Ben - hadad - Was the common name of the kings of Syria.
Kedar - Was one of the sons of Ishmael, whose posterity inhabited part of Arabia Petraea. Hazor was the head city to several kingdoms in Joshua's time.
They - The Chaldeans.
Flee - These seem to be the prophet's words.
Arise - The result of Nebuchadrezzar's counsels, giving charge to his armies to march against the Kedarens, who lived at ease and took no care, nor had any neighbours that could assist them.
Against Elam - Probably the Persians.
My throne - God calls the throne of Cyrus or Alexander his throne; because he gave it the conqueror.
But - We had the like promise as to Moab, chap.48:47, and as to Ammon, ver.49:6, the same latter days either signify after many days, or in the time of the Messiah. In the former sense it may refer to Cyrus, who conquered Persia. In the latter sense it refers to the spiritual liberty which some of these poor Heathens were brought into by the gospel. We read Acts 2:9, that some of the Elamites were at Jerusalem at pentecost, and were some of those converted to Christ.
Bel - Bel and Merodach were the two principal idols of the Babylonians.
The north - From Media which lay northward to Babylon and Assyria.
In those days - In the days wherein God shall begin to execute judgment upon Babylon, (which was in the time of Cyrus) the children of Judah shall come out of captivity, and some of the children of Israel hearing that their brethren were gone out of Babylon, shall go up also from the several places into which they were disposed by the Assyrians: weeping for their sins, or for joy that God should shew them such mercy.
Their shepherds - Their civil and ecclesiastical governors have been a cause of it. The former by their wicked commands and example; the latter by example as well as doctrine. Turned them - To offer sacrifices unto idols. From mountain - From one idolatry to another. Forgotten - They have forgotten me.
Habitation - Some think this is a name here given to God, who indeed is the habitation of justice, but whether the Chaldeans would call him so, may be a question. Others therefore think the preposition in is understood, making this the aggravation of the Jews sins, that they were committed in a land which ought to have been an habitation of justice.
Remove - God commands his people to remove out of Babylon, and to go forth chearfully like the he - goats of a flock leading the way.
Satisfied - Satisfied with spoil and plunder.
Because - They rejoiced at the ruin of the Jews. Fat - The cause for which Babylon is threatened, was doubtless their luxury of all sorts commonly attending great wealth.
Mother - Your country, shall be ashamed of you, who are not able to defend her.
Given her hand - Acknowledging themselves overcome, and yielding. As she hath done - Unmerciful men find no mercy.
Every one - Either such strangers as for commerce had their abodes in Babylon, or such assistance as the Babylonians had gotten against their enemies.
Israel - The whole twelve tribes. Lions - Enemies cruel as lions had carried them into captivity.
Not found - God will no longer punish the sins of the Jews, they should be sought for as to punishment and not found. Reserve - Whom I save from the captivity of Babylon.
Merathaim - The names of some places which Cyrus took in his way to Babylon.
The land - Of Chaldea.
Open her store - houses - The granaries, or treasures of the Babylonians.
Bullocks - The great and rich men of Babylon.
The vengeance - The revenge which God had taken for his holy temple, which the Chaldeans had destroyed.
Together - Together in this place signifies no more than that they were both oppressed, or alike oppressed.
Plead - He will actually and readily effect it.
Dote - Their soothsayers and wizards shall dote, not foreseeing what will be. Dismayed - Their hearts shall fail them when this day comes.
Horses - Through they be full of chariots and horses, the enemy shall destroy them. Mingled people - People that were not native Chaldeans, but under their dominion.
Dried - This phrase has a plain reference to Cyrus's stratagem used in the surprize of Babylon; one part of it was fortified by the great river Euphrates, which Cyrus diverted by cutting several channels, 'till he had drained it so low, that it became passable for his army; others think that a want of rain is here threatened.
No man - Cyrus only made them tributaries, and took away their government. But Seleucus Nicanor, a Grecian prince, utterly destroyed Babylon, so that in the time of Adrian the Roman emperor, there was nothing left standing of that great city.
Forsaken - Not utterly forsaken.
Soul - By soul is meant life, and by iniquity the punishment of the Babylonian's iniquity.
Drunken - She had made all the nations about her drunken with the Lord's fury. Mad - Through the misery they felt from her.
We - The prophet seems to personate the mercenary soldiers, saying, they would have helped Babylon, but there was no healing for her.
Some - These words are spoken in the person of the Jews, owning the destruction of Babylon to be the mighty work of God, and an act of justice, revenging the wrongs of his people.
Set up - These seem to be the prophet's words to the Babylonians, rousing them out of their security. Historians tell us that the city was fortified by walls of fifty cubits high, and two hundred cubits broad, and by a very deep and large ditch.
Waters - Babylon is said to dwell upon many waters, because the great river Euphrates, did not only run by it, but almost encompass it branching itself into many smaller rivers, which made several parts of the city, islands.
Break in pieces - The sense of all these three verses is the same; that God had made use, and was still making use of the Babylonians to destroy many nations, to spoil much people, wasting their goods, routing their armies, killing all sorts of their inhabitants.
Mountain - Babylon was very high for its power, and greatness, and had very high walls and towers, that it looked at a distance like an high rocky mountain. They had destroyed many people. Burnt - Thy cities and towers which appear like a mountain shall be burnt.
As caterpillars - The Median horses are compared to their insects, either with respect to their numbers, or in regard of the terror caused by them when they came, being a great plague to the places which they infected.
The land - Babylon, or the land of Chaldea.
At one end - Cyrus entered the city at one end, by the channel of the river, which he had drained, and surprized Belshazzar in the midst of his feast.
The passages - The passages over the river Euphrates, and all the other passages by which the Babylonians might make their escape, were guarded with soldiers. Reeds - On the border of the river Euphrates were vast quantities of great and tall reeds, which with the mud in which they stood, were as another wall to the city; but the Medes had burnt them so as the way was open.