Jeremiah 50
Butler50:1 THE word that the LORD spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.
2. Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put 3 to shame, her idols are dismayed. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are 4 gone, both man and beast. In those days and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weep 5 ing, and shall seek the LORD their God. They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come ye, and join yourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. 6 My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have 7 forgotten their resting place. All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the 8 habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats 9 before the flocks. For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert 10 mighty man; none shall return in vain. And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her 11 shall be satisfied, saith the LORD. Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder mine heritage, because ye are wanton as an heifer that treadeth out the corn, and neigh as 12 strong horses; your mother shall be sore ashamed; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. 13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: 14 every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no 15 arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD. Shout against her round about; she hath submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the ven 16 geance of the LORD; take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land. 17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. 18 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of 19 Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon 20 the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant. 21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: slay and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I 22, 23 have commanded thee. A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desola 24 tion among the nations! I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the 25 LORD. The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for the Lord, the LORD of hosts, hath a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. 26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and
27 destroy her utterly : let nothing of her be left. Slay all her bullocks ; let them go down to 28 the slaughter : woe unto them ! for their day is come, the time of their visitation. The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of 29 the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple. Call together the archers against Babylon, all them that bend the bow ; camp against her round about ; let none thereof escape : recom- pense her according to her work ; according to all that she hath done, do unto her : for she 30 hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, 31 saith the LORD. Behold, I am against thee, O thou proud one, saith the Lord, the LORD of 32 hosts : for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up : and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all that are round about him. 33 Thus saith the LORD of hosts : The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together : and all that took them captives hold them fast ; they refuse to let them 34 go. Their redeemer is strong ; the LORD of hosts is his name : he shall thoroughly plead 35 their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon 36 her princes, and upon her wise men. A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall dote : a 37 sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, and 38 they shall become as women : a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed. A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up : for it is a land of graven images, 39 and they are mad upon idols. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein : and it shall be no more inhabited for ever ; 40 neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the LORD ; so shall no man dwell there, neither 41 shall any son of man sojourn therein. Behold, a people cometh from the north ; and a great 42 nation, and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and spear ; they are cruel, and have no mercy ; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses ; every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O 43 daughter of Babylon. The king of Babylon hath heard the fame of them, and his hands wax 44 feeble : anguish hath taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of Jordan against the strong habitation : but I will suddenly make them run away from her ; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over her : for who is like me ? and who will appoint me a time ? and who is the shepherd that will 45 stand before me ? Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon ; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans : Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock ; surely he shall make their habi- 46 tation desolate with them. At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembleth, and the cry is heard among the nations.
Chap. 50. This chapter and the next contain a prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon, intermixed and contrasted with predictions concerning the redemption of Israel and Judah, who were not, like those oppressors, to be finally extirpated, but to survive them, and, upon their repentance and conversion, to be pardoned and restored. The prophecy was delivered and sent to Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign, as appears from chap. 51 : 59. Blayney.
As the catalogue of nations doomed to drink the Lord’s wine cup of judgment (Jer. 25 : 15-33) enumerates substantially all the tribes and sovereignties of Western Asia and Egypt first, and Babylon after them, so this series of more expanded prophecies (chaps. 46-51) gives the most prominent of those nations first, and closes with Babylon. This series of prophecies is manifestly an expansion of that summary statement. The German critics force upon us the question of the authorship of these prophecies against Babylon (chaps. 50 and 51). . . . When the fact of Divine inspiration is accepted according to the constant and consistent tenor of these writings, and according to all the evidence that bears upon the case, and when moreover due regard is had to the special object of these chapters and the standpoint of view from which they were written, all critical difficulties vanish. Everything is as we should legitimately expect. All is rational and pertinent.
1-3. Remarkably, before Chaldea became a first-class power—before Babylon became the wonder of the world and the first city of her age—this humble prophet of Anathoth announces to the nations of the earth that she is doomed erelong to fall! Her proud city is to be captured; her idols are to be confounded and utterly broken to pieces. This is real prophecy! Such are its lofty prerogatives—indefinitely high above the utmost reach of human sagacity! Bel and Merodach are only different names for the same god—the patron god of great Babylon—the same whom Nebuchadnezzar, both in the sacred Scriptures and in profane records, continually recognizes and adores as his own god. (See Dan. 4:8; 3:14.) These heathen gods were accounted the patrons and protectors of their worshippers. Hence the fall of Babylon would be the confounding and breaking down of their god. In their view, Babylon could not fall until its god had been overpowered. This conquering power before which Babylon falls comes from the north. When the prophet wrote, this power also, even more than that of Babylon, was undeveloped. No eye save that of God could see its future greatness.
4,5. Thus early in the course of this magnificent prophecy appears this clear intimation that, coincident with the fall of Babylon, the Lord’s people would earnestly seek their God, asking the way to Zion with their faces set to go thither, and most fitly proposing to join themselves to the Lord in a covenant sacred and perpetual, and never, like their former covenant, to be broken and forgotten. Dan. 9 is an interesting comment on this prophecy. We may suppose that Daniel was not alone in his spirit of humble confession and earnest supplication for Divine mercy. There were others with him who set their faces fully toward the Zion of their fathers. The author of Ps. 137 is personally unknown to us, but plainly he expressed the feelings not of one man alone, but of many of the waiting and hoping captives alongside the rivers of Babylon. The spirit of that psalm would readily culminate into the prompt and earnest passion for seeking God and His Zion which stands out in this prophecy with such life-like boldness and beauty. H. C.
The value of such vows and covenants is that they render going back from God more difficult. They help to steady the will and confirm the wavering purpose. They commit us to the right side. It is a kind of breaking down the bridges behind us, a burning of the boats, so that the soldiers started on the enterprise may not be able to recross the river. Hence we urge such open and solemn avowal, consecration and covenanting with God. It tends to make your adhesion to God “perpetual,” and your holy purpose to serve Him far less likely to “be forgotten.” Thus was it with Israel and Judah—never since have they fallen into idolatry, and though yet “the veil is before their faces,” they are far other than what they were. And in our own churches such consecration has again and again been greatly blessed. C.
7. They plead in justification, “We have done no crime, for these people have sinned against their own Lord, the hope of their fathers, the God who is the home (habitation) of justice, and who, therefore, demands justice in His people, and visits on the guilty a righteous retribution.” These points made in this seventh verse are indeed very remarkable. They are admirably adapted to make a profound impression upon the exiles in respect to the cause of their national calamities and the views of their case which might well be taken by at least the more intelligent among their captors. H. C.
9. The commission and charge given to the instruments that were to be employed in destroying Babylon. The army that is to do it is called an assembly of great nations (verse 9), the Medes and Persians and all their allies and auxiliaries; it is called an assembly, because regularly formed by the Divine will and counsel to do this execution. God will raise them up to do it, will incline them to and fit them for this service, and then He will cause them to come up, for all their motions are under His conduct and direction; He shall give the word of command, shall order them to put themselves in array against Babylon (verse 14), and then they shall put themselves in array (verse 9) for what God appoints to be done shall be done; and from thence she shall be quickly taken; from their first sitting down before it they shall be still gaining ground against it till it be taken. H.
11-13. Throughout this prophecy the idea of retributive justice is made prominent. Because Babylon exulted proudly in her conquest of Judah, and because she forgot the Lord Almighty, and waxed fat and haughty against Him (e.g., Belshazzar in his wine-cups and revelry—Dan. 5:1-4), therefore the Lord will bring on her this utter and fearful desolation. In verse 12 “your mother” refers to Babylon, the mother city of the nation. Even she should lose all her prestige and glory, and be utterly put to shame. The great Chaldean power, once first among nations, shall become the last (“hindermost”) and lowest of them all. H. C.
13. “Babylon shall be an astonishment” was the voice of prophecy; and Babylon has become an astonishment, is the voice of all those who have stood among its desolations and remembered its history. The majestic stream of the Euphrates wanders in silent solitude, like an aged pilgrim, through its lonely ruins. Upon its banks are the river-weeds, and the gray willows on which the captives of Israel hung their harps, and refused to be comforted while their beloved Jerusalem was not. These remain; but not one thing which the prophets declared should be destroyed, from outer wall to inner court, can now be seen in that ancient and mighty metropolis of the world. From its palaces, its arches and its terraces, broken and fallen; from this throne of the kingdom sitting in the dust; from its active life, the thronging of its busy feet, now clad in silence and buried in the grave—do we not seem to hear ascending in solemn grandeur the response, “The Lord God Almighty hath spoken it”? L. T. Townsend.
17-19. The conception of Israel as scattered and lost sheep, driven and devoured by lions, appears here again (see verses 6-8) for the sake of connecting with it the retribution due and about to fall on her destroyers. The king of Assyria first took the Ten Tribes into captivity (B.C. 722) in the reign of Hoshea, king of Israel, and of Hezekiah, of Judah. (See 2 K. 17.) Now Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ends the ruin by crushing and cranching his bones. The Lord had already punished Assyria by the utter ruin of Nineveh (B.C. 625). He here declares that He will in like manner punish Babylon. He did so by using Cyrus at the head of the Medo-Persian armies. H. C.
20. God will pardon their iniquity; this is the root of all the rest (verse 20). In those days the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. Not only the punishments of their iniquity shall be taken off, but the offence which it gave to God shall be forgotten, and He will be reconciled to them. Their sin shall be before Him as if it had never been, it shall be blotted out as a cloud, crossed out as a debt, shall be cast behind His back; nay, it shall be cast into the depth of the sea, shall be no longer sealed up among God’s treasures, ures, nor in any danger of appearing again or rising up against them. This denotes how fully God forgives sin; He remembers it no more. H.
Those whom He had spared to survive and remain He would fully and freely pardon. Thus pardoned, their sins would not appear before the face of God as demanding punishment. And as justice would no longer demand their punishment, it would demand the punishment of their oppressors. When the Lord’s people become penitent and are forgiven, the moral reason for punishing them ceases; but all the greater is the reason for punishing their oppressors. The former are now the Lord’s accepted flock, taken under His special protection. Will He not therefore visit retribution upon those that devour them? The subsequent context pursues this train of thought. H. C.
Divine forgiveness an absolute oblivion. The attribute of completeness characterizes God’s work of destruction (verses 14-16); equally does it pertain to His work of salvation (verses 19, 20). In both is manifested His righteousness in its elements of wrath and mercy. His forgiveness acts in perfect harmony with His severity. M.
When God forgives a man He pardons him completely, as Christ thoroughly cured all the sick persons whom He healed in any way. There is no middle course here. Either the forgiveness is total or it is not accorded at all. This is more than the remission of penalties. Some consequences of sin must still remain, though these are no longer indications of God’s anger, but converted into merciful chastisements. But the essence of forgiveness lies deeper than any manipulation of external experience. It is inward, in the relation of God to the soul. This spiritual forgiveness consists in the removal of all estrangement between God and the sinner. It is perfect reconciliation with no shadow cast upon it by old offences. Adeney.
29-32. This description, “archers” and “bowmen,” applies well to the Medes and Persians. The Lord takes special pains to show that this curse on Babylon is for her pride and for her oppressive cruelty. All the nations of the world through all time ought to know and to heed this.
33, 34. “Redeemer” is here used in its original, legitimate sense—one who rescues from bondage; who buys off or recovers by force the enslaved and oppressed. In this sense the Lord of Hosts proves Himself the Redeemer of