Jer 51:1
51:1 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 destroying {a} wind;

     (a) The Medes and Persians who will destroy them as the
         wind does the chaff.

Jer 51:5
51:5 For Israel [hath] not [been] {b} forsaken, nor Judah by his
     God, by the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled
     with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

     (b) Though they were forsaken for a time, yet they were not
         utterly cast off as though their husbands were dead.

Jer 51:6
51:6 {c} 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.

     (c) He shows that there remains nothing for them that abide
         in Babylon but destruction, @Jer 17:6,48:6.

Jer 51:7
51:7 Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the {d} LORD'S hand,
     that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of
     her wine; therefore the nations are {e} mad.

     (d) By whom the Lord poured out the drink of his vengeance,
         to whom it pleased him.
     (e) For the great afflictions that they have felt by the
         Babylonians.

Jer 51:9
51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed:
     forsake her, and let {f} us go every one into his own
     country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted
     [even] to the skies.

     (f) Thus the people of God exhort one another to go to Zion
         and praise God.

Jer 51:10
51:10 The LORD hath brought forth our {g} righteousness: come,
      and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

      (g) In approving our cause and punishing our enemies.

Jer 51:11
51:11 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, the {h} vengeance of his
      temple.

      (h) For the wrong done to his people and to his temple,
          @Jer 50:28.

Jer 51:13
51:13 O thou that dwellest upon many {i} waters, abundant in
      treasures, thy end is come, [and] the measure of thy
      covetousness.

      (i) For the land of Chaldea was full of rivers which ran
          into the Euphrates.

Jer 51:17
51:17 Every man is senseless by [his] {k} knowledge; every
      goldsmith is confounded by the graven image: for his
      molten image [is] falsehood, and [there is] no breath in
      them.

      (k) @Jer 10:14.

Jer 51:18
51:18 They [are] vanity, the work of errors: in the time of
      their {l} judgment they shall perish.

      (l) When God will execute his vengeance.

Jer 51:19
51:19 The {m} 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.

      (m) That is, the true God of Israel is not like these
          idols: for he can help when all things are desperate.

Jer 51:20
51:20 Thou [art] my {n} battle axe [and] weapons of war: for
      with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with
      thee will I destroy kingdoms;

      (n) He means the Medes and Persians, as before he called
          the Babylonians his hammer, @Jer 50:23.

Jer 51:25
51:25 Behold, I [am] against thee, O destroying {o} mountain,
      saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will
      stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the
      {p} rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

      (o) Not that Babylon stood on a mountain but because it
          was strong and seemed invincible.
      (p) From your strongholds and fortresses.

Jer 51:27
51:27 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 of {q} Ararat, Minni,
      and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the
      horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

      (q) By these three nations he means Armenia the higher,
          Armenia the lower and Scythia; for Cyrus had gathered
          an army of various nations.

Jer 51:31
51:31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to
      meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is
      taken at {r} [one] end,

      (r) By 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.

Jer 51:33
51:33 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 harvest {s} shall come.

      (s) When she will be cut up and threshed.

Jer 51:34
51:34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath {t} 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.

      (t) This is spoken in the person of the Jews bewailing
          their state and the cruelty of the Babylonians.

Jer 51:36
51:36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy
      {u} cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up
      her sea, and make her springs dry.

      (u) Thus the Lord esteemed the injury done to his Church
          as done to himself because their cause is his.

Jer 51:39
51:39 In their {x} 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.

      (x) When they are inflamed with surfeiting and drinking, I
          will feast with them, alluding to Belshazzar's
          banquet, @Da 5:2.

Jer 51:41
51:41 How is {y} Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the
      whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an horror
      among the nations!

      (y) Meaning Babel as in @Jer 25:26.

Jer 51:42
51:42 The {z} sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with
      the multitude of its waves.

      (z) The great army of the Medes and Persians.

Jer 51:44
51:44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth
      out of his mouth that which {a} he hath swallowed: and the
      nations shall not flow together any more to him: even the
      wall of Babylon shall fall.

      (a) That 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.

Jer 51:46
51:46 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] {b} year, and after that in [another] year
      [shall come] a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler
      against ruler.

      (b) 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.

Jer 51:48
51:48 Then the heaven and {c} 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.

      (c) All creatures in heaven and earth will rejoice and
          praise God for the destruction of Babylon the great
          enemy of his Church.

Jer 51:49
51:49 As Babylon [hath caused] the {d} slain of Israel to fall,
      so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

      (d) Babylon not only destroyed Israel, but many other
          nations.

Jer 51:50
51:50 Ye that {e} have escaped the sword, go away, stand not
      still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come
      into your mind.

      (e) Yet that are now captives in Babylon.

Jer 51:51
51:51 We are {f} confounded, because we have heard reproach:
      shame hath covered our faces: for foreigners are come into
      the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.

      (f) He shows how they would remember Jerusalem by
          lamenting the miserable affliction of it.

Jer 51:53
51:53 Though Babylon should mount up to {g} heaven, and though
      she should fortify the height of her strength, [yet] from
      me shall spoilers come to her, saith the LORD.

      (g) For the walls were two hundred feet high.

Jer 51:57
51:57 And I will {h} 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.

      (h) I will so astonish them by affliction that they will
          not know which way to turn themselves.

Jer 51:58
51:58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The {i} 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.

      (i) The thickness of the wall was fifty feet.

Jer 51:59
51:59 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 the {k} fourth
      year of his reign. And [this] Seraiah [was] a quiet
      prince.

      (k) This 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.

Jer 51:63
51:63 And it shall be, when thou hast finished reading this
      book, [that] thou shalt bind a {l} stone to it, and cast
      it into the midst of Euphrates:

      (l) John 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,
          @Re 18:21.

Jer 51:64
51:64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not
      rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they
      shall {m} be weary.  Thus far [are] the words of Jeremiah.

      (m) They will not be able to resist but will labour in
          vain.



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