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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 Prophet shows here the cause why God had resolved to treat the Babylonians with so much severity, even because he would be the avenger of his own people. He also obviates a doubt which might have disturbed weak minds, for he seemed to have forsaken his people when he suffered them to be driven into exile. As this was a kind of repudiation, as we have seen elsewhere, the Prophet says now, that Israel had not been wholly widowed, nor Judah, by his God; as though he had said, that the Jews and the Israelites were indeed, for a time, like widows, but this was not to be perpetual. For, as we have said, the divorce was temporary, when God so forsook his Temple and the city, that the miserable people was exposed to plunder. As long, then, as the will of their enemies prevailed, God seemed to have forsaken his people. It is of this widowhood that the Prophet now speaks; but he yet testifies that Israel would not be wholly widowed by Jehovah his God. He indeed alludes to that spiritual marriage, of which frequent mention is made; for God had, from the beginning, united the Church to himself, as it were, by a marriage-bond; and the people, as it is well known, had been so received into covenant, that there was contracted, as it were, a spiritual marriage. Then the Prophet now says, that they were not widowed; in which he refers to the hope of deliverance; for it could not have been denied but that God had repudiated his people. But he shows that their chastisement would not be perpetual, because God would at length reconcile to himself the people from whom he had been alienated, and would restore them to the ancient condition and honor of a wife. He speaks of both kingdoms. Then he adds, by Jehovah of hosts By this title he sets forth the power of God, as though he had said, that as God is faithful in his promises, and constantly keeps his covenant, so he is not destitute of power, so as not to be able to save his people and to rescue them, when it pleases him, from death
itself. He confirms this truth, when he says, for the land of the Chaldeans is filled with sin on account of the Holy One of Israel, as though he had said, that the land was abominable, because it carried on war against God.: For when he speaks of the Holy One of Israel, he shows that God had such a care for his people that he was prepared, when the suitable time came, to show himself as their avenger. We now perceive what the Prophet means when he says, that Chaldea was filled with sin, even because it provoked God when it
thought that the wrong was done only to men.
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The explanation of the last clasue is, according to the Jewish commentators, not generally taken. The “land,” by most is deemed to be the land of Israel and Judah. The word אשם, means not only guilt, but also guilt’s penalty — judgement; and this seems to be its meaning here, —
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