--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 912 of 914 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/912/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 912. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/912/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2. ## 912. Jeremiah · 53 of 55 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/912/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/912/#p-N ### Verse 34 [¶1] Nebuchadrezzar - hath devoured me - These are the words of Judea; he has taken away all my riches. [¶2] He hath cast me out - He shall vomit all up; i.e., they shall be regained. ### Verse 35 [¶4] The violence done to me - be upon Babylon, - and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea - Zion begins to speak, [Jer 51:34], and ends with this verse. The answer of Jehovah begins with the next verse. Though the Chaldeans have been the instrument of God to punish the Jews, yet in return they, being themselves exceedingly wicked, shall suffer for all the carnage they have made, and for all the blood they have shed. ### Verse 36 [¶6] I will dry up her sea - Exhaust all her treasures. ### Verse 37 [¶8] Without an inhabitant - See [Jer 50:39]. ### Verse 39 [¶10] In their heat I will make their feasts - It was on the night of a feast day, while their hearts were heated with wine and revelry, that Babylon was taken; see [Dan 5:1-3]. This feast was held in honor of the goddess Sheshach, (or perhaps of Bel), who is mentioned, [Jer 51:41], as being taken with her worshippers. As it was in the night the city was taken, many had retired to rest, and never awoke; slain in their beds, they slept a perpetual sleep. ### Verse 41 [¶12] How is Sheshach taken! - Perhaps the city is here called by the name of its idol. [¶13] The praise of the whole earth - One of the seven wonders of the world; superexcellent for the height, breadth, and compass of its walls, its hanging gardens, the temple of Belus, etc., etc. ### Verse 42 [¶15] The sea is come up - A multitude of foes have inundated the city. ### Verse 44 [¶17] I will punish Bel in Babylon - Bel or Belus was their supreme deity. [¶18] That which he hath swallowed up - The sacred vessels of the temple of Jerusalem, which were taken thence by Nebuchadnezzar, and dedicated to him in his temple at Babylon. [¶19] The wall of Babylon shall fall - It shall cease to be a defense; and shall moulder away until, in process of time, it shall not be discernible. ### Verse 45 [¶21] My people, go ye out - A warning to all the Jews in Babylon to leave the city, and escape for their lives. ### Verse 46 [¶23] A rumor shall - come one year - A year before the capture of the city there shall be a rumor of war, - and in that year Belshazzar was defeated by Cyrus. In the following year the city was taken. ### Verse 48 [¶25] The heaven and the earth - shall sing for Babylon - Its fall shall be a subject of universal rejoicing. ### Verse 50 [¶27] Ye that have escaped the sword - The Jews. [¶28] Let Jerusalem come into your mind - Pray for its restoration; and embrace the first opportunity offered of returning thither. ### Verse 51 [¶30] Strangers are come into the sanctuaries - The lamentation of the pious Jews for the profanation of the temple by the Chaldeans. ### Verse 53 [¶32] Though Babylon should mount up to heaven - Though it were fortified even to the skies, it shall fall by the enemies that I will send against it. ### Verse 55 [¶34] The great voice - Its pride and insufferable boasting. ### Verse 56 [¶36] The Lord God of recompenses - The fall of Babylon is an act of Divine justice; whatever it suffers, it is in consequence of its crimes. ### Verse 57 [¶38] I will make drunk her princes - See on [Jer 51:39] (note). ### Verse 58 [¶40] The broad walls of Babylon - Herodotus, who saw these walls, says, "The city was a regular square, each side of which was one hand red and twenty stadia, the circumference four hundred and eighty stadia. It was surrounded by a wall fifty cubits broad, and two hundred cubits high; and each side had twenty-five brazen gates." - Herod. lib. 1 c. 178. Had not Cyrus resorted to stratagem, humanly speaking, he could not have taken this city. For the destruction of this wall and its very vestiges, see on [Isa 13:19] (note). ### Verse 59 [¶42] The word which Jeremiah - On account of the message sent by Jeremiah to the Jewish captives in Babylon. ### Verse 60 [¶44] Wrote in a book - Whether this book contained any more than is recorded in this place we do not know; probably it contained no more than what is found in [Jer 51:62-64]. A book, ספר sepher, signifies, in Hebrew, any writing, great or small.