Jeremiah 50 - Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Critical, Doctrinal and Homiletical - Bible Commentaries

Verses 1-5

11. Prophecy against Babylon (chh. 50, 51.)

Introduction

1. Before the battle of Carchemish Jeremiah predicted to his people a severe visitation by a people coming from the north, whom he afterwards recognized as the Chaldeans, and then constantly proclaimed that Israel and the other nations would be saved from complete destruction only by subjection to Nebuchadnezzar. It may, therefore, be said that during part of his ministry he spoke of the Chaldeans unknowingly in a manner favorable to them. There is no contradiction, however, as many suppose, in his here predicting the destruction of Babylon itself, and in the same manner by a people coming from the north (Jeremiah 50:3; Jeremiah 50:9; Jeremiah 50:41, Jeremiah 51:48). For Jeremiah would only say that for the present, in the proximate future, Babylon is the instrument of judgment on all nations (Jeremiah 50:23; Jeremiah 51:20 sqq.), but the time is coming when Babylon itself must drain the cup of wrath, in punishment for the sins which it has incurred in the execution of its mission (Jeremiah 50:11; Jeremiah 50:24; Jeremiah 50:28; Jeremiah 50:32; Jeremiah 51:6; Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:24; Jeremiah 51:36; Jeremiah 51:56). Jeremiah’s declarations for and against Babylon are thus related to each other, as in Jeremiah 25:27 the brief declaration, “and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them,” is to the previous announcements that Babylon shall offer the cup of wrath. It is not strange to find a prophecy against Babylon in Jeremiah, but must be regarded as perfectly natural.

2. Prophecy against Babylon has a history. First, Isaiah, probably moved by the embassy, which Merodach-Baladan sent to Hezekiah (Isaiah 39:0, 2 Kings 20:12 sqq.) proclaimed the judgment of destruction on Babylon (Isaiah 13:14, Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 46:1-2; Isaiah 47:0; Isaiah 48:14 sqq.). He is followed by Micah, who, in a brief declaration, comprises all which Jeremiah has said in his whole book for and against Babylon, “thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thy enemies.” Micah 4:10. Habakkuk then, the cotemporary of Jeremiah, prophesied before him, but after the battle of Carchemish, against Babylon, characterizing it not only in the narrower sense as a power hostile to the people of Israel, but also in a higher and more comprehensive sense as a worldly power, self-deifying, and the enemy of God. Jeremiah finally appropriates his predecessors and represents the acme of Old Testament prophecy against Babylon. He thus forms the main foundation for the prophecy of the Apocalypse concerning the Babylon of the final period. It is, however, to be observed that he gives relatively less prominence than Habakkuk to the ideal significance of Babylon as a type of ungodly, self-deifying, worldly powers. The latter does this in brief but wondrously profound and significant utterances. “For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that powerful and irrepressible nation, which goes as far as the earth extends, to occupy dwellings which are not. Terrible and fearful are they; from themselves proceed their judgment and their dignity” (Habakkuk 1:6-7). “Then he overflows with courage and transgresses and becomes guilty; this his power is unto his God” (Habakkuk 1:11). “Lo, inflated, not upright is his soul within him, but the just by faith shall live” (Habakkuk 2:4). “Yea also because wine stultifies a man, who is arrogant and is not contented, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is like death and cannot be satisfied, but draweth to himself all nations and gathereth to himself all nations” (Habakkuk 2:5).—Jeremiah by no means passes over this element, but he rather intimates it only in single words, in those significant names which he gives to Babylon when he calls it Double defiance (Jeremiah 50:21), Pride (as personification in Jeremiah 50:31-32), Heart of my opponents (Jeremiah 51:1), Golden cup making the whole earth drunk (Jeremiah 51:7). We may then say that of the two contemporary prophets, who lived to see the culmination of the Babylonian power, Jeremiah draws the grandest and most complete picture of the destruction menacing Babylon, but in such wise that he only intimates the ideal element which represents Babylon as the centre and type of all worldly enmity to God, while Habakkuk, who, notwithstanding the external insignificance of his little book, has a powerful and profound mind, gives us deeper glances into the inner life of the Babylonian empire.

3. It is not, however, the prophets who first stamped Babylon as a centre and type of ungodly empire. This character was impressed upon it from the earliest period. It was the locality of the first earthly princedom. That Nimrod, whose memory is preserved to the present day by the ruined tower of the Birs Nimrud, and who still lives in the traditions of the East as a great criminal and enemy of God, had, according to Genesis 10:8 sqq., Babylon as the beginning of his dominion. The first aristocrat, hero of the chase and of war, conqueror, and despot, proceeded from Babylon. Add to this, that the Babylonian tower-structure is, according to its most essential nature, to be regarded as an undertaking of human pride begun without God and in man’s own strength. The tower was to be a memorial of a period of gigantic effort and aspiration towards the political concentration of the human race into one irresistible power. Thus we see that the ideas of earthly power and glory were from the first native to the soil of Babylon. Comp. Naegelsb., Jer. u. Bab., S. 5 sqq.; Perizonius, Origg. Babylonicæ, Cap. 10–12; Jahn, Archæology I., 1, S. 30, coll. Deyling, Observ. Sacræ., P. III., p. 19 ff.—Brian Walton in his Polyglott, Lond., Prolegg. I., pag. 3; Hetzel, Gedanken über den babylonischen Thurmbau, Hildb., 1775; Görres, Die Völkertafel des Pent., Regensburg, 1845, 1, S. 51. The seed sowed in that primitive period reached its full bloom in Nebuchadnezzar. By him Babylon was really made the first “all-devouring” universal monarchy, by which I mean that his power was greater than that of the Assyrians before him, or the Persians and Romans after him. But he also devoured the theocracy, i.e., the only point on this earth where the kingdom of God was represented in the form of a human popular and civil life. Since that time the kingdom of God as such has had no place on earth. It is still as the church in the embrace of worldly power. Babylon, however, the first worldly power which brought the kingdom of God into this condition, appears from that time in the Scriptures as the worldly power, κατʼ ἐξοχὴν, so that not only what the Old Testament prophets declare of the different representatives of worldly dominion, of Egypt (Revelation 11:8), Tyre (Revelation 18:11 coll. Ezekiel 27:0.), Nineveh (Revelation 18:3; Revelation 18:5 coll. Nahum 3:4, Jonah 1:2), is transferred in the New Testament to Babylon, but even the name of Babylon itself is attributed to the final form of the worldly power, antichristian Rome. Comp. Revelation 17:9; Revelation 17:18. See in general Revelation 14:8; Revelation 16:9, and especially chh. 17, 18. This subject is treated more in detail in Naegelsb. Jer. u. Bab.

4. With regard to the etymology of the name Babylon there have been two opposite views. According to one, which was first broached by Stephanus Byzantinus and the Etymologicon Magn. s. v. Βαβνλὼν, the name, designates Bel as the founder of the city. Eichhorn (Biblioth. d. bibl. Litt. III., S. 1001) accordingly explains בָּבֶל as arising from Bab Bel, i.e., porta or aula Beli. Gesenius (Thesaur., pag. 212), Tuch and others modify this view, in so far that they translate בָּבֶל domus Beli, since the word is written in Arabic bâbel, and bâ is frequently used in Arabic names of cities for bî, bêt. Knobel (Gen., S. 128) derives Babel from Bar-bel, i.e., arx (βᾶρις, בִּירַה) Beli. It is opposed however to these explanations that they are supported on partly much too recent and partly altogether insecure linguistic analogies. The other explanation is founded on Genesis 11:7; Genesis 11:9 (נָֽכְלָה שְׂפָתַּם, Jeremiah 50:7 and בִּי שָׁם בָּלֵל י׳ שְׂבַּת בָּל־הָאָרֶץ), According to this בָּבֶל arose from בַּלְבֵּל. The punctuation of the first syllable is to he explained after the analogy of כּוֹכָב for טוֹטָבּוֹת כַּבְכָּב, for טָכְּטָבּוֹת (Ew. § 158, c; Olsh. § 74, § 189, a). For the Segol of the second syllable appeal might be made to כַרְמֶל (Delitzsch on Genesis 11:9). The meaning would be confusio. Comp. Exodus 29:2; Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 2:4-6; further, בְּלִיל, farrago; תְּבֻלַּל troubling, blemish (Leviticus 21:20). These explanations are also favored by the ancient translations. Onkelos translates נָֽבְלָה, Genesis 11:7, by בָּלַל ,נְבַלְבֵּל, Jeremiah 50:9, by בִּלְבֵּל, confudit. Comp. Buxtorf, Lex. Rabb. et Talm., pag. 309. The Peshito version has in Jeremiah 11:9 balbel (comp. Castelli, Lex., pag. 100); Saadiah balbala confudit.—Comp. Gabler, Urgeschichte II. 2, S. 228. Haevernick, Einleit. i. A. T., I., S. 147, 8.—The Babylonian monuments lead to still another etymology. According to Oppert, namely (Exp. en. Mesop. II. S. 46), the word reads on the monuments Babi-ilu, Babilu. Bab is the Shemitic בַּב door, Ilu the ·͂Ηλος in Diodorus, the Κρόνος of the Greeks, Saturn, the god of the deluge. The meaning of the name would then be Porta Dei diluvii. Comp. Ib., S. 67, 157, 259.—Which of these explanations is the correct one is by no means decided, for even the cuneiform inscriptions, presupposing that they are correctly deciphered, represent a late date in relation to the origin of the name, and it is a question whether the Babylonian scholars themselves knew the correct etymology of the word. [Comp. also Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, s. v., Babel, Babylon; Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, I., p. 149; Id., Herodotus, II., p. 574; Dr. Pusey, Lectures on Daniel, p. 271, n, quoted in Wordsworth ad loc.—S. R. A.]

5. The genuineness of this prophecy has been shown by me in detail in my work Jeremia und Babylon, S. 69 ff. Graf also acknowledges it (S. 580 ff.). Only Ewald and Meier, so far as I know, still persist, in maintaining its unauthenticity. “This portion evidently belongs to the last period of the exile, and cannot therefore proceed from Jeremiah,” says the latter (Die prophet. Bücher d. A. T., S. 350, 2). I myself formerly regarded the passage Jeremiah 50:41-46 as a gloss, but I have now retracted this opinion. But after repeated investigation I cannot regard the passage Jeremiah 51:15-19 as original. Consult the exegesis. In respect to the word שֵׁשַׁדְ, Jeremiah 51:41, also, my suspicions have not yet been removed.

6. In what manner the prophecy is related to its fulfilment has been fully shown in Naegelsb. Jer. u. Bab., S. 135. I add to the remark there, that according to Theodoret Jews were the last inhabitants of the destroyed city of Babylon, the following notice from Oppert (Exp. I., S. 135): “Hillah fut fondée par Seifeddaulet vers l’an 1100 à la place de l’antique ville de Babylone, τὸ ἄστν. Jusque-là, des Juifs avaient habité seuls la ville ou plutôt les ruines de Babylone; en 1030 après Jesus-Christ ils quittèrent ces lieux.” Many later witnesses thus corroborate the statement of Theodoret, that the people of Israel could not separate themselves from the corpse of the city, which had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

7. In regard to the division of the portion, I am no longer of opinion that the whole is to be discriminated into three main sections with thirteen subdivisions. I still think that three chronological stages may be distinguished, in so far as the destruction of Babylon is represented partly as future, now in the stage of preparation (comp. Jeremiah 50:9; Jeremiah 50:21; Jeremiah 50:26; Jeremiah 50:41) partly as present, in the process of execution (comp. Jeremiah 50:14; Jeremiah 50:24; Jeremiah 50:35; Jeremiah 50:43, etc.; Jeremiah 51:1; Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:27), partly as already accomplished (comp. Jeremiah 50:2; Jeremiah 50:15; Jeremiah 50:46; Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:41; Jeremiah 51:46; Jeremiah 51:57). And these three stages are so distributed that the first is chiefly in the beginning, the second chiefly in the middle, the third towards the close; but not so sharply defined that Jeremiah 50:21 to Jeremiah 51:33 may be regarded as the second and the foregoing and following as the first and third divisions. The single tableaux or pictures, of which, according to the peculiar style of Jeremiah, the discourse consists, are more distinct. I find nineteen of these, exclusive of the superscription and the historical close. The exegesis will exhibit these in detail.

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1. THE SUPERSCRIPTION

Jeremiah 50:1

1 The word which Jehovah spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The form of the superscription is like those in Jeremiah 45:1; Jeremiah 46:13. The expression בְּיַר is not found in any other superscription of Jeremiah’s. It occurs in this sense only in Jeremiah 37:2. In my work, Jer. u. Bab., S. 22, I have proposed the hypothesis that there is in this an intimation that this prophecy, according to Jeremiah 51:59 sqq., was given only by the hand, not by the mouth of the prophet. אֶל־אֶרֶץ ו׳ defines more particularly the idea of בַָּבֶל and guards against too narrow a rendering. Comp. Jeremiah 50:8; Jeremiah 50:45; Jeremiah 51:54.

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2. THE CORD BROKEN; ISRAEL FREE (Psalms 124:7)

2 Declare it among the nations,

Publish it and erect a signal;
Publish it, conceal it not.
Say “Babylon is taken, with shame stands Bel,
Merodach is thrown down, with shame stand her images,
Thrown down are her idols.”

3 For a nation cometh against her from the north,

And will make her land desolate,
That no inhabitant shall be therein
From man down to beast they flee; up, away!

4 In those days and at that time, saith Jehovah,

The children of Israel shall come,
They and the children of Judah together;
Weeping shall they come
And seek Jehovah their God.

5 After Zion shall they inquire,

Their faces turned thitherward:
“Come, let us join ourselves1 to Jehovah

In a perpetual covenant2 that shall not be forgotten.”

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The prophet in the first two verses goes to work analytically, first (Jeremiah 50:2) causing the destruction of Babylon to be proclaimed aloud to all nations, and then (Jeremiah 50:3) saying, how and by whom this destruction will be accomplished. This analytic description serves him, however, only as a basis for a promise important to him above all, viz., that in those days the captives of Israel and Judah being liberated, will come home and be united to their God in an eternal and unforgetable covenant (Jeremiah 50:4-5).

Jeremiah 50:2-3. Declare it…up, away. The importance of the matter is shown in the grandeur and animation of the opening, in which the summons to proclaim and the declaration of the destruction are five times repeated. Comp. Jeremiah 4:5-6; Jeremiah 5:20; Jeremiah 31:7; Jeremiah 46:14.—Erect a signal, i.e., for the rapid spread of the tidings. Comp. Jeremiah 51:12; Jeremiah 51:27; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1; Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 13:2.—Conceal it not. The address seems to be to the friends of Babylon, who might be disposed to withhold this Job’s post.—Taken. Comp. Jeremiah 8:9; Jeremiah 10:14; Jeremiah 46:24; Jeremiah 48:1.—Bel and Merodach are not different deities, but one and the same (comp. Delitzsch on Isaiah 46:1). The temple of Belus (comp. Herod. I. 181, 2) was also the temple of Marduk, as he is called on the monuments. Here he was worshipped as the Bilu rabu (בַּעַל רָב) as deus augurationis and protective deity of Babylonia. “Toute la dynastie Babylonienne (says Oppert, Exp. en Mesop., Tom. II., p. 272) le met (Merodach) à la tête des Dieux, et l’inscription de Borsippa le nomme le roi du ciel et de la terre. Nebo prend la seconde place et les autres divinités ne paraissent que rarement.” Comp. Tom. 1, p. 178, 9.—That he is not Mars, as I formerly supposed and Hahn in Drechsler’sJesaja on Jeremiah 31:1 (II., 2, S. 212) directly maintains, is decidedly affirmed by Oppert (p. 271).—The purport of the proclamation is expressed in Jeremiah 50:2 b and 3 only. From Jeremiah 50:4 we have the words of the prophet, who predicts in what manner these results will be attained. This is seen from the imperfects יָשִׁית ,יִהְיֶה, etc.—A nation from the north. Comp. Jeremiah 50:9. The destroyers of Babylon are to come from the north, and in Jeremiah 51:27-28 nations to the north and north-east of Babylonia are mentioned. Comp. the map in Niebuhr’sAss. u. Bab., and S. 135, Anm. 1; 427, 8.—Moreover, the remarkable parallelism should be noticed, Babylon, once the nation from the north, menacing Israel, is now attacked by such a nation, Comp. Jeremiah 2:15; Jeremiah 4:7; Jeremiah 9:9; Jeremiah 33:12; Jeremiah 51:62.

Jeremiah 50:4-5. In those days …. forgotten. The destruction of Babylon is immediately followed by the redemption. The prophets so regard it as to comprise all the stages of its fulfilment through several thousand years in one picture. To this picture belongs above all the reunion of the tribes of the northern and southern kingdom (comp. Jeremiah 3:14-16) and then their honest conversion to the Lord (comp. Jeremiah 3:21; Jeremiah 31:9-19; Hosea 3:5), the return to Zion (Jeremiah 31:8), the conclusion of a covenant with Jehovah, which shall not be broken and forgotten like the first (comp. Genesis 17:10; Leviticus 19:5-7; Deuteronomy 29:0. and 30). Comp. also Jeremiah 20:11; Jeremiah 23:40.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. “Daniel’s Babylonian empire resumes, as it were, the thread which was broken off with the tower-erection and kingdom of Nimrod. In the Babylonian tower-building the whole of the then existing humanity was united against God; with the Babylonian kingdom began the period of the universal monarchies, which again aspired after an atheistical union of entire humanity. Babylon has since and even to the Revelation (Jeremiah 18:0) remained the standing type of this world.” Auberlen, Der proph. Daniel, S. 230.

2. For what reason does Babylon appear as a type of the world? Why not Nineveh, or Persepolis, or Tyre, or Memphis, or Rome? Certainly not because Babylon was greater, more glorious, more powerful or prouder and more ungodly than those cities and kingdoms. Nineveh especially was still greater than Babylon (comp. Duncker, Gesch. d. Alterth. I. S. 474, 5), and Assyria was not less hostile to the theocracy, having carried away into captivity the northern and larger half of the people of Israel. Babylon is qualified for this representation in two ways: 1. because it is the home of worldly princedom and titanic arrogance (Genesis 10:8; Genesis 11:1-4); 2. because Babylon destroyed the centre of the theocracy, Jerusalem, the temple and the theocratic kingdom, and first assumed to be the single supreme power of the globe.

3. “When God has used a superstitious, wicked and tyrannical nation long enough as His rod, He breaks it in pieces and finally throws it into the fire. For even those whom He formerly used as His chosen anointed instruments He then regards as but the dust in the streets or as chaff before the wind.” Cramer.

4. “No monarch is too rich, too wicked, too strong for God the Lord. And He can soon enlist and engage soldiers whom He can use against His declared enemies.” Cramer.

5. “Israel was founded on everlasting foundations, even God’s word and promise. The sins of the people brought about that it was laid low in the dust, but not without hope of a better resurrection. Babylon, on the other hand, must perish forever, for in it is the empire of evil come to its highest bloom. Jeremiah owns the nothingness of all worldly kingdoms, since they are all under this national order to serve only for a time. We are to be subject to them and seek their welfare for the sake of the souls of men, whom God is educating therein; a Christian however cannot be enthusiastic for them after the manner of the ancient heathen nor of ancient Israel, for here we have no abiding city, our citizenship is in heaven. The kingdoms of this world are no sanctuaries for us and we supplicate their continuance only with the daily bread of the fourth petition. Jeremiah applies many words and figures to Babylon which he has already used in the judgments on other nations, thus to intimate that in Babylon all the heathenism of the world culminates, and that here also must be the greatest anguish. What, however, is here declared of Babylon must be fulfilled again on all earthly powers in so far as, treading in its footprints, they take flesh for their arm and regard the material of this world as power, whether they be called states or churches.” Diedrich.

6. On Jeremiah 50:2. In putting into the mouth of Israel, returning from Babylon, the call to an everlasting covenant with Jehovah, the prophet causes them 1. to confess that they have forgotten the first covenant; 2. he shows us that the time of the new covenant begins with the redemption from the Babylonish captivity. He was far, however, from supposing that this redemption would be only a weak beginning, that the appearance of the Saviour would be deferred for centuries, that Israel would sink still deeper as an external πολιτεία, and that finally the Israel of the new covenant would itself appear as a μυστήριον, εἰς ὃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι (1 Peter 1:9-12).

7. From what Jeremiah has already said in Jeremiah 31:31-34 of the new covenant we see that its nature and its difference from the old is not unknown to him. Yet he knows the new covenant only in general. He knows that it will be deeply spiritual and eternal, but how and why it will be so is still to him part of the μυστήριον.

8. On Jeremiah 50:6. Jeremiah here points back to Jeremiah 23:0. Priests, kings and prophets, who should discharge the office of shepherds, prove to be wolves. Yea, they are the worst of wolves, who go about in official clothing. There is therefore no more dangerous doctrine than that of an infallible office. Jeremiah 14:14; Matthew 7:15; Matthew 23:2-12.

9. On Jeremiah 50:7. It is the worst condition into which a church of God can come, when the enemies who desolate it can maintain that they are in the right in doing so. It is, however, a just nemesis when those who will not hear the regular messengers of God must be told by the extraordinary messengers of God what they should have done. Comp. Jeremiah 40:2-3.

10. On Jeremiah 50:8. “Babylon is opened, and it must be abandoned not clung to, for the captivity is a temporary chastisement, not the divine arrangement for the children of God. God’s people must in the general redemption go like rams before the herd of the nations, that these may also attach themselves to Israel, as this was fulfilled at the time of Christ in the first churches and the apostles, who now draw the whole heathen world after them to eternal life. Here the prophet recognizes the new humanity, which proceeds from the ruins of the old, in which also ancient Israel leads the way; thus all, who follow it, become Israel.” Diedrich.—“The heathen felt somewhat of the divine punishment when they overcame so easily the usually so strongly protected nation. But Jeremiah shows them still how they deceived themselves in thinking that God had wholly rejected His people, for of the eternal covenant of grace they certainly understood nothing.” Heim and Hoffmann on the Major Prophets.

11. On Jeremiah 50:18. “The great powers of the world form indeed the history of the world, but they have no future. Israel, however, always returns home to the dear and glorious land. The Jews might as a token of this return under Cyrus; the case is however this, that the true Holy One in Israel, Christ, guides us back to Paradise, when we flee to His hand from the Babylon of this world and let it be crucified for us.” Diedrich.

12. On Jeremiah 50:23. “Although the Chaldeans were called of God for the purpose of making war on the Jewish nation on account of their multitudinous sins, yet they are punished because they did it not as God with a pure intention, namely, to punish the wrong in them and keep them for reformation; for they were themselves greater sinners than the Jews and continued with impenitence in their sins. Therefore they could not go scot-free and remain unpunished. Moreover, they acted too roughly and dealt with the Jews more harshly than God had commanded, for which He therefore fairly punished them. As God the Lord Himself says (Isaiah 47:6): When I was angry with My people I gave them into thine hands; but thou shewedst them no mercy. Therefore it is not enough that God’s will be accomplished, but there must be the good intention in it, which God had, otherwise such a work may be a sin and call down the divine punishment upon it.” Würtemb. Summ.

13. On Jeremiah 50:31-34. “God calls Babylon Thou Pride, for pride was their inward force and impulse in all their actions. But worldly pride makes a Babylon and brings on a Babylon’s fate .… Pride must fall, for it is in itself a lie against God, and all its might must perish in the fire; thus will the humble and meek remain in possession of the earth: this has a wide application through all times, even to eternity.” Diedrich.

14. On Jeremiah 51:33. “Israel is indeed weak and must suffer in a time of tyranny; it cannot help itself, nor needs it to do so, for its Redeemer is strong, His name The Lord Zebaoth—and He is, now, having assumed our flesh, among us and conducts our cause so that the world trembles.” Diedrich.

15. On Jeremiah 50:45. “An emblem of the destruction of anti-christian Babylon, which was also the true hammer of the whole world. This has God also broken and must and will do it still more. And this will the shepherd-boys do, as is said here in Jeremiah 51:45 (according to Luther’s translation), that is, all true teachers and preachers.” Cramer.

16. On Jeremiah 51:0. “The doctrines accord in all points with the previous chapter. And the prophet Jeremiah both in this and the previous chapter does nothing else but make out for the Babylonians their final discharge and passport, because they behaved so valiantly and well against the people of Judah, that they might know they would not go unrecompensed. For payment is according to service. And had they done better it would have gone better with them. It is well that when tyrants succeed in their evil undertakings they should not suppose they are God’s dearest children and lean on His bosom, since they will yet receive the recompense on their crown, whatever they have earned.” Cramer.

17. [“Though in the hand of Babylon is a golden cup; she chooses such a cup, in order that men’s eyes may be dazzled with the glitter of the gold, and may not inquire what it contains. But mark well, in the golden cup of Babylon is the poison of idolatry, the poison of false doctrines, which destroy the souls of men. I have often seen such a golden cup, in fair speeches of seductive eloquence: and when I have examined the venomous ingredients of the golden chalice, I have recognized the cup of Babylon.” Origen in Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]

“The seat and throne of Anti-christ is expressly named Babylon, namely, the city of Rome, built on the seven hills (Revelation 17:9). Just as Babylon brought so many lands and kingdoms under its sway and ruled them with great pomp and pride (the golden cup, which made all the world drunk, was Babylon in the hand of the Lord (Jeremiah 51:7), and all the heathen drank of the wine and became mad)—so has the spiritual Babylon a cup in its hand, full of the abomination and uncleanness of its whoredom, of which the kings of the earth and all who dwell on the earth have been made drunk. As it is said of Babylon that she dwells by great waters and has great treasures, so writes John of the Romish Babylon, that it is clothed in silk and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls (Revelation 18:12). Of Babylon it is said that the slain in Israel were smitten by her; so also the spiritual Babylon is become drunk with the blood of the saints (Revelation 17:6). Just, however, as the Chaldean Babylon is a type of the spiritual in its pride and despotism, so also is it a type of the destruction which will come upon it. Many wished to heal Babylon but she would not be healed; so many endeavor to support the ruinous anti-christian Babylon, but all in vain. For as Babylon was at last so destroyed as to be a heap of stones and abode of dragons, so will it be with anti-christian Babylon. Of this it is written in Revelation 14:8 : She is fallen, fallen, that great city, for she has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. And again, Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils and a hold of all foul and hateful birds (Revelation 18:2). As the inhabitants of Babylon were admonished to flee from her, that every man might deliver his soul (Jeremiah 51:6)—and again, My people, go ye out from the midst of her and deliver every man his soul, etc. (Jeremiah 51:45)—so the Holy Spirit admonishes Christians almost in the same words to go out from the spiritual Babylon, that they be not polluted by her sins and at the same time share in her punishment. For thus it is written in Revelation 18:4, I heard, says John, a voice from heaven saying, Go ye out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins reach unto heaven and God remembers her iniquities.” Wurtemb. Summarien.

18. On Jeremiah 51:5. “A monarch can sooner make an end of half a continent than draw a nail from a hut which the Lord protects.—And if it is true that Kaiser Rudolph, when he revoked the toleration of the Picards and the same day lost one of his principal forts, said, ‘I thought it would be so, for I grasped at God’s sceptre’ (Weismanni, Hist. Eccl. Tom. II. p. 320)—this was a sage remark, a supplement to the words of the wise.” Zinzendorf.

19. On Jeremiah 51:9. We heal Babylon, but she will not be healed. Babylon is an outwardly beautiful but inwardly worm-eaten apple. Hence sooner or later the foulness must become noticeable. So is it with all whose heart and centre is not God. All is inwardly hollow and vain. When this internal vacuity begins to render itself externally palpable, when here and there a rent or foul spot becomes visible, then certainly come the friends and admirers of the unholy form and would improve, cover up, sew up, heal. But it does not avail. When once there is death in the body no physician can effect a cure.

20. On Jeremiah 51:17; Jeremiah 51:19-20. “The children of God have three causes why they may venture on Him. 1. All men are fools, their treasure is it not; 2. The Lord is their hammer; He breaks through everything, and 3, they are an instrument in His hand, a heritage; in this there is happiness.” Zinzendorf.

21. On Jeremiah 51:41-44. “How was Sheshach thus won, the city renowned in all the world thus taken? No one would have thought it possible, but God does it. He rules with wonders and with wonders He makes His church free. Babylon is a wonder no longer for its power, but for its weakness. We are to know the world’s weakness even where it still appears strong. A sea of hostile nations has covered Babylon. Her land is now a desolation. God takes Bel, the principal idol of Babylon, symbolizing its whole civil powers in hand, and snatches his prey from his teeth. Our God is stronger than all worldly forces, and never leaves us to them.” Diedrich.

22. On Jeremiah 51:58. “Yea, so it is with all walls and towers, in which God’s word is not the vital force, even though they be entitled churches and cathedrals … God’s church alone possesses permanence through His pure word.” Diedrich.

23. On Jeremiah 51:60-64. When we wish to preserve an archive safely, we deposit it in a record-office where it is kept in a dry place that no moisture may get to it. Seraiah throws his book-roll into the waters of the Euphrates, which must wash it away, dissolve and destroy it. But this was of no account. The main point was that he, Seraiah, as representative of the holy nation had taken solemn stock of the word of God against Babylon, and as it were taken God at His word, and reminded Him of it. In this manner the matter was laid up in the most enduring and safest archive that could be imagined; it was made a case of honor with the omniscient and omnipotent God. Such matters can, however, neither be forgotten, nor remain in dead silence, nor be neglected. They must be brought to such an end as the honor of God requires.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. On Jeremiah 50:2. This text may be used on the feast of the Reformation, or any other occasion with reference to a rem bene gestam. The Triumph of the Good Cause, 1. over what enemies it is gained; 2. to what it should impel us; (a) to the avoidance of that over which we new triumph; (b) to the grateful proclamation of what the Lord has done for us, by word and by deed.

2. On Jeremiah 50:4-8. The deliverance of Israel from the Babylonian captivity a type of the deliverance of the Church. 1. The Church must humbly acknowledge the captivity suffered as a judgment of God. 2. She must turn like Israel inwardly with an upright heart unto the Lord; 3. She must become like Israel to all men a pattern and leader to freedom.

3. On Jeremiah 50:5. A confirmation sermon. “What is the hour of confirmation? 1. An hour which calls to separation; 2. an hour which leads to new connections; 3. an hour which fixes forever the old covenant with the soul’s friend.” Florey, 1853.

4. On Jeremiah 50:18-20. Assyria and Babylon the types of all the spiritual enemies of the church as of individual Christians. Every one has his Assyria and his Babylon. Sin is the destruction of men. Forgiveness of sins is the condition of life, for only where forgiveness of sins is, is there life and blessedness. In Christ we find the forgiveness of sins. He destroys the handwriting. He washes us clean. He is also the good shepherd who leads our souls into green pastures, to the spiritual Carmel.

5. On Jeremiah 50:31-32. Warning against pride. Babylon was very strong and powerful, rich and splendid. It seemed invincible by nature and by art. Had it not then a certain justification in being proud, at least towards men? No; for no one has to contend only with men. Every one who contends has the Lord either for his friend or his enemy. It is the Lord from whom cometh victory (Proverbs 21:31). He it is who teacheth our hands to fight (Psalms 18:35; Psalms 144:1). His strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). He can make the lame (Isaiah 33:23; Micah 4:7) and mortally wounded (Jeremiah 37:10) so strong that they overmaster the sound (comp. Jeremiah 51:45). He can make one man put to flight a thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30; Isaiah 30:17). With him can one dash in pieces a troop and leap over a wall (Psalms 18:29). No one accordingly should be proud. The word of the Lord, “I am against thee, thou proud one!” is a terrible word which no one should conjure up against himself.

6. On Jeremiah 50:33-34. The consolation of the Church in persecution. 1. It suffers violence and injustice. 2. Its redeemer is strong.

7. On Jeremiah 51:5. God the Lord manifests such favor to Israel as to declare Himself her husband (Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 3:1). But now that Israel and Judah are in exile, it seems as if they were rejected or widowed women. This, however, is only appearance. Israel’s husband does not die. He may well bring a period of chastisement, of purification and trial on His people, but when this period is over, the Lord turns the handle, and smites those through whom He chastised Israel, when they had forgotten that they were not to satisfy their own desire, but only to accomplish the Lord’s will on Israel.

8. On Jeremiah 51:6. A time may come when it is well to separate one’s self. For although it is said in Proverbs 18:1; he who separateth himself, seeketh that which pleaseth him and opposeth all that is good—and therefore separation, as the antipodes of churchliness, i.e., of churchly communion and humble subjection to the law of the co-operation of members (1 Corinthians 12:25 sqq.) is to be repudiated, yet there may come moments in the life of the church, when it will be a duty to leave the community and separate one’s self. Such a moment is come when the community has become a Babylon. It should, however, be noted that one should not be too ready with such a decision. For even the life of the church is subject to many vacillations. There are periods of decay, obscurations, as it were, comparable to eclipses of the stars, but to these, so long as the foundations only subsist, must always follow a restoration and return to the original brightness. No one is to consider the church a Babylon on account of such a passing state of disease. It is this only when it has withheld the objective divine foundations, the means of grace, the word and sacrament, altogether and permanently in their saving efficacy. Then, when the soul can no longer find in the church the pure and divine bread of life; it is well “to deliver the soul that it perish not in the iniquity of the church.” From this separation from the church is, however, to be carefully distinguished the separation within the church, from all that which is opposed to the healthy life of the church, and is therefore to be regarded as a diseased part of the ecclesiastical body. Such separation is the daily duty of the Christian. He has to perform it with respect to his private life in all the manifold relations, indicated to us in Matthew 18:17; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 5:9 sqq.; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; Titus 3:10; 2 John 1:10-11.—Comp. the article on Sects, by Palmer in Herzog, R.-Enc., XXI., S. 21, 22.

9. On Jeremiah 51:10. The righteousness which avails before God. 1. Its origin (not our work or merit, but God’s grace in Christ); 2. Its fruit, praise of that which the Lord has wrought in us (a) by words, (b) by works.

10. On Jeremiah 51:50. This text may be used at the sending out of missionaries or the departure of emigrants. Occasion may be taken to speak 1, of the gracious help and deliverance, which the Lord has hitherto shown to the departing; 2, they may be admonished to remain united in their distant land with their brethren at home by (a) remembering the Lord, i.e., ever remaining sincerely devoted to the Lord as the common shield of salvation; (b) faithfuly serving Jerusalem, i.e., the common mother of us all (Galatians 4:26), the church, with all our powers in the proper place and measure, and ever keeping her in our hearts.

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 50:5; Jeremiah 50:5.—באו ונלוו Both forms are Imperative, and there is no need either to take בּאֹוּ as Perf. or to alter נִלְווּ into נִלִיה(Graf.). Comp. Ewald, § 226, b; Olsh, § Joel 4:11; Isaiah 43:9.

Jeremiah 50:5; Jeremiah 50:5.—ברית עולם. Accus. modalis. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70, i; Jeremiah 31:31-32; Jeremiah 32:40.

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Verses 6-13

3. THE CHASTISEMENT OF THE CHASTISER

Jeremiah 50:6-13

6 A lost herd3 was4 my people:

Their shepherds had led them astray on seductive mountains,5

From mountain to hill they went,
Forgat their fold.

7 Whoever found them devoured them,

And their oppressors said: We incur no guilt,
Because they have sinned against Jehovah,
The true pasturage and their fathers’ hope, Jehovah.

8 Flee out of Babylon and—

Let them go6 forth out of the land of the Chaldeans,

And be as the rams before the sheep!

9 For behold, I raise and lead7 against Babylon

An assembly of great nations from the north country;
They equip themselves against her, there8 she is taken—

Their arrows9 like those of a successful10 hero, who returneth not empty,

10 And Chaldea shall become a prey;

All that plunder her shall be satisfied, saith Jehovah.

11 For thou rejoicedst,11 for thou exultedst, robber of my heritage,

For thou skippedst like a thrashing12 calf

And neighedst like the strong steeds.

12 Your mother is put to great shame,

She that bare you blushes.
“Behold the last of the nations, wilderness, waste, and steppe,”

13 Because of the wrath of Jehovah it shall be uninhabited,

And shall be wholly a desolation:
Whoever passeth by Babylon is amazed,
And mocks her on account of all her strokes.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Israel has certainly sinned greatly by idolatry (Jeremiah 50:6), and has therefore been deservedly chastised by his enemies (Jeremiah 50:7). But now the hour of deliverance strikes (Jeremiah 50:8). for the Lord sends against Babylon great hosts of nations from the north, who will attack it successfully (Jeremiah 50:9). In consequence Babylon itself shall become a prey (Jeremiah 50:10), and receive the punishment for having discharged its office as punisher of Israel with arrogant and malicious joy (Jeremiah 50:11). It shall thus be the last of nations, and the country be a horrible wilderness (Jeremiah 50:12-13).

Jeremiah 50:6-7. A lost herd … hope, Jehovah. Comp. Ezekiel 34:4; Ezekiel 34:16; Psalms 119:176; Luke 15:4; Luke 15:6.—Their shepherds. Comp. Jeremiah 10:21; Jeremiah 12:10; Jeremiah 23:1 sqq.—Seductive. The mountains may well be thus called, which by means of the worship of high-places practised upon them, exerted such an irresistible charm on the heart of carnal Israel. Comp. Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:2; Jeremiah 6:23; Jeremiah 17:2.—Whoever found them. Comp. Jeremiah 2:3; Jeremiah 10:25; Jeremiah 30:16. In this expression there is evidently an intimation that Israel has been often devoured. The enemies had a certain degree of justification in this, but in yielding to the illusion that they could not sin against Israel, forsaken by his God, and could therefore do any thing to him, they incurred great guilt, as is seen in what follows.—True pasturage. Zion is called נְוִה־צֶדֶק31:23. Here Jehovah Himself is so called, as elsewhere a fortress (Psalms 18:3) sun, shield (Psalms 84:11), shade (Psalms 121:5).—Father’s hope. Comp. Jeremiah 14:8; Jeremiah 17:13.

Jeremiah 50:8-10. Flee … saith Jehovah. The tables are turned. Babylon must now suffer the punishment of injustice. The hour of deliverance has struck for Israel and the other nations held in bondage. Hence the summons is made to Israel to flee. Comp. Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11; Zechariah 2:10.—As the rams, etc. The sense is not both that Israel is to press forward in order to save himself before all, but rather that it is to go before all (comp. Jeremiah 50:16) as an example and leader in the flight.—North. Comp. rems. on Jeremiah 50:3.—Like those, etc. Comp. Jeremiah 4:31; Jeremiah 46:22; Naegelsb. Gr., § 65, 3 Anm.—Who returneth, etc. Comp. 2 Samuel 1:22.—Chaldea, Kasdim as the name of the country, as in Jeremiah 51:24; Jeremiah 51:35; Ezekiel 11:24.—A prey. Comp. Jeremiah 49:32.

Jeremiah 50:11-13. For thou rejoicedst … stroke.—I take כִּי simply as “for,” so that Jeremiah 50:11 gives the reason why Chaldea is to become a prey. The imperfects then designate the action as continuing in the past. Comp, Naegelsb. Gr., § 87 f.: Jeremiah 15:9; Jeremiah 36:18.

Jeremiah 50:12-13 conclude the discourse with a lively description, sketched in a few powerful strokes of the condition of Babylon after the attack predicted in Jeremiah 50:9-10. The prophet beholds this as though it had been produced in his presence. Hence the perfects is put to shame, and blushes (Jeremiah 15:9), Observe that the prophet here addresses the single individuals of the nation. Hence your mother and last of the nations. Comp. Psalms 139:9; Amos 9:1; Jeremiah 31:7.—Waste (ציה). Comp. Jeremiah 51:43.—Uninhabited. Comp. Isaiah 13:20; Jeremiah 17:6; Jeremiah 17:25; Jeremiah 30:18.—Whoever passeth. Comp. Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 49:17.