1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise against me, a destroyingThe Medes and Persians who will destroy them as the wind does the chaff.wind;
2 And wil send vnto Babel fanners that shal fanne her, & shal empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shalbe against her on euery side.
3 Also to the bender that bendeth his bowe, and to him that lifteth himselfe vp in his brigandine, will I say, Spare not her yong men, but destroy all her hoste.
4 Thus the slaine shal fall in the lande of the Caldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streetes.
5 For Israel [hath] not [been]Though they were forsaken for a time, yet they were not utterly cast off as though their husbands were dead.forsaken, nor Judah by his God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
6 He shows that there remains nothing for them that abide in Babylon but destruction, (Jer_17:6, Jer_48:6).Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this [is] the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompence.
7 Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in theBy whom the Lord poured out the drink of his vengeance, to whom it pleased him.LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations areFor the great afflictions that they have felt by the Babylonians.mad.
8 Babel is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howle for her, bring balme for her sore, if she may be healed.
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and letThus the people of God exhort one another to go to Zion and praise God.us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted [even] to the skies.
10 The LORD hath brought forth ourIn approving our cause and punishing our enemies.righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose [is] against Babylon, to destroy it; because it [is] the vengeance of the LORD, theFor the wrong done to his people and to his temple, (Jer_50:28).vengeance of his temple.
12 Set vp the standart vpon the walles of Babel, make the watch strong: set vp the watchmen: prepare the skoutes: for the Lord hath both deuised, and done that which he spake against the inhabitantes of Babel.
13 O thou that dwellest upon manyFor the land of Chaldea was full of rivers which ran into the Euphrates.waters, abundant in treasures, thy end is come, [and] the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The Lord of hostes hath sworne by him selfe, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers, and they shall cry and shoute against thee.
15 He hath made the earth by his power, & established the world by his wisedome, and hath stretched out the heauen by his discretion.
16 Hee giueth by his voyce the multitude of waters in the heauen, and he causeth the cloudes to ascend from the endes of the earth: he turneth lightnings to raine, and bringeth forth the winde out of his treasures.
17 Every man is senseless by [his](Jer_10:14).knowledge; every goldsmith is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image [is] falsehood, and [there is] no breath in them.
18 They [are] vanity, the work of errors: in the time of theirWhen God will execute his vengeance.judgment they shall perish.
19 TheThat is, the true God of Israel is not like these idols: for he can help when all things are desperate.portion of Jacob [is] not like them; for he [is] the one who formed of all things: and [Israel is] the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts [is] his name.
20 Thou [art] myHe means the Medes and Persians, as before he called the Babylonians his hammer, (Jer_50:23).battle axe [and] weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And by thee wil I breake horse and horseman, and by thee will I breake the charet & him that rideth therein.
22 By thee also will I breake man & woman, and by thee wil I breake olde & yong, & by thee wil I breake the yong man and the mayde.
23 I wil also breake by thee the shepheard & his flocke, and by thee will I breake the husband man & his yoke of oxen, & by thee will I breake the dukes and princes.
24 And I will render vnto Babel, and to all the inhabitants of the Caldeans all their euil, that they haue done in Zion, euen in your sight, sayth the Lorde.
25 Behold, I [am] against thee, O destroyingNot that Babylon stood on a mountain but because it was strong and seemed invincible.mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from theFrom your strongholds and fortresses.rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be destroyed for euer, sayth the Lord.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms ofBy these three nations he means Armenia the higher, Armenia the lower and Scythia; for Cyrus had gathered an army of various nations.Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the Kings of the Medes, the dukes thereof, and the princes thereof, & all the land of his dominion.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorow: for the deuise of the Lorde shalbe performed against Babel, to make the lande of Babel waste without an inhabitant.
30 The strong men of Babel haue ceased to fight: they haue remayned in their holdes: their strength hath fayled, and they were like women: they haue burnt her dwelling places, and her barres are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken atBy turning the course of the river one side was made open and the reeds that grew in the water were destroyed which Cyrus did by the counsel of Gobria and Gabatha Belshazzar's captains.[one] end,
32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reedes burnt with fire, & the me of war troubled.
33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshingfloor, [it is] time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvestWhen she will be cut up and threshed.shall come.
34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hathThis is spoken in the person of the Jews bewailing their state and the cruelty of the Babylonians.devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicacies, he hath cast me out.
35 The spoyle of me, and that which was left of me, is brought vnto Babel, shall the inhabitant of Zion say: and my blood vnto the inhabitantes of Caldea, shal Ierusalem say.
36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thyThus the Lord esteemed the injury done to his Church as done to himself because their cause is his.cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And Babel shall be as heapes, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, & an hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shal rore together like lions, and yell as the lyons whelpes.
39 In theirWhen they are inflamed with surfeiting and drinking, I will feast with them, alluding to Belshazzar's banquet, (Dan_5:2).heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
40 I wil bring them downe like lambes to the slaughter, and like rams and goates.
41 How isMeaning Babel as in (Jer_25:26).Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an horror among the nations!
42 TheThe great army of the Medes and Persians.sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities are desolate: the land is dry and a wildernes, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth the sonne of man passe thereby.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that whichThat is, his gifts and presents which he had received as part of the spoil of other nations, and which the idolaters brought to him from all countries.he hath swallowed: and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: even the wall of Babylon shall fall.
45 My people, go out of the middes of her, & deliuer yee euery man his soule from the fierce wrath of the Lord,
46 And lest your heart should faint, and ye should fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come [one]Meaning that Babylon would not be destroyed all at once but little by little would be brought to nothing for the first year came the tidings, the next year the siege and in the third year it was taken: yet this is not that horrible destruction which the prophets threatened in many places: for that was after this when they rebelled and Darius over came them by the policy of Zopyrus, and hanged three thousand gentlemen beside the common people.year, and after that in [another] year [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore beholde, the dayes come, that I will visite the images of Babel, & the whole land shalbe confounded, and all her slayne shal fall in the middes of her.
48 Then the heaven andAll creatures in heaven and earth will rejoice and praise God for the destruction of Babylon the great enemy of his Church.the earth, and all that [is] in them, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come to her from the north, saith the LORD.
49 As Babylon [hath caused] theBabylon not only destroyed Israel, but many other nations.slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
50 Ye thatYet that are now captives in Babylon.have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We areHe shows how they would remember Jerusalem by lamenting the miserable affliction of it.confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for foreigners are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.
52 Wherefore behold, the dayes come, sayth the Lord, that I will visite her grauen images, and through all her land the wounded shal grone.
53 Though Babylon should mount up toFor the walls were two hundred feet high.heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, [yet] from me shall spoilers come to her, saith the LORD.
54 A sound of a cry commeth from Babel, and great destruction from the land of the Caldeans,
55 Because the Lorde hath layde Babel waste and destroyed from her the great voyce, and her waues shall roare like great waters, and a sounde was made by their noyse:
56 Because the destroyer is come vpon her, euen vpon Babel, and her strong men are taken, their bowes are broken: for the Lorde God that recompenceth, shal surely recompence.
57 And I willI will so astonish them by affliction that they will not know which way to turn themselves.make drunk her princes, and her wise [men], her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts.
58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; TheThe thickness of the wall was fifty feet.broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the people in the fire, and they shall be weary.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in theThis was not in the time of his captivity but seven years before, when he went either to congratulate Nebuchadnezzar or to intreat of some matters.fourth year of his reign. And [this] Seraiah [was] a quiet prince.
60 So Ieremiah wrote in a booke all the euill that should come vpo Babel: euen al these things, that are written against Babel.
61 And Ieremiah sayd to Sheraiah, Whe thou commest vnto Babel, and shalt see, & shalt reade all these wordes,
62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to destroy it, that none should remaine in it, neither man nor beast, but that it should be desolate for euer.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast finished reading this book, [that] thou shalt bind aJohn in his Revelation alludes to this place when he says that the angel took a millstone and cast it into the sea: signifying by it the destruction of Babylon, (Rev_18:21).stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shallThey will not be able to resist but will labour in vain.be weary. Thus far [are] the words of Jeremiah.
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