36. plead ... cause--([Jr 50:34]).
sea--the Euphrates ([Jr 51:13]; [Jr 50:38]). Compare [Is 19:5], "sea," that is, the Nile ([Is 21:1]).
37. ([Jr 50:26], ; [Re 18:2]).
38-39. The capture of Babylon was effected on the night of a festival in honor of its idols.
roar ... yell--The Babylonians were shouting in drunken revelry (compare [Da 5:4]).
41. Sheshach--Babylon (compare Note, see [Jr 25:26]); called so from the goddess Shach, to whom a five days' festival was kept, during which, as in the Roman Saturnalia, the most unbridled licentiousness was permitted; slaves ruled their masters, and in every house one called Zogan, arrayed in a royal garment, was chosen to rule all the rest. He calls Babylon "Sheshach," to imply that it was during this feast the city was taken [Scaliger].
42. The sea--the host of Median invaders. The image (compare [Jr 47:2]; [Is 8:7], ) is appropriately taken from the Euphrates, which, overflowing in spring, is like a "sea" near Babylon ([Jr 51:13], [32, 36]).
43. Her cities--the cities, her dependencies. So, "Jerusalem and the cities thereof" ([Jr 34:1]). Or, the "cities" are the inner and outer cities, the two parts into which Babylon was divided by the Euphrates [Grotius].
44. Bel ... swallowed--in allusion to the many sacrifices to the idol which its priests pretended it swallowed at night; or rather, the precious gifts taken from other nations and offered to it (which it is said to have "swallowed"; compare "devoured," "swallowed," [Jr 51:34]; [Jr 50:17]), which it should have to disgorge (compare [Jr 51:13]; [Jr 50:37]). Of these gifts were the vessels of Jehovah's temple in Jerusalem ([2Ch 36:7]; [Da 1:2]). The restoration of these, as foretold here, is recorded in [Ezr 1:7-11].
flow--as a river; fitly depicting the influx of pilgrims of all "nations" to the idol.
45-46. (See on [Jr 51:6]).
47. Grotius translates, "Because then (namely, on the third year) the time shall have come that," &c.
confounded--at seeing their gods powerless to help them.
her slain--in retribution for "Israel's slain" ([Jr 51:49]) who fell by her hand. Grotius translates, "her dancers," as in [Jud 21:21], ; [1Sa 18:6], the same Hebrew word is translated, alluding to the dancing revelry of the festival during which Cyrus took Babylon.
48. heaven ... earth ... sing for Babylon--(Is 14:7-13; 44:23; [Re 18:20]).
49. caused ... to fall--literally, "has been for the falling," that is, as Babylon made this its one aim to fill all places with the slain of Israel, so at Babylon shall all the slain of that whole land (not as English Version, "of all the earth") [Maurer]. Henderson translates, "Babylon also shall fall, ye slain of Israel. Those also of Babylon shall fall, O ye slain of all the earth." But, "in the midst of her," [Jr 51:47], plainly answers to "at Babylon," [Jr 51:49], English Version.
50. escaped ... sword--namely, of the Medes. So great will be the slaughter that even some of God's people shall be involved in it, as they had deserved.
afar off--though ye are banished far off from where ye used formerly to worship God.
let Jerusalem come into your mind--While in exile remember your temple and city, so as to prefer them to all the rest of the world wherever ye may be ([Is 62:6]).
51. The prophet anticipates the Jews' reply; I know you will say in despair, "We are confounded," &c. "Wherefore (God saith to you) behold, I will," &c. ([Jr 51:52]) [Calvin]. I prefer taking [Jr 51:51] as the prayer which the Jews are directed to offer in exile ([Jr 51:50]), "let Jerusalem come into your mind" (and say in prayer to God), "We are confounded." This view is confirmed by [Psa 44:15], ; ; [102:17-20]; [Is 62:6], .
for strangers--The "reproach," which especially has stung us, came when they taunted us with the fact that they had burned the temple, our peculiar glory, as though our religion was a thing of naught.
52. Wherefore--because of these sighs of the Jews directed to God ([Jr 51:21]).
I ... judgment upon ... images--in opposition to the Babylonian taunt that Jehovah's religion was a thing of naught, since they had burned His temple ([Jr 51:51]): I will show that, though I have thus visited the Jews neglect of Me, yet those gods of Babylon cannot save themselves, much less their votaries, who shall "through all her land" lie and "groan" with wounds.
53. We are not to measure God's power by what seems to our perceptions natural or probable. Compare Ob 4 as to Edom ([Am 9:2]).
55. great voice--Where once was the great din of a mighty city, there shall be the silence of death [Vatablus]. Or, the "great voice" of the revellers ([Jr 51:38], ; [Is 22:2]). Or, the voice of mighty boasting [Calvin], (compare [Jr 51:53]).
her waves--"when" her calamities shall cause her to give forth a widely different "voice," even such a one as the waves give that lash the shores ([Jr 51:42]) [Grotius]. Or, "when" is connected thus: "the great voice" in her, when her "waves," &c. (compare [Jr 51:13]). Calvin translates, "their waves," that is, the Medes bursting on her as impetuous waves; so [Jr 51:42]. But the parallel, "a great voice," belongs to her, therefore the wave-like "roar" of "their voice" ought also belong to her (compare [Jr 51:54]). The "great voice" of commercial din, boasting, and feasting, is "destroyed"; but in its stead there is the wave-like roar of her voice in her "destruction" ([Jr 51:54]).
56. taken--when they were least expecting it, and in such a way that resistance was impossible.
57. ([Jr 51:39]; [Da 5:1], &c.).
58. broad walls--eighty-seven feet broad [Rosenmuller]; fifty cubits [Grotius]. A chariot of four horses abreast could meet another on it without collision. The walls were two hundred cubits high, and four hundred and eighty-five stadia, or sixty miles in extent.
gates--one hundred in number, of brass; twenty-five on each of the four sides, the city being square; between the gates were two hundred and fifty towers. Berosus says triple walls encompassed the outer, and the same number the inner city. Cyrus caused the outer walls to be demolished. Taking the extent of the walls to be three hundred and sixty-five stadia, as Diodorus states, it is said two hundred thousand men completed a stadium each day, so that the whole was completed in one year.
labour ... in the fire--The event will show that the builders of the walls have "labored" only for the "fire" in which they shall be consumed, "In the fire" answers to the parallel, "burned with fire." Translate, "shall have labored in vain," &c. Compare [Job 3:14], "built desolate places for themselves," that is, grand places, soon about to be desolate ruins. Jeremiah has in view here [Ha 2:13].
59-64. A special copy of the prophecy prepared by Jeremiah was delivered to Seraiah, to console the Jews in their Babylonian exile. Though he was to throw it into the Euphrates, a symbol of Babylon's fate, no doubt he retained the substance in memory, so as to be able orally to communicate it to his countrymen.
went with Zedekiah--rather, "in behalf of Zedekiah"; sent by Zedekiah to appease Nebuchadnezzar's anger at his revolt [Calvin].
fourth year--so that Jeremiah's prediction of Babylon's downfall was thus solemnly written and sealed by a symbolical action, six whole years before the capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
quiet prince--Compare [1Ch 22:9], "a man of rest." Seraiah was not one of the courtiers hostile to God's prophets, but "quiet" and docile; ready to execute Jeremiah's commission, notwithstanding the risk attending it. Glassius translates, "prince of Menuchah" (compare [1Ch 2:52], Margin). Maurer translates, "commander of the caravan," on whom it devolved to appoint the resting-place for the night. English Version suits the context best.
Chapter 52
Jr 52:1-34. Written by Some Other than Jeremiah (Probably Ezra) AS AN Historical Supplement to the Previous Prophecies
(See on [Jr 51:64]). Jeremiah, having already (thirty-ninth and fortieth chapters) given the history in the proper place, was not likely to repeat it here. Its canonical authority as inspired is shown by its being in the Septuagint version. It contains the capture and burning of Jerusalem, &c., Zedekiah's punishment, and the better treatment of Jehoiachin under Evil-merodach, down to his death. These last events were probably subsequent to Jeremiah's time.
3. through ... anger of ... Lord ... Zedekiah rebelled--His "anger" against Jerusalem, determining Him to "cast out" His people "from His presence" heretofore manifested there, led Him to permit Zedekiah to rebel ([2Ki 23:26], ; compare [Ex 9:12]; ; [Ro 9:18]). That rebellion, being in violation of his oath "by God," was sure to bring down God's vengeance ([2Ch 36:13]; [Eze 17:15], [16, 18]).
4. forts--rather, towers of wood [Kimchi], for watching the movements of the besieged from the height and annoying them with missiles.
7. (See on [Jr 39:4]).
9. gave judgment upon him--as guilty of rebellion and perjury ([Jr 52:3]; compare [Eze 23:24]).
11. [Eze 12:13]: "I will bring him to Babylon ... yet shall he not see it."
prison--literally, "the house of visitations," or "punishments," that is, where there was penal work enforced on the prisoners, such as grinding. Hence the Septuagint renders it "the house of the mill." So Samson, after his eyes were put out, "ground" in the Philistine prison-house ([Jud 16:21]).
12. tenth day--But in [2Ki 25:8], it is said "the seventh day." Nebuzara-dan started from Riblah on the "seventh" day and arrived in Jerusalem on the "tenth" day. Seeming discrepancies, when cleared up, confirm the genuineness of Scripture; for they show there was no collusion between the writers; as in all God's works there is latent harmony under outward varieties.