‏ Jeremiah 50

CHAPTER L

This and the following chapter contain a prophecy relating to the fall of Babylon, interspersed with several predictions relative to the restoration of Israel and Judah, who were to survive their oppressors, and, on their repentance, to be pardoned and brought to their own land. This chapter opens with a prediction of the complete destruction of all the Babylonish idols, and the utter desolation of Chaldea, through the instrumentality of a great northern nation, 1-3.

Israel and Judah shall be reinstated in the land of their forefathers after the total overthrow of the great Babylonish empire, 4, 5.

Very oppressive and cruel bondage of the Jewish people during the captivity, 6, 7.

The people of God are commanded to remove speedily from Babylon, because an assembly of great nations are coming out of the north to desolate the whole land, 8-10.

Babylon, the hammer of the whole earth, the great desolator of nations, shall itself become a desolation on account of its intolerable pride, and because of the iron yoke it has rejoiced to put upon a people whom a mysterious Providence had placed under its domination, 11-34.

The judgments which shall fall upon Chaldea, a country addicted to the grossest idolatry, and to every species of superstition, shall be most awful and general, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, 35-40.

Character of the people appointed to execute the Divine judgments upon the oppressors of Israel, 41-45.

Great sensation among the nations at the very terrible and sudden fall of Babylon, 46.

NOTES ON CHAP. L

Verse 1. THE WORD THAT THE LORD SPAKE AGAINST BABYLON] This is also a new head of discourse.

The prophecy contained in this and the following chapter was sent to the captives in Babylon in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah. They are very important; they predict the total destruction of the Babylonish empire, and the return of the Jews from their captivity. These chapters were probably composed, with several additions, out of the book that was then sent by Jeremiah to the captives by the hand of Seraiah. See Jer 51:59-64.

Verse 2. Declare ye among the nations] God's determination relative to this empire.

Set up a standard] Show the people where they are to assemble.

Say, Babylon is taken] It is a thing so firmly determined, that it is as good as already done.

Bel] The tutelar deity of Babylon is confounded, because it cannot save its own city.

Merodach] Another of their idols, is broken to pieces; it was not able to save itself, much less the whole empire.

Her idols are confounded] It is a reproach to have acknowledged them.

Her images] Great and small, golden and wooden, are broken to pieces; even the form of them no longer appears.

Verse 3. Out of the north there cometh up a nation] The Medes, who formed the chief part of the army of Cyrus, lay to the north or north-east of Babylon.

Shall make her land desolate] This war, and the consequent taking of the city, began those disasters that brought Babylon in process of time to complete desolation; so that now it is not known where it stood, the whole country being a total solitude.

Verse 4. In those days, and in that time] In the times in which Babylon shall be opposed by the Medes and Persians, both Israel and Judah, seeing the commencement of the fulfilling of the prophecies, shall begin to seek the Lord with much prayer, and broken and contrite hearts. When the decree of Cyrus comes, they shall be ready to set off for their own country, deploring their offenses, yet rejoicing in the mercy of God which has given them this reviving in their bondage.

Verse 5. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant] All our former covenants have been broken; let us now make one that shall last for ever. He shall be the LORD OUR GOD, and WE will no more worship idols. This covenant they have kept to the present day; whatever their present moral and spiritual state may be, they are no idolaters, in the gross sense of the term.

The description that is here given of the state of this people, their feelings and their conduct, finely exhibit the state of real penitents, who are fervently seeking the salvation of their souls.

1. In those days, when Jesus Christ is manifested in the flesh; and in that time, when through him is preached the remission of sins, and the people who hear are pricked in their conscience.

2. The children of Israel and the children of Judah together.-No distinctions being then felt or attended to; for all feel themselves sinners, who have come short of the glory of God. Even national distinctions and religious differences, which bind men fastest, and hold them longest, are absorbed in the deep and overpowering concern they feel for their eternal interests.

3. Going and weeping shall they go.-Religious sorrow does not preclude activity and diligence. While they are weeping for their sins, they are going on in the path of duty, seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near.

4. They shall ask the way to Zion.-Real penitents are the most inquisitive of all mortals; but their inquiries are limited to one object, they ask the way to Zion. What shall we do to be saved? How shall we shun the perdition of ungodly men, &c.

5. With their faces thitherward.-They have turned FROM sin, and turned TO God. They have left the paths of the destroyer, and their hearts are towards God, and the remembrance of his name. Thus they are profiting by that light which has convinced them of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

6. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord.-Religion is a social principle, and begets a social feeling in the soul. No man who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, wishes to venture alone in the way to heaven. He feels he wants counsel, support, comfort, and the company of those who will watch over him in love. Like David, the true penitent is a companion of all those who fear the Lord. These heavenly feelings come from one and the same Spirit, and lead to the same end; hence they say,-

7. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. It is said, that to be undecided, is to be decided. They who are not determined to go to heaven, will never reach it. If the heart be not laid under obligation, it will do nothing. "I hope I am in earnest; I trust I shall be in earnest about the salvation of my soul, it is very proper I should be so;" and such like, show an irresolute soul. Such persons are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Let us therefore bind ourselves. We have trifled too long; been indecisive too long; have halted too long between two opinions. We know now that Jehovah is God; let us, therefore, enter into a covenant with him. Let this covenant be a perpetual one: let us not make it for a day, for any particular time, but for ever; and let it never be broken. Let our part be kept inviolable: we ARE and WILL BE thy people; and God's part will never fail, I AM and WILL BE your God.

The covenant requires a sacrifice.-Hence berith signifies both. Christ crucified is the great covenant sacrifice. By him God becomes united to us, and through him we become united to God.

Verse 6. My people hath been lost sheep] He pities them; for their pastors, kings, and prophets have caused them to err.

They have gone from mountain to hill] In all high places they have practised idolatry.

Verse 7. Their adversaries said, We offend not] God has abandoned them; we are only fulfilling his designs in plaguing them.

Verse 8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon] The sentence of destruction is gone out against it; prepare for your flight, that ye be not overwhelmed in its ruin.

Be as the he-goats before the flocks.] Who always run to the head of the flock, giving the example for others to follow. This may be addressed to the elders and persons of authority among the people.

Verse 9. An assembly of great nations] The army of Cyrus was composed of Medes, Persians, Armenians, Caducians, Sacae, &c. Though all these did not come from the north; yet they were arranged under the Medes, who did come from the north, in reference to Babylon.

Their arrows] They are such expert archers, that they shall never miss their mark.

Verse 10. Chaldea shall be a spoil] She has been a spoiler, and she shall be spoiled. They had destroyed Judea, God's heritage; and now God shall cause her to be destroyed.

Verse 11. As the heifer at grass] Ye were wanton in the desolations ye brought upon Judea.

Verse 12. Your mother] Speaking to the Chaldeans: BABYLON, the metropolis, or mother city, shall be a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, neither fit for man nor beast.

Verse 15. Shout against her round about] Encompass her with lines and with troops; let none go in with relief, none come out to escape from her ruin.

Verse 16. Cut off the sower] Destroy the gardens and the fields, that there may be neither fruits nor tillage.

Verse 17. Israel] All the descendants of Jacob have been harassed and spoiled, first by the Assyrians, and afterwards by the Chaldeans. They acted towards them as a lion to a sheep which he has caught; first he devours all the flesh, next he breaks all the bones to extract the marrow.

Verse 18. As I have punished the king of Assyria.] The Assyrians were overthrown by the Medes and the Chaldeans. The king is here taken for all their kings, generals, &c., Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, &c. To them succeeded the Chaldean or Babylonish kings. Nebuchadnezzar came against Judea several times; and at last took the city and burnt it, profaned and demolished the temple, wasted the land, and carried the princes and people into captivity.

Verse 19. I will bring Israel again] This seems to refer wholly to the ten tribes; for Carmel, Bashan, Mount Ephraim, and Gilead, were in their territories.

Verse 20. In those days and in that time] This phrase appears to take in the whole of an epoch, from its commencement to its end. See Jer 50:4.

I will pardon them] So as to deliver them from their captivity, and exact no more punishment from them whom I reserve; namely, the remnant left in the Babylonish captivity.

Verse 21. Go up against the land of Merathaim-and against the inhabitants of Pekod] No such places as these are to be found any where else; and it is not likely that places are at all meant. The ancient Versions agree in rendering the first as an appellative, and the last as a verb, except the Chaldee, which has Pekod as a proper name. Dr. Blayney translates:-

"Against the land of bitternesses, go up:

Upon it, and upon its inhabitants, visit, O sword!"

Dr. Dahler renders thus:-

"March against the country doubly rebellious,

And against its inhabitants worthy of punishment."

The latter of these two versions I take to be the most literal. The words are addressed to the Medes and Persians; and the country is Chaldea, doubly rebellious by its idolatry and its insufferable pride. In these two, it was exceeded by no other land.

Verse 23. The hammer of the whole earth] Nebuchadnezzar dashed to pieces the nations against whom he warred. He was the scourge of the Lord.

Verse 24. I have laid a snare for thee] It was not by storm that Cyrus took the city. The Euphrates ran through it; he dug a channel for the river in another direction, to divert its stream; he waited for that time in which the inhabitants had delivered themselves up to debauchery: in the dead of the night he turned off the stream, and he and his army entered by the old channel, now void of its waters. This was the snare of which the prophet here speaks. See Herodotus, lib. i., c. 191.

Verse 26. Open her store-houses] At the time that Cyrus took the city, it was full of provisions and treasures of all kinds; the walls had suffered no injury; and when the inhabitants heard that the enemy was within, they thought they must have arisen out of the earth in the centre of the city!

Verse 27. Slay all her bullocks] Princes, magistrates, &c., &c.

Verse 28. Declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord] Zion was desolated by Babylon; tell Zion that God hath desolated the desolator.

The vengeance of his temple.] Which Nebuchadnezzar had pillaged, profaned, and demolished, transporting its sacred vessels to Babylon, and putting them in the temple of his god Bel.

Verse 29. Call together the archers] The preceding verses are the prediction: here, God calls the Medes and Persians to fulfil it.

Verse 31. O thou most proud] zadon. PRIDE in the abstract; proudest of all people.

Verse 32. And the most proud] zadon, as before. Here pride is personified and addressed, as if possessing a being and rational powers.

Verse 34. Their Redeemer is strong] And it was not that he wanted power, and that Nebuchadnezzar had much, that Jerusalem was taken; but because the people had sinned, and would not return; and therefore national sins called for national punishments. These have taken place; and now the Lord of hosts shows them that the power of the Chaldeans is mere weakness against his might.

Verse 35. A sword] War and its calamities, or any grievous plague; and so in the following verses.

Verse 38. A drought is upon her waters] May not this refer to the draining of the channel of the Euphrates, by which the army of Cyrus entered the city. See on Jer 50:24. The original is, however, chereb, a sword, as in the preceding verses, which signifies war, or any calamity by which the thing on which it falls is ruined.

Verse 39. The wild beasts of the desert] Dahler translates these various terms, "The wild cats, the jackals, and the ostriches." And Blayney the same. Wicklif, "Dragons, woodewoses, and ostriches." Coverdale, "Wild beestes, apes, and estriches."

Verse 40. As God overthrew Sodom] As the very ground on which these cities stood, with all the plain, now lies under the Dead Sea; so Babylon and the adjacent country shall be rendered totally barren and unfruitful, and utterly incapable of being inhabited. And this is the fact concerning both countries. See Jer 49:18.

Verse 41. Behold, a people shall come from the north] This and the two following verses are nearly the same with Jer 6:22-24. But here, destroyers against Babylon are intended; there, destroyers against Jerusalem.

Verse 44. Behold, he shall came up like a lion] The same words as in Jer 49:19, &c., where see the note. See Clarke on Jer 49:19.

Verse 46. At the noise of the taking of Babylon] See Clarke on Jer 49:21. In the forty-ninth chapter, these words are spoken of Nebuchadnezzar; here, of Cyrus. The taking of Babylon was a wonder to all the surrounding nations. It was thought to be impregnable.

‏ Jeremiah 51

CHAPTER LI

Sequel of the prophecies of Jeremiah against Babylon. The dreadful, sudden, and final ruin that shall fall upon the Chaldeans, who have compelled the nations to receive their idolatrous rites, (see an instance in the third chapter of Daniel,) set forth by a variety of beautiful figures; with a command to the people of God, (who have made continual intercession for the conversion of their heathen rulers,) to flee from the impending vengeance, 1-14.

Jehovah, Israel's God, whose infinite power, wisdom and understanding are every where visible in the works of creation, elegantly contrasted with the utterly contemptible objects of the Chaldean worship, 15-19.

Because of their great oppression of God's people, the Babylonians shall be visited with cruel enemies from the north, whose innumerable hosts shall fill the land, and utterly extirpate the original inhabitants, 20-44.

One of the figures by which this formidable invasion is represented is awfully sublime. "The SEA is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof." And the account of the sudden desolation produced by this great armament of a multitude of nations, (which the prophet, dropping the figure, immediately subjoins,) is deeply afflictive. "Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness; a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby." The people of God a third time admonished to escape from Babylon, lest they be overtaken with her plagues, 45, 46.

Other figures setting forth in a variety of lights the awful judgments with which the Chaldeans shall be visited on account of their very gross idolatries, 47-58.

The significant emblem with which the chapter concludes, of Seraiah, after having read the book of the Prophet Jeremiah against Babylon, binding a stone to it, and casting it into the river Euphrates, thereby prefiguring the very sudden downfall of the Chaldean city and empire, 59-64,

is beautifully improved by the writer of the Apocalypse,

Re 18:21,

in speaking of Babylon the GREAT, of which the other was a most expressive type; and to which many of the passages interspersed throughout the Old Testament Scriptures relative to Babylon must be ultimately referred, if we would give an interpretation in every respect equal to the terrible import of the language in which these prophecies are conceived.

NOTES ON CHAP. LI

Verse 1. Thus saith the Lord] This chapter is a continuation of the preceding prophecy.

A destroying wind.] Such as the pestilential winds in the east; and here the emblem of a destroying army, carrying all before them, and wasting with fire and sword.

Verse 2. And will send-fanners] When the corn is trodden out with the feet of cattle, or crushed out with a heavy wheel armed with iron, with a shovel they throw it up against the wind, that the chaff and broken straw may be separated from it. This is the image used by the prophet; these people shall be trodden, crushed, and fanned by their enemies.

Verse 5. For Israel hath not been forsaken] God still continued his prophets among them; he had never cast them wholly off. Even in the midst of wrath-highly deserved and inflicted punishment, he has remembered mercy; and is now about to crown what he has done by restoring them to their own land. I conceive asham, which we translate sin, as rather signifying punishment, which meaning it often has.

Verse 7. Made all the earth drunken] The cup of God's wrath is the plenitude of punishment, that he inflicts on transgressors. It is represented as intoxicating and making them mad.

Verse 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed] These appear to be the words of some of the spectators of Babylon's misery.

Verse 9. We would have healed Babylon] Had it been in our power, we would have saved her; but we could not turn away the judgment of God.

Verse 10. The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness.] This is the answer of the Jews. God has vindicated our cause.

Verse 11. Make bright the arrows] This is the prophet's address to Babylon.

The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes] Of Cyaxares king of Media, called Darius the Mede in Scripture; and of Cyrus king of Persia, presumptive heir of the throne of Cyaxares, his uncle. Cambyses, his father, sent him, Cyrus, with 30,000 men to assist his uncle Cyaxares, against Neriglissar king of Babylon, and by these was Babylon overthrown.

Verse 12. Set up the standard] A call to the enemies of Babylon to invest the city and press the siege.

Verse 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters] Thou who hast an abundant supply of waters. It was built on the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates; the latter running through the city. But the many waters may mean the many nations which belonged to the Babylonish empire; nations and people are frequently so called in Scripture.

Verse 14. I will fill thee with men] By means of these very waters through the channel of thy boasted river, thou shalt be filled with men, suddenly appearing as an army of locusts; and, without being expected, shall lift up a terrific cry, as soon as they have risen from the channel of the river.

Verse 15. He hath made the earth by his power] The omnipotence of God is particularly manifested in the works of creation.

He hath established the world by his wisdom] The omniscience of God is particularly seen in the government of tebel, the inhabited surface of the globe. What a profusion of wisdom and skill is apparent in that wondrous system of providence by which he governs and provides for every living thing.

And hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.] Deep thought, comprehensive design, and consummate skill are especially seen in the formation, magnitudes, distances, revolutions, and various affections of the heavenly bodies.

Verse 16. When he uttereth his voice] Sends thunder.

There is a multitude of waters] For the electric spark, by decomposing atmospheric air, converts the hydrogen and oxygen gases, of which it is composed, into water; which falls down in the form of rain.

Causeth the vapours to ascend] He is the Author of that power of evaporation by which the water is rarified, and, being lighter than the air, ascends in form of vapour, forms clouds, and is ready to be sent down again to water the earth by the action of his lightnings, as before. And by those same lightnings, and the agency of heat in general, currents of air are formed, moving in various directions, which we call winds.

Verse 17. Every man is brutish by his knowledge] He is brutish for want of real knowledge; and he is brutish when he acknowledges that an idol is any thing in the world. These verses, from fifteen to nineteen, are transcribed from Jer 10:12-16.

Verse 20. Thou art my battle axe] I believe Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is called, Jer 50:23, the hammer of the whole earth. Others think the words are spoken of Cyrus. All the verbs are in the past tense: "With thee have I broken in pieces," &c., &c.

Verse 24. And I will render] The vau should be translated but, of which it has here the full power: "But I will render unto Babylon."

Verse 25. O destroying mountain] An epithet which he applies to the Babylonish government; it is like a burning mountain, which, by vomiting continual streams of burning lava, inundates and destroys all towns, villages fields, &c., in its vicinity.

And roll thee down from the rocks] I will tumble thee from the rocky base on which thou restest. The combustible matter in thy bowels being exhausted, thou shalt appear as an extinguished crater; and the stony matter which thou castest out shall not be of sufficient substance to make a foundation stone for solidity, or a corner stone for beauty, Jer 51:26. Under this beautiful and most expressive metaphor, the prophet shows the nature of the Babylonish government; setting the nations on fire, deluging and destroying them by its troops, till at last, exhausted, it tumbles down, is extinguished, and leaves nothing as a basis to erect a new form of government on; but is altogether useless, like the cooled lava, which is, properly speaking, fit for no human purpose.

Verse 27. Set ye up a standard] Another summons to the Medes and Persians to attack Babylon.

Ararat, Minni] The Greater and Lesser Armenia.

And Ashchenaz] A part of Phrygia, near the Hellespont. So Bochart, Phaleg, lib. i. c. 3, lib. iii. c. 9. Concerning Ashchenaz Homer seems to speak, Il. ii. 370, 371:-

φορκυςαυφρυγαςηγεκαιασκανιοςθεοειδης

τηλεξασκανιης

"Ascanius, godlike youth, and Phorcys led

The Phrygians from Ascania's distant land."

Calmet thinks that the Ascantes, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Tanais, are meant.

Verse 29. And the land shall tremble] It is represented here as trembling under the numerous armies that are passing over it, and the prancing of their horses.

Verse 30. The mighty men-have forborne to fight] They were panic-struck when they found the Medes and Persians within their walls, and at once saw that resistance was useless.

Verse 31. One post shall run to meet another] As the city was taken by surprise, in the manner already related, so now messengers, one after another, were despatched to give the king information of what was done; viz., that the city was taken at one end. Herodotus tells us that the extreme parts of the city were taken, before those of the centre knew any thing of the invasion. Herodot. lib. i. c. 191.

Verse 32. That the passages are stopped] Either the bridges or slips for boats, by which the inhabitants passed from one side to the other, and may mean the principal gates or passes in the city, which the victorious army would immediately seize, that they might prevent all communication between the inhabitants.

The reeds they have burned with fire] What this means I cannot tell, unless it refer to something done after the taking of the city. Setting fire to the reeds in the marshy ground, in order the better to clear the places, and give a freer passage to the water, that it may neither stagnate nor turn the solid ground into a marsh. Dr. Blayney thinks it refers to the firing of the houses, in order to throw the inhabitants into the greater confusion; but no historian makes any mention of burning the city, except what is said Jer 51:30, "They have burned her dwelling places;" and this may be a poetical expression. That they burnt nothing before they took the city must be evident from the circumstance of their taking the city by surprise, in the night time, with the greatest secrecy. Still there might have been some gates, barricadoes, or wooden works, serving for barracks or such like, which obstructed some of the great passages, which, when they had entered, they were obliged to burn, in order to get themselves a ready passage through the city. This is the more likely because this burning of reeds is connected with the stopping of the passages, burning the dwelling places, and breaking the bars.

Verse 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor] The threshing wheel is gone over her; she is trodden under foot.

Verse 34. Nebuchadrezzar-hath devoured me] These are the words of Judea; he has taken away all my riches.

He hath cast me out.] He shall vomit all up; i.e., they shall be regained.

Verse 35. 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. I will dry up her sea] Exhaust all her treasures.

Verse 37. Without an inhabitant.] See Jer 50:39.

Verse 39. 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 Da 5:1-3. This feast was held in honour 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. How is Sheshach taken!] Perhaps the city is here called by the name of its idol.

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, &c., &c.

Verse 42. The sea is come up] A multitude of foes have inundated the city.

Verse 44. I will punish Bel in Babylon] Bel or Belus was their supreme deity.

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.

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. My people, go ye out] A warning to all the Jews in Babylon to leave the city, and escape for their lives.

Verse 46. A rumour shall-come one year] A year before the capture of the city there shall be a rumour of war,-and in that year Belshazzar was defeated by Cyrus. In the following year the city was taken.

Verse 48. The heaven and the earth-shall sing for Babylon] Its fall shall be a subject of universal rejoicing.

Verse 50. Ye that have escaped the sword] The Jews.

Let Jerusalem come into your mind.] Pray for its restoration; and embrace the first opportunity offered of returning thither.

Verse 51. Strangers are come into the sanctuaries] The lamentation of the pious Jews for the profanation of the temple by the Chaldeans.

Verse 53. 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. The great voice] Its pride and insufferable boasting.

Verse 56. 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. I will make drunk her princes] See Clarke on Jer 51:39.

Verse 58. The broad walls of Babylon] Herodotus, who saw these walls, says, "The city was a regular square, each side of which was one hundred 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. i. 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 Clarke on Isa 13:19.

Verse 59. The word which Jeremiah] On account of the message sent by Jeremiah to the Jewish captives in Babylon.

Verse 60. 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, sepher, signifies, in Hebrew, any writing, great or small.

Verse 64. Thus shall Babylon sink, &c.] This is the emblem of its overthrow and irretrievable ruin. See Re 18:21, where we find that this is an emblem of the total ruin of mystical Babylon.

Herodotus relates a similar action of the Phocoeans, who, having resolved to leave their country, and never return to it again, μυδρονσιδηρεονκατεπονωσανκαιωμοσανμηπρινεςφωκαιην ηξεινπρινητονμυδροντουτοναναφηναι "threw a mass of iron into the sea, and swore that they would never return to Phocaea till that iron mass should rise and swim on the top." The story is this: The Phocaeans, being besieged by Harpagus, general of the Persians, demanded one day's truce to deliberate on the propositions he had made to them relative to their surrendering their city; and begged that in the mean while he would take off his army from the walls. Harpagus having consented, they carried their wives, children, and their most valuable effects, aboard their ships; then, throwing a mass of iron into the sea, bound themselves by an oath never to return till that iron should rise to the top and swim. See Herodotus, lib. i. c. 165.

Horace refers to this in his epode Ad Populum Romanum, Epode xvi. ver. 25:-

Sed juremus in haec: simul imis saxa renarint

Vadis levata, ne redire sit nefas.

"As the Phocaeans oft for freedom bled,

At length with imprecated curses fled."

FRANCIS.

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.] It appears that the following chapter is not the work of this prophet: it is not his style. The author of it writes Jehoiachin; Jeremiah writes him always Jeconiah, or Coniah. It is merely historical, and is very similar to 2Ki 24:18-25:30. The author, whoever he was, relates the capture of Jerusalem, the fate of Zedekiah, the pillage and burning of the city and the temple. He mentions also certain persons of distinction who were slain by the Chaldeans. He mentions the number of the captives that were carried to Babylon at three different times; and concludes with the deliverance of King Jehoiachin from prison in Babylon, in which he had been for thirty-seven years. It is very likely that the whole chapter has been compiled from some chronicle of that time, or it was designed as a preface to the Book of the Lamentations; and would stand with great propriety before it, as it contains the facts on which that inimitable poem is built. Were it allowable, I would remove it to that place.