babylon, who dealt very gently with it, but to a second taking of it by Darius the king of the Medes, who upon their defection from…

In the days wherein God shall begin to execute judgment upon Babylon, (which was in the time of Cyrus emperor of the Medes,) the children of Judah shall come out of captivity; and some of the children of Israel, (viz.

That is, those of Judah and Israel that fear the Lord shall seriously and steadily seek the true God, and the true way of his worship; and, being sensible that they had broken the covenant which their fathers had formerly made with God, with a desire to renew their covenant, and that not for a…

My people hath been lost sheep: all men are compared to sheep that go astray, Isa. 53:6; here it is applied to the Jews, who are called the Lord’s people, by reason of the ancient covenant God made with their fathers; they are said to be lost, either with respect to their captivity, being cast out…

All that found them have devoured them: as they are in the condition of lost sheep, so they have been under the fate of lost sheep, which every dog, fox, wolf devours.

These words immediately following the other, confirm Mr. Calvin’s notion. God by his prophet commanding his people to remove out of Babylon, and to go forth cheerfully, and skipping like the he-goats of the flock leading the way, and setting an example unto others. We find much such a call Isa.

He means the Medes and Persians, as it is expounded afterward. Their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain; I will so direct their arrows, that every arrow they shoot shall pierce one or other.

Satisfied with spoil and plunder, for Babylon and Chaldea was at that time one of the richest places in those parts of the world. She was abundant in treasure, Jer. 51:13.

They rejoiced at the ruin of the Jews; the same thing is laid to the charge of the Edomites, Obad. 12. The Chaldeans were God’s rod to scourge the Jews; but when men are made use of by God, as his rod and scourge, they ought not to put off humanity, but to behave themselves decently, and as persons…

Your chief City Babylon, or your country, which is the common mother of all the Chaldeans, shall be destroyed, or shall be ashamed of you, who are not able to defend her.

It shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate; the same thing was threatened against Babylon, Isa. 13:20, It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

The prophet calls to the Medes and Persians, with those who should come with them to their assistance, to put themselves in military order ready to come up against Babylon.

Shout against her round about; either as soldiers use to shout when they fall upon their enemy, or as they use to shout and triumph when they are entered city, or whet their enemies flee.

We are told that Babylon was so large a city, that with the walls of it there was much ploughed ground: or else the threatening imports that God would deal more severely with Babylon, than conquerors use to do with places which they conquer, who use to spare and leave behind then ploughmen, and…

By Israel is here meant the whole twelve tribes (though sometimes it signifieth the ten tribes in opposition to Judah); they were all wandering sheep, they became penally scattered sheep. Enemies as fierce and cruel as lions had seized them, and carried them into captivity.

God may justly punish those who do the things which he hath commanded them to do, if they do it not in that manner which. he directeth, or if what they do be not done in obedience to his command, but in satisfaction to their own lusts, which was the case of the Assyrians, Isa. 10:7.

This must be understood of Judah, which was part of that people who were called Israel, for to this day we have neither read nor heard of the ten tribes being brought back again to their habitation.

Some here restrain the term iniquity to the idolatry of the Jews, which indeed was their great sin, which God did more especially punish them for; and after the captivity of Babylon we do not read of their offending in that kind, which was according to the prophecy of Isa.

There is some disputes amongst interpreters, whether the words here, Merathaim and Pekod, be to be taken as common nouns, the one signifying rebels or rulers, the other visitation, because the Chaldeans were rebels against the Lord, and were great rulers over all the contiguous nations; or whether…

The latter part of the verse expounds the former; God had made the Babylonians his hammer, to break other nations in pieces, now it was itself broken: the particle how may be understood either as expressing triumph and rejoicing, or admiration, or as inquiring how such a thing could be in the last…

We are told that Cyrus with his great army diverted the river Euphrates, so as his army passed over and surprised the city so suddenly, that those in the midst of it did not know it when part of the city was already taken.

Babylon was so rich and potent a nation, and had been so great a conqueror, that people looking only with the eye of sense, and judging according to probabilities in the eyes of men, might well ask how these things could possibly be.

The prophet in the name of God calleth to the enemies of Babylon, the Medes, to come up from the furthest parts of their dominions, or from all parts, to fight against Babylon; to open the granaries, or store-houses, or treasuries of the Babylonians, and to cast up the cities as heaps of rubbish,…

By bullocks in this place interpreters generally understand the great and rich men of Babylon.

The prophet here brings in the poor Jews that had been captives in Babylon going back upon Cyrus’s proclamation of liberty towards Zion, there joyfully to declare the revenge which their God had taken for them, and for his holy temple, which the Chaldeans had burnt and destroyed.

The word translated archers signifieth also many, and is by divers so translated, but the following words more justify our translation. The cause of God’s calling for Babylon’s enemies against her is assigned to be her pride against the Lord.

See Jer. 49:26 where we met with the same words.

Babylon is particularly branded for pride, which is the swelling of a man’s heart in a self-opinion, caused from something wherein he excelleth, or thinks that he excelleth, another, We have a large account of the pride of Babylon Isa. 14:12–14, and particularly of one of their kings, Dan. 5:20–21.

Babylon, before called the most proud, here pride in the abstract, (which speaketh this people excessively faulty in this thing,) shall fall, and so full as never more to be recovered and raised up.

Were oppressed together; not together in respect of times, for’ there was one hundred and fifty years difference betwixt the time of Israel’s and Judah’s captivity; nor by the same enemy, Israel was carried away captive by the Assyrians, Judah by the Chaldeans.

Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name; the Lord, whose name is the Lord of hosts, is he that is their avenger (for so the word signifies); and he is as strong as any of those that hold them fast, and will not let them go.

That is, there shall come a sword, the sword of the Medes, upon Babylon, and all the land of the Chaldeans, and all orders of persons in it.

A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: the word here translated liars is by some translated bars, by some liars; and in the Hebrew it hath both significations; which makes some think it is to be understood of the chief men, who are the props, stays, and bars of a place, whose wisdom God…

A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots; though they be full of chariots and horses, the enemy shall destroy them. By the mingled people some understand those whom the Babylonians had hired to their assistance from other nations; others, such strangers as lived amongst them; others, a…

A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: some think that this phrase hath a special reference to Cyrus’s stratagem used in the surprise of Babylon; one part of it was fortified by the great river Euphrates, running on one side, which Cyrus diverted by cutting several channels, till…

The substance of both these verses is, that Babylon should be totally ruined, as Sodom and Gomorrah, so as there should be no habitations for men, but wild beasts only of all sorts should inhabit and lodge in it.

The Medes and Persians with their armies, who shall also have many other kings who, from the several parts of the earth, shall join with them and help them.

The bow and the lance were the two usual weapons of soldiers in those countries, Jer. 6:23. The Persians were a cruel, bloody people. These phrases signify no more than that the enemies should come upon Babylon in a terrible manner, and prepared to destroy them.

The Medes shall not be more prepared to destroy the Babylonians, than they shall be unprepared to make any resistance; as God will animate their enemies, so he will dispirit them, so as they shall faint upon the report of their coming, and be like a woman upon whom strong pangs of travail are.

See Poole “Jer. 49:19”, where we have applied unto Edom all that is here spoken against Babylon.

We have much the same spoken with reference to Edom, Jer. 49:20. The words are only expressive of the greatness of the destruction of Babylon, which should be such as should make all that part of the world shake, and the noise of it would ring throughout all the nations in that part of the earth.