Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 49:26

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Israel rebuilt (49:8-50:3)

Once more God promises the return of the captive Jews to their homeland. God will protect them along the journey and help them as they rebuild their ruined country (8-10). Whether exiled in Babylon or scattered in other places, the people will return home amid much rejoicing (11-13).
Some of the Jews thought God had forgotten them. God now shows that for him this is impossible (14-16). Israel will return and rebuild its homeland. Opponents who try to ruin Israel’s work will not be successful and will leave in shame and defeat (17-18). People born in exile will flock to the rebuilt Jerusalem. The land previously uninhabited and in ruins will become well populated and prosperous again (19-21). Scattered Jews in other countries will also return, helped by generous aid from the nations among whom they have lived (22-23).
Among the exiles were some who apparently doubted the prophet’s promise of restoration, for Babylon seemed unconquerable. How can a captive people possibly be freed when they are in the grip of such a powerful tyrant (24)? God replies that he can do it. He reminds the doubting exiles that he is the all-powerful God and Israel’s covenant redeemer. He will crush the Babylonians in a judgment suited to the cruel oppression that they inflicted on their helpless victims (25-26).
Other Jews blamed God for their troubles, as if he had cast them off like a husband who divorces his wife or a father who sells his children to pay off his debts. God replies that they have no evidence to support such an accusation, for he has neither ‘divorced’ them nor ‘sold’ them. Rather their sins are the cause of their troubles (50:1). They ignored God when he spoke to them through his servants the prophets. But he still loves them and has the power to save them. Nothing in all creation can withstand his power (2-3).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive be delivered? But thus saith Jehovah, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Here is God's dogmatic promise to deliver Israel from Babylonian captivity. He will feed the captors with their own flesh, and make them drunk with their own blood. This language seems to be metaphorical with the meaning, "Not that the Babylonians would literally resort to cannibalism, but that they would destroy themselves through civil war and internal strife."Broadman Bible Commentary (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1971), p. 332.

It will be remembered that Cyrus' siege of Babylon went on for quite a long time before Babylon was captured; and Rawlinson explains how this prophecy was fulfilled during that interval:

"The prophecy meant that civil disunion would break the power of Babylon and render her an easy prey to the Persians. Recently discovered inscriptions clearly show that this was the case. Nabonidus had alienated the affection of his subjects by changes in the religion of the country, and during the course of the war with Cyrus, many Babylonian tribes went over to the invaders and fought against their own countrymen (from the Cylinder of Nabonidus)."Pulpit Commentary, Vol. II, p. 234.

Despite the application of these last two verses to the breaking of Babylonian power and the delivery of the captives, there is a much more universal prophecy here of the ultimate victory of the New Israel, the Church of our Lord, over a more powerful enemy than Babylon, namely, Satan himself. As Clarke accurately stated:

"These last two verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Christ from the "terrible one," Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, and persecuting anti-Christian rulers. They shall at last cease from persecuting the Church of God, and destroy one another."Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (London: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1837), Vol. IV, p. 195.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh - The language used here is that which appropriately describes the distresses resuiting from discord and internal strifes. Similar language occurs in Isaiah 9:20 (see the note on that verse). Their rage shall be excited against each other; and there shall be anarchy, internal discord, and the desire of mutual revenge. They shall destroy themselves by mutual conflicts, until they are gorged with slaughter, and drunk with blood.

And they shall be drunken with their own blood - A similar expression occurs in Revelation 16:6 : ‘For they have shed the blood of the prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink.’ This expression describes a state of internal strife, where blood would be profusely shed, and where it would be, as it were, the drink of those who were contending with each other. Grotius supposes that it refers to the conflicts between the Persians and the Medes, and those of the Medes and Persians with the Babylonians. Vitringa supposes it received its fulfillment in the contests which took place in the Roman empire, particularly during the reign of Diocletian, when so many rivals contended for the sovereignty. Perhaps, however, it is in vain to attempt to refer this to any single conflict, or state of anarchy. The language is general; and it may mean in general that God would guard and protect his people; and that in doing this, he would fill the ranks of his foes with confusion, and suffer them to be torn and distracted with internal strifes; and amidst those strifes, and by means of them, would secure the deliverance and safety of his own people. It has not unfrequently happened that he has suffered or caused discord to spring up among the enemies of his people, and distracted their counsels, and thus secured the safety and welfare of those whom they were opposing and persecuting.

As with sweet wine - Margin, ‘New.’ The Hebrew word (עסיס ‛âsiys) means ‘must,’ or new wine Joel 1:5; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13. The Septuagint renders it, Οῖνον νέον Oinon neon - ‘New wine.’ The ‘must,’ or new wine, was the pure juice which ran first after the grapes had been laid in a heap preparatory to pressure. The ancients had the art of preserving this for a long time, so as to retain its special flavor, and were in the habit of drinking it in the morning (see Hor. Sat. ii. 4). This had the intoxicating property very slightly, if at all; and Harmer (Obs. vol. ii. p. 151) supposes that the kind here meant was rather such as was used in ‘royal palaces for its gratefulness,’ which was capable of being kept to a great age. It is possible, I think, that there may be an allusion here to the fact that it required a ‘large quantity of the must’ or new wine to produce intoxication, and that the idea here is that a large quantity of blood would be shed.

And all flesh - The effect of all this shall be to diffuse the true religion throughout the world. The result of the contentions that shall be excited among the enemies of the people of God; of their civil wars and mutual slaughter; and of the consequent protection and defense of the people whom they were endeavoring to destroy, shall be to diffuse the true religion among the nations, and to bring all people to acknowledge that he who thus protects his church is the true and only God. It would be easy to show the fulfillment of this prediction from the records of the past, and from the efforts which have been made to destroy the church of God. But that would be foreign to the design of these notes. A very slight acquaintance with the repeated efforts to destroy the ancient people of God in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Babylon, and under Antiochus Epiphanes; with the early persecution of the Christians in Judea; with the successive persecutions in the Roman empire from the time of Nero to Diocletian; with the persecution of the Waldenses in Switserland; of the Huguenots in France; and of the Reformers in England, will be sufficient to convince anyone that God is the protector of the church, and that no weapons formed against her shall prosper. Her enemies shall be distracted in their counsels, and left to anarchy and overthrow; and the church shall rise resplendent from all their persecutions, and shall prosper ultimately just in proportion to their efforts to destroy it.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

26.And I will feed thy oppressors with their own flesh. First, he declares what is the nature of that end which awaits the enemies of the Church, and threatens that they shall not only be inflamed with mutual hatred, but shall likewise slay each other by mutual slaughter. And indeed it is God who drives them headlong, and rouses them to rage, so that they tum against themselves that strength which they formerly exerted against the Church, fight with each other, as the Midianites did, and bring destruction on themselves. (Judges 7:22.) The meaning amounts to this, that there will be no need of outward aid or of any preparations, when God shall determine to overtum and destroy the reprobate; because, having been struck by him with giddiness, they shall wear themselves out in mutual conflict by the insatiable rage with which they shall attack each other.

And all flesh shall know. He repeats that statement which we have formerly seen, namely, that he will be acknowledged by all to be the God of Israel and the true and only God, when he shall have delivered his people from destruction; for he intended it to be a demonstration of his Divinity, that he openly manifested himself to be the Redeemer and Savior of his people.

The Mighty One of Jacob. Some read the word Jacob in the vocative case: “O mighty Jacob;” but I read it in the genitive case, “of Jacob.” The Lord testifies that he is the Savior, Redeemer, and Mighty One of Israel, that they may rely with their whole heart on his defense and protection.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 49

Now in chapter 49, we have a fabulous prophecy of Jesus Christ in the first seven verses as God speaks of the Redeemer that He is sending.

Listen, O coasts, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; For the LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me ( Isaiah 49:1-2 );

You go back to Psalms 22:1-31 , that glorious prophetic Messianic psalm of David, and we read there in Psalms 22:1-31 verse Isaiah 49:8 , or no, verse Isaiah 49:9 : "But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly" ( Psalms 22:9-10 ). And that is the equivalent here to, "Thou hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hast thou made mention of my name. You have made my mouth like a sharp sword." We are told that the word the goes forth out of his mouth is like a sharp, two-edged sword--Revelation. "In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me."

And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel ( Isaiah 49:3 ),

And in this Israel is the true name expressed. That is in Christ, he was a man who was governed by God.

in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have labored in vain ( Isaiah 49:3-4 ),

"For He came to His own, His own received Him not" ( John 1:11 ). He was despised and rejected. He was crucified. He said, "I have labored in vain."

I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God ( Isaiah 49:4 ).

As they rejected Him, as they despised Him, His coming to them was in vain.

And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him ( Isaiah 49:5 ),

The purpose of Jesus Christ was to bring Jacob back to God, back to the Father, and to restore the preserved of Israel. "I will also give thee." Beg your pardon, I jumped.

Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the eaRuth ( Isaiah 49:5-6 ).

And so Jesus, who was rejected by the Jews, has become a light unto the Gentiles, and the gospel of Jesus Christ has come unto us who were once alienated from God and far off from the promises. But through Him, we've been brought nigh. Oh, thank God for the light of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles.

Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despised, to him whom the nation abhorred, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee ( Isaiah 49:7 ).

So the work of Christ among the Gentiles, the kings worshipping and so forth as the gospel of Jesus Christ has permeated many kingdoms of the Gentiles. Now even so, God is going to preserve the people of Israel.

Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That you may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in the high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them ( Isaiah 49:8-10 ).

This brings to mind in Revelation chapter 7, "And they shall hunger and thirst no more and neither shall the sun shine upon them and all." And it is equivalent to Revelation 7:16 .

And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of [China] Sinim ( Isaiah 49:11-12 ).

Is the land of the east.

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me ( Isaiah 49:13-14 ).

Now He speaks here about the fact that He's going to bring them back again. He'll gather them from the north and from the west and from the east. And yet they are going to say, "The Lord has forsaken me." And you go today and the declaration of so many Jews is, "Where was God during the Holocaust? God has forsaken us." And they are still proclaiming that God has forsaken them. But God said,

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? well, they may forget, but I will not forget thee ( Isaiah 49:15 ).

They accused God of forsaking them. God said, "No way. I haven't forgotten you. Can a nursing mother forget her nursing child?"

You remember in Psalms 137:1-9 is the psalm of Babylonian captivity, "When we were in Babylon by the rivers we sat down. We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps on the willows in the midst thereof. And they that had carried us away captive said, 'Sing us one of your songs.' And they required some happy songs from us saying, 'Sing one of the songs of Zion.' But how shall we sing the Lord's songs in a strange land?" ( Psalms 137:1-4 ) Now some of the old rabbis say that the next two verses are God's response to this cry. And that it was actually God who declared, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy" ( Psalms 137:4-6 ). And some of the old rabbis say that that is God speaking there in response to the people who were captives in Babylon, who said, "God has forgotten us. God has forsaken us." And, of course, here God said, "Can a mother forsake her or forget her nursing child? She would not have compassion, well she might. But I won't forget." You might find case where you say, "Well, there's a mother forgot." God says, "It's all right, but I still won't."

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? ( Isaiah 49:16-21 )

So he speaks about them coming into the land and being prospered and the land being too small for them and their desire to extend and expand their borders.

Now the regathering and the rebuilding of the nation Israel has been a very remarkable thing in our days. And God's purposes are to be fulfilled there. It's exciting, because God fulfilled His promise. He's brought them back in the land. They are dwelling there. But they are seeking to expand. They say, "The area that we have is too small." And if you look at it, it is a very small area. Not much. Well, actually, you can drive from one side of Israel to the other in two hours; you can drive from one end to the other in six hours. Gives you the idea of the size of Israel. It's two hours wide and six hours long driving in a car. But it's about 5,800 years deep. The history that is there in the land goes back.

Now there are those who see an interesting scenario arising in the Middle East right now. I've heard some Bible scholars suggest the possibility and some analysts, and I've talked to some Israelis who have suggested also the possibility, that the next outbreak of warfare over there in the Middle East, that Israel plans for it to be the last outbreak by so thoroughly defeating all of those who have risen against them that they will not be able to rise against them again. They intend to thoroughly thrash their enemies. All of the Arab states that have been giving them such a bad time, they are planning to go full on against the Arab world. And a part of their plan, very shrewd indeed, is to take Saudi Arabia and immediately cut the price of oil in half. And who in the world would object? That's pretty smart. You see, our world problems today, especially the problem of starving, the great starvation that is coming in the third world is all the result of the increased oil prices. The whole problem that we're having here with inflation, our whole problem of economy is based to the increased oil prices. That's where it all comes from.

Now the byproducts of the oil, the fertilizers and the chemical fertilizers that help grow the crops have become so expensive that your food bill has gone up tremendously. The whole inflationary cycle can be placed on the increased oil prices. And it is a thing that is actually causing millions of people to starve to death in the third world. Because they do not have the economic base to afford the worldwide inflation that has ensued from the increased oil prices. Now those men in Libya, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, they could care less what havoc they've wrecked upon the world. And when the Israelis go in and take the oil and cut the prices in half, everybody is going to hail them as the heroes, because suddenly this whole problem of world economy is going to be reversed. Price of gasoline will go down, price of raw materials will go down. The whole thing comes back to the oil. So it's a wise plan, and who's going to object?

So God speaks here that they're going to say, "Hey, we need to expand our borders. There's not enough room." The land will be too narrow for you by reason of the inhabitants.

Thus saith the Lord GOD ( Isaiah 49:22 ),

Now God here speaks of the judgment He's going to bring on their oppressors.

Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring their sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me ( Isaiah 49:22-23 ).

The glorious day of Israel's future when the kings of the earth come and pay their homage year by year.

Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contends with you, and I will save thy children ( Isaiah 49:24-25 ).

God is saying, "I'll fight with those that fight with you." So any nation or any people that opposes the Jews is not just contending with a race of people. They are contending with the eternal God of heaven.

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob ( Isaiah 49:26 ).

The whole world will know it, and of course, God tells us in that day that He destroys the invading Russian army with her allies shall the whole world know that I am God. And I'll be sanctified before the nations of the earth.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Zion’s prominence before God 49:14-26

God had not forgotten Israel. Even though He would leave her for a time, He would re-gather all her children from all over the world to Himself. Therefore she should continue to trust in Him.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Lord would cause these Gentile oppressors to consume one another, "reduced to their last extremity." [Note: Michael Dahood, "Textual Problems in Isaiah," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 22 (1960):404-5.] This will happen when the nations fight one another at Armageddon. Jesus Christ will return from heaven, the assembled armies will turn on Him, and He will defeat them with a word from His mouth. This will open the way for Israel to return to her land as the honored of the earth in the Millennium (cf. Daniel 11:40-45; Revelation 16:14; Revelation 19:19-21). These events will demonstrate to everyone that Yahweh is Israel’s Savior, Redeemer, and the Mighty God of Jacob.

Are these descriptions just impressionistic pictures of Gentiles coming to Christ for salvation, or should we look for a more literal fulfillment of these promises? Amillennialists say they are figurative descriptions of Gentiles coming to salvation through Christ. Premillennialists say they describe a literal return of Israelites to their land with an accompanying exaltation of the physical descendants of Jacob in the earth. One of the cardinal rules of hermeneutics is that if the interpreter can understand something literally it should be taken that way unless other indications in the text or context point to a non-literal interpretation. Amillennialists concede that it is possible to take these prophecies literally, and that if one does, he or she will come out a premillennialist. But they say that a literal fulfillment was not intended, and that these predictions are being fulfilled spiritually through the church. Premillennialists view this chapter, and most of chapters 50-57, as revealing Messiah’s restoration of Israel to her land at the beginning of the Millennium.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh,.... Not that they should feed upon their own flesh, because of famine, for this was not the case of Babylon when taken; but that they should destroy one another, as the Midianites did; and which was true of some of the Babylonians, who assisted Cyrus in taking the city, and destroying the inhabitants of it; and will be verified in the Popish party killing one another:

and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine; which denotes the abundance of blood that shall be shed, and the pleasure in shedding of it. It will be a righteous thing with God to give the whore of Rome her own blood to drink, even so as to be made drunk with it as with wine, who has been drunk already with the blood of the saints, Revelation 16:6. The Targum is,

"I will give the flesh of them that oppress thee for food to every fowl of the heavens; and as they are drunken with wine, so the beasts of the field shall be drunken with their blood;''

see Revelation 19:17:

and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob; it shall be notorious to all the world, that Jehovah, the "Lord" of lords, the Lord of the whole earth, is the "Saviour and Redeemer" of his church and people out of all their afflictions, oppressions, and persecutions, by the Romish antichrist; this will be apparently seen, and publicly owned and acknowledged, when antichrist shall be destroyed, and the church saved; by which it will be manifest, it being the Lord's work, and wondrous in the eyes of men, that he is "the mighty One of Jacob", able to help and save them.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?   25 But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.   26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

      Here is, I. An objection started against the promise of the Jews' release out of their captivity in Babylon, suggesting that it was a thing not to be expected; for (Isaiah 49:24; Isaiah 49:24) they were a prey in the hand of the mighty, of such as were then the greatest potentates on earth, and therefore it was not likely they should be rescued by force. Yet that was not all: they were lawful captives; by the law of God, having offended, they were justly delivered into captivity; and by the law of nations, being taken in war, they were justly detained in captivity till they should be ransomed or exchanged. Now this is spoken either, 1. By the enemies, as justifying themselves in their refusal to let them go. They plead both might and right. Proud men think all their own that they can lay their hands on and their title good if they have but the longest sword. Or, 2. By their friends, either in a way of distrust, despairing of the deliverance ("for who is able to deal with those that detain us, either by force of arms or a treaty of peace?"), or in a way of thankfulness, admiring the deliverance. "Who would have thought that ever the prey should be taken from the mighty? Yet it is done." This is applicable to our redemption by Christ. As to Satan, we were a prey in the hand of the mighty, and yet delivered even from him that had the power of death, by him that had the power of life. As to the justice of God, we were lawful captives, and yet delivered by a price of inestimable value.

      II. This objection answered by an express promise, and a further promise; for God's promises being all yea, and amen, they may well serve to corroborate one another. 1. Here is an express promise with a non-obstante--notwithstanding to the strength of the enemy (Isaiah 49:25; Isaiah 49:25): "Even the captives of the mighty, though they are mighty, shall be taken away, and it is to no purpose for them to oppose it; and the prey of the terrible, though they are terrible, shall be delivered; and, as they cannot with all their strength outforce, so they cannot with all their impudence outface, the deliverance, and the counsels of God concerning it." The Lord saith thus, who, having all power and all hearts in his hands is able to make his words good. 2. Here is a further promise, showing how, and in what way, God will bring about the deliverance. He will bring judgments upon the oppressors, and so will work salvation for the oppressed: "I will contend with him that contends with thee, will plead thy cause against those that justify themselves in oppressing thee; whoever it be, though but a single person, that contends with thee, he shall know that it is at his peril, and thus I will save thy children." The captives shall be delivered by leading captivity captive, that is, sending those into captivity that had held God's people captive, Revelation 13:10. Nay, they shall have blood for blood (Isaiah 49:26; Isaiah 49:26): "I will feed those that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood. The proud Babylonians shall become not only an easy, but an acceptable, prey to one another. God will send a dividing spirit among them, and their ruin, which was begun by a foreign invasion, shall be completed by their intestine divisions. They shall bite and devour one another, till they are consumed one of another. They shall greedily and with delight prey upon those that are their own flesh and blood." God can make the oppressors of his church to be their own tormentors and their own destroyers. The New-Testament Babylon, having made herself drunk with the blood of the saints, shall have blood given her to drink, for she is worthy. See how cruel men sometimes are to themselves and to one another: indeed those who are so to others are so to themselves, for God's justice and men's revenge will mete to them what they have measured to others. They not only thirst after blood, but drink it so greedily that they are drunken with it, and with as much pleasure as if it were sweet wine. If God had not more mercy on sinners than they would have one upon another were their passions let loose, the world would be soon an Aceldama, nay, a desolation.

      III. See what will be the effect of Babylon's ruin: All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour. God will make it to appear, to the conviction of all the world, that, though Israel seem lost and cast off, they have a Redeemer, and, though they are made a prey to the mighty, Jacob has a mighty One, who is able to deal with all his enemies. God intends, by the deliverances of his church, both to notify and to magnify his own name.