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51. Message About Babylon1 This is what the LORD says:
“See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
6 “Flee from Babylon!
9 “‘We would have healed Babylon,
10 “‘The LORD has vindicated us;
11 “Sharpen the arrows,
15 “He made the earth by his power;
17 “Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
20 “You are my war club,
24 “Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia Or Chaldea; also in verse 35 for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.
25 “I am against you, you destroying mountain,
27 “Lift up a banner in the land!
33 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
“Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
36 Therefore this is what the LORD says:
“See, I will defend your cause
41 “How Sheshak
Sheshak is a cryptogram for Babylon. will be captured,
45 “Come out of her, my people!
49 “Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
51 “We are disgraced,
52 “But days are coming,” declares the LORD,
54 “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
58 This is what the LORD Almighty says:
“Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled
59 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. 60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. 61 He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62 Then say, ‘LORD, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’ 63 When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. 64 Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’” The words of Jeremiah end here. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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The word שכנתי, shekenti, is to be taken here for שכנת, shekenet, a dweller; and the passage is more clear when we take it as the title of Babylon. And he says that she was a dweller among waters, because the Euphrates not only flowed by the city, (and we know that it was a very large river,) but it surrounded it; and it, was indeed divided above Babylon into many streams, so that it made as it were many islands, and thus access to the city was more difficult. This circumstance served not only for a defense to it, but also for other advantages.: For these streams or channels were navigable; and the land also was made more fertile by the irrigation they supplied. Thus these streams contributed to its wealth as well as to its defense in time of war. And though Babylon was deemed on this account impregnable, and was also a very fertile land, yet the Prophet says here that its end was come Now, except he had made this preface, that Babylon was situated among the rivers or many waters, and that it was also a city full of wealth, all this might have seemed a hindrance to prevent God from executing on it his vengeance; for this objection was ready at hand, “How can Babylon be taken, which is seated between many waters? for without great force and number of soldiers it cannot but remain in safety, since it is protected by so many rivers.” Then another objection might have been brought forward, that Babylon was an opulent city, so that it could hire auxiliaries on every side, and that having such abundance of money, it would never be unprotected. Hence the Prophet here mentions these two things; but what he says ought to be taken adversatively, as if he said, “Though thou dwellest among many waters, and art great in treasures, that is, hast large treasures, yet thine end is come.” He adds, the measure of thy cupidity. Some render אמת, amet, “end,” but improperly; and the Prophet has not without reason introduced the word אמת, amet, which properly means a cubit, but is to be taken here for measure. Jerome renders it “a foot,” a word in use in his age. But the meaning is sufficiently clear, that though Babylon had exhausted all the wealth of the world as an insatiable gulf, yet the measure of her cupidity would come. For the cupidity of that nation was unlimited, but God at length brought it to an end — not that they were amended, but that God checked their coveting. And according to this sense the Prophet says, that though they had been hitherto devouring the wealth of many countries, yet the measure of her cupidity was come, even because the Lord would take away, together with the monarchy, the power and opportunity of doing wrong. For the Chaldeans were able to act licentiously, when they had so many nations subject to them; but the measure of their cupidity was come, when God in a manner cut off their strength, not that they then desisted, or that their rapacious disposition was amended — for they changed not their nature; but cupidity is to be referred here to its exercise, even because their power was then taken from them, so that they could not carry on their plunders as they had used to do. He afterwards adds, — |
