Jeremiah 50

Jeremiah 50:1-8

Babylon herself at last detain of the cap. Terrible is the vengeance denounced against her. Many of the superdowns in the Apocalyps are hurricaned from heres, and the prophet might well have in his eye the destruction of Babylon mystical, and the dissonance of his people from her accorded yoke. We have hers; 1. The ruin of Babylon, ver. 1-2, and 9-16, and 21-24, and 35-46. 2. The redemption of God’s people, ver. 4-8, and 17-20, and 33. 34.

1. THE word that the LORD spake against Babylon, and against 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: 1ay, 1 Babylon is taken, 1 Bel is confounded, Meradach is broken in pieces, her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. 3. For 1 out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein; they shall remove, they shall depart both man and beast. 4. ¶ 1 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, 1 they and the children of Judah together, 1 going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. 5. 1 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD, 1 in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. 6. My people hath been 1 lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away as the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place. 7. All they that found them have devoured them, and 1 their adversaries said, 1 We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, 1 the habitation of justice, even the LORD, 1 the hope of their fathers. 8. 1 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

We have here,

1. The destruction of Babylon foretold, with her idols. And great joy would it administer, when these glad tidings were spread among the nations, that the rest of the oppression was broken. From the north the evil comes; from Medis and Persia: and by the northern princes shall Rome, the mystical Babylon, be destroyed, and the joyful cry go forth, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, Rev. xiv. 6-8.

2. The people of God have a comfortable prospect opened before them: they shall return to God and their own land. Israel and Judah, now reunited, (many of the ten tribes joining with their brethren) shall go weeping, with penitential tears conferring their provocations, and seek the Lord their God, in faith trusting on the everlasting covenant, and first encouraged to make their humble supplications to him from whom they have so greatly depressed: for it is a sure symptom for good, when God believes gently forever; and never can it be too late to return to him, when with weeping we seek his face. 3. 1 God’s favour, they are in the way to recover their lost inheritance, and, discussed by Cyrus, enquire the way to Zion, firstly setting their faces thitherward, encouraging one another to come and renew their broken covenant, and henceforth approve themselves to God with more unthaken fidelity, v. 5. And this is most applicable to all God’s redeemed people, who, when rescued from the dominion of sin, with shame lament their past departures, with diligence enquiry after God, and in all his holy ways desire to be found walking before him, bound to him in a covenant of everlasting love. This may also particularly refer to the penitent return of the Jews at the last day.

3. Their past miluries, here lamented, should quicken them to improve the occasion of opportunity given them by Cyrus. 4. 1 He lost sheep: they had long wandered, and those who should have lost them might contributed to their errors: that exposed, they fell, an easy prey to the denouncers, who vindicated the cruelties they exercised upon them, as if it were no offence to punish those

indignation: I am against him, O thou myt proud: and who can stand, when God rises up as an earner? Nee, Unhumbled pride will have a fall, often in this world, into abject wretchedness; certainly in the next, into the belly of hell.

33. ¶ Thus faith the LORD of hosts, The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together, and all that took them captives held them fast, they refused to let them go. 34. ‘Their redeemer is strong, the LORD of hosts is his name, he shall thoroughly plead their cause,’ that he may give rest to the land, and dissuade the inhabitants of Babylon. 35. ¶ A sword is upon the Chaldeans, faith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wife men. 36. A sword is upon the 1 liars, and they shall store, a sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. 37. A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed. 38. ‘A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are small upon their idols. 39. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert, with the wild beasts of the island, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever: neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. 40. ‘As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbour color thereof, faith the LORD: so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein. 41. Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 42. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not chew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall rise upon horses, every one put in aray like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. 43. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waved feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. 44. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan, unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chofer man that I may appoint over her? for who is like me, and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? 45. Therefore hear ye the council of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon, and his purposes that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. 46. ‘At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

¶ 33-46. We have here,

1. The recovery of God’s people from their state of oppression. Israel and Judah both groaned under the yoke, and their conquerors refused to let them go: but, when God determines their deliverance, who can buy him? Their Redeemer is strong, yes almighty to love, the Lord of hosts is his name, whom all the armies of heaven and earth obey. He shall thoroughly plead their cause, avenge their wrongs, restore them to their own land, and punish their oppressors. And this is true of all the Israel of God, whether under the spiritual bondage of sin and Satan, or suffering under antichristian tyranny: though their enemies refuse to let them go, the Lord is their avenger, to recompense tribulation to them that trouble them, to break the bands of sin and Satan, and the power of their periscourses; to set his people free, to give them rest spiritually on earth, and eternally with himself in heaven. Let them therefore trust in the Lord, and rejoice in the comfort of his assured salvation.

2. The ruin of Babylon for her sins; particularly her detention of God’s Israel, and her abominable idolatries. They are mad upon their idols, so superstitiously devoted to them; or their bravery, their images being frightful, and their worshippers terrified with fear of them. And very applicable is this to the idolatries of Babylon mystical, where image-median is abounded. For this God’s sword is drawn, and terribly defended upon her princes, her wife counsellors, her foothsayers, who deceived the people with their lies; upon her mighty versions, her cowdry, her chariots, her auxiliaries, who should through fear become weak as women; upon her treasures, devoted to the spoil, v. 35. 37. A drought is sent upon her waters in general, from whence

the land becomes barren, and famine enfans; or upon the river that run through Babylon in particular, the course of which was turned, and the bed of it left dry opened a passage into the city, v. 38. So utterly shall this proud city be overthrown, that the wild beasts shall take up their abode in her ruinous palaces; and, like the cities of Gomorrah, her desistations shall be perpetual, v. 39, 40. From the north their merciless destroyers come, completely armed, and spreading their errors on every side. Confounded at the report, the king of Babylon, like a travelling woman, loses all power of resistance, and falls an easy prey. The very same expressions are used as chap. vi. 22, 24. to show how exactly Babylon was to be punished according to her former treatment of Jerusalem. And as Nebuchadnezzar had served Edom, chap. xlix. 10-12; fools a lion should Cyrus prove to Chaldea, devouring and destroying all before him. And as Babylon of old, so shall Babylon mystical be destroyed, when the time fixed in God’s eternal decree arrives; when the saints of God will for ever triumph, and their enemies be eternally tormented, Rev. xix. 8. xxiii. 2-19.

Babylon Chap. 115.