Commentari biblici

In this chapter, and that which follows, we have the judgment of Babylon, which is put last of Jeremiah's prophecies against the Gentiles because it was last accomplished; and when the cup of God's fury went round (Jer 25:17) the king of Sheshach, Babylon, drank last. Babylon was employed as the rod in God's hand for the chastising of all the other nations, and now at length that rod shall be thrown into the fire. The destruction of Babylon by Cyrus was foretold, long before it came to its height, by Isaiah, and now again, when it has come to its height, by Jeremiah; for, though at this time he saw that kingdom flourishing "like a green bay-tree," yet at the same time he foresaw it withered and cut down. And as Isaiah's prophecies of the destruction of Babylon and the deliverance of Israel out of it seem designed to typify the evangelical triumphs of all believers over the powers of darkness, and the great salvation wrought out by our Lord Jesus Christ, so Jeremiah's prophecies of the same events seem designed to point at the apocalyptic triumphs of the gospel church in the latter days over the New-Testament Babylon, many passages in the Revelation being borrowed hence. The kingdom of Babylon being much larger and stronger than any of the kingdoms here prophesied against, its fall was the more considerable in itself; and, it having been more oppressive to the people of God than any of the other, the prophet is very copious upon this subject, for the comfort of the captives; and what was foretold in general often before (Jer 25:12,27:7) is here more particularly described, and with a great deal of prophetic heat as well as light. The terrible judgments God had in store for Babylon, and the glorious blessings he had in store for his people that were captives there, are intermixed and counterchanged in the prophecy of this chapter; for Babylon was destroyed to make way for the turning again of the captivity of God's people. Here is, I. The ruin of Babylon, Jer 50:1-3,9-16,21-32,35-46. II. The redemption of God's people, Jer 50:4-8,17-20,33,34. And these being set the one against the other, it is easy to say which one would choose to take one's lot with, the persecuting Babylonians, who, though now in pomp, are reserved for so great a ruin, or the persecuted Israelites, who, though now in thraldom, are reserved for so great a glory.

Many critics have endeavored to show that this prophecy Jeremiah 50-51 was not written by Jeremiah. Others grant that Jeremiah was the true author, yet assert that the prhophecy has been largely interpolated. The arguments for its authenticity are briefly stated in the following:

(a) The superscription Jeremiah 50:1, and the appended history Jeremiah 51:59-64;

(b) The general admission that the style is Jeremiah's;

(c) The fact that the author was living at Jerusalem (Jeremiah 50:5, where read "hitherward," not "thitherward");

(d) The Medes and not the Persians are described as the future conquerors of Babylon Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:28.

The knowledge of topography and Babylonian customs is not more than Jeremiah may have learned from the Chaldaeans when they were at Jerusalem in the fourth, and again in the eleventh year of Jehoiakim: and there was constant contact by letter and otherwise between Babylon and Jerusalem.

The prophecy may be considered essential to the right discharge by Jeremiah of the duties of his office. He had foretold the capture and ruin of Jerusalem, not from love to Babylon, but as a necessary act of the divine justice, and as the one remedy for Judah's sins. He recognized the Chaldaeans as Yahweh's ministers; but recognizing also that they practiced wanton barbarities, and claimed the g ory for themselves and their gods, he proclaimed that Babylon must be punished for its cruelty, its pride, and its idolatry.

The date is fixed by Jeremiah 51:59. With this agrees the internal evidence.

Though deficient in arrangement the prophecy is full of grand ideas; and the similarity between passages in this prophecy and Isaiah illustrates the large knowledge which Jeremiah evidently possessed of the earlier Scriptures, and the manner in which, consciously or unconsciously, he has perpetually imitated them in his own writings.

This and the following chapter contain a prophecy relating to the fall of Babylon, interspersed with several predictions relative to the restoration of Israel and Judah, who were to survive their oppressors, and, on their repentance, to be pardoned and brought to their own land. This chapter opens with a prediction of the complete destruction of all the Babylonish idols, and the utter desolation of Chaldea, through the instrumentality of a great northern nation, Jeremiah 50:1-3. Israel and Judah shall be reinstated in the land of their forefathers after the total overthrow of the great Babylonish empire, Jeremiah 50:4, Jeremiah 50:5. Very oppressive and cruel bondage of the Jewish people during the captivity, Jeremiah 50:6, Jeremiah 50:7. The people of God are commanded to remove speedily from Babylon, because an assembly of great nations are coming out of the north to desolate the whole land, Jeremiah 50:8-10. Babylon, the hammer of the whole earth, the great desolator of nations, shall itself become a desolation on account of its intolerable pride, and because of the iron yoke it has rejoiced to put upon a people whom a mysterious Providence had placed under its domination, vv. 11-34. The judgments which shall fall upon Chaldea, a country addicted to the grossest idolatry, and to every species of superstition, shall be most awful and general, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, Jeremiah 50:35-40. Character of the people appointed to execute the Divine judgments upon the oppressors of Israel, Jeremiah 50:41-45. Great sensation among the nations at the very terrible and sudden fall of Babylon, Jeremiah 50:46.

INTRODUCTION TO Jeremiah 50

This and the following chapter contain a long prophecy concerning the destruction of Babylon; and which is expressed in such language, that it may be, and is to be, accommodated to the destruction of mystical Babylon; and several passages in the book of the Revelation are borrowed from hence; and it is intermixed with promises and prophecies of the deliverance of God's people from thence, and of the conversion of the Jews, and the restoration of them to their own which will be at that time; see Jeremiah 50:4. The destruction of Babylon in general is proclaimed and declared, and the manner and cause of it, Jeremiah 50:1; then the enemies of Babylon are stirred up and animated to proceed against her, and execute the judgments of God upon her, Jeremiah 50:14. Next follows the Lord's controversy with her, because of her pride and oppression of his people; and threatens her with the sword, drought, and utter destruction, Jeremiah 50:31; and then a description is given of her enemies, that should be the instruments of her destruction, Jeremiah 50:41; and the chapter is closed with observing, that this is all according to the counsel and purpose of God, Jeremiah 50:45.

L.

The long continuous prophecy which occupies the place of a great finale in the collection of Jeremiah’s writings (Jeremiah 50, 51.) is in many ways the most important of the whole book. It presents an aspect of the prophet’s mind and character which elsewhere is almost or altogether latent. For the most part, he appears as the supporter of the Chaldæans, opposing the policy of the kings and rulers who were bent on resistance, bidding the exiles to pray for the peace of Babylon (Jeremiah 29:7). Only once before, as in a germinal hint afterwards to be developed, and veiled beneath the cypher of the mysterious Sheshach (Jeremiah 25:26), had he given any intimation that it came within the horizon of his vision that she, too, was to drink of “the wine-cup of the Lord’s fury” (Jeremiah 25:15). It can scarcely be imagined, however, that the predictions of Isaiah against the Chaldæaan city in Jeremiah 13:1 to Jeremiah 14:22, or (if we acknowledge the later chapters of that book as authentic) those in Jeremiah 46, 47, were unknown to him; and we may well believe that when the great catastrophe had come upon Jerusalem, and the people were in exile by the waters of Babylon, he desired to comfort them with the thought that the righteous law of retribution under which they were suffering would in due time bring down the pride of their oppressor. When he had told them that their captivity would last for seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10), that lands should once again be bought and sold, and ploughed and planted in Judah (Jeremiah 32:15), there was an implied fore-knowledge of the doom of the golden city; and at last, probably as the closing vision of his life, the last case in which he was to “root out, and to pull down, and to destroy,” it was given to him to see how that destruction would be accomplished.

The authenticity of the chapter has, it is true, been questioned by some critics, partly on the assumption that prophecy cannot be prediction, and that the fulness of detail with which the apparent prediction is given implies a prophecy after the event, partly on the ground that the style differs from that of the other writings ascribed to Jeremiah’s name, and that it presents so many traces of acquaintance with Babylon and its customs that it must have been written by one who had been resident in that city. On this hypothesis Baruch has been named as its possible author.

The first ground of objection opens a wide question which cannot well be discussed on every occurrence of the principle which it involves. Here it will be enough to say that the assumption in question is at variance with the whole idea of their office which the prophets themselves recognised, and that it is not that on which the lines of interpretation followed in this Commentary have been based. Judgments based upon variations and differences in style are always more or less precarious. For my own part I do not see any such differences as to clash with the belief that these chapters were written by Jeremiah, and I find many parallelisms and coincidences, which will be noticed as we proceed, falling in with that belief. The third difficulty is sufficiently met by the thought that one who was in frequent intercourse both with the captive Jews at Babylon and with the Chaldæans as Jeremiah was (Jeremiah 29:1-32), to say nothing of his personal journeys to the Euphrates (Jeremiah 13:1-7), might well have acquired such a knowledge of the country as is indicated in these chapters.

Chs. Jeremiah 50:1 to Jeremiah 51:58 (= LXX. Chs. 27, 28). Prophecy against Babylon

This long and vehement prophecy, though forming a member of the group with which we have been dealing (see introd. note on chs. 46–51), stands in a somewhat different position in view of the fact that recent commentators are virtually unanimous in holding it to be a composition of later date, even if it contain some, at most very slight, Jeremianic elements. It claims (Jeremiah 51:59 f.) to belong to the fourth year of Zedekiah (b.c. 594). Against this view there are to be urged four weighty considerations: (a) the historical situation which it presupposes is of a much later time: the people are exiles (Jeremiah 50:4 f., 17, Jeremiah 51:34), the Temple has been destroyed (Jeremiah 50:28—end, Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:51); (b) the writer here emphasizes the speedy overthrow of Babylon, whereas at the date mentioned (see chs. 27–29) Jeremiah was maintaining the falsity of this same view against the prophets who urged it, and was advising the exiles to settle contentedly, as the captivity would last seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 29:10); (c) the joy with which the writer here contemplates the destruction of Babylon is quite at variance with Jeremiah’s often repeated conviction that the Chaldaeans were the divinely appointed agents for visiting upon his countrymen the punishment of their sins; (d) the utterly disproportionate length and constant repetitions (e.g. Jeremiah 50:3; Jeremiah 50:9; Jeremiah 50:25; Jeremiah 50:41, Jeremiah 51:1 f., 25; Jeremiah 50:8, Jeremiah 51:6; Jeremiah 51:45; Jeremiah 51:50). The chs. contain no doubt a considerable amount of phraseology which reminds us of earlier portions of the Book, but it is to be noted that such portions include some passages which we have recognised to be from later hands than Jeremiah’s. Thus all that we can infer is that the author was familiar with the writings ascribed in his day to Jeremiah. The date would naturally appear to be when the fall of Babylon at the hands of the Persians was imminent, an event which occurred b.c. 538. Peake, however, holds that the prophecy, as apparently dependent on such passages as Isaiah 13:1 to Isaiah 14:23 and Isaiah 40-55, which belong to that time, should be placed later, and is intended, by its anticipations of speedy vengeance, to meet the difficulties of those who were perplexed by the fact that Babylon was not really destroyed for several generations after the time of Cyrus.

The lack of arrangement and the frequent repetitions above mentioned preclude the construction of anything like a satisfactory summarization of the contents. Conspicuous thoughts are:

Babylon is a golden cup, from which all the nations have been forced to drink the wine of God’s wrath (Jeremiah 51:7); God brings forth from His armoury the weapons of His indignation for her destruction (Jeremiah 50:25); she shall be laid waste and overwhelmed by the multitude of her invaders (Jeremiah 51:41 ff.).

We may add that there is no clear indication of metrical arrangement in these chs.

Jer 50:1-46.

BABYLON'S COMING DOWNFALL; ISRAEL'S REDEMPTION.

After the predictions of judgment to be inflicted on other nations by Babylon, follows this one against Babylon itself, the longest prophecy, consisting of one hundred verses. The date of utterance was the fourth year of Zedekiah, when Seraiah, to whom it was committed, was sent to Babylon

(Jer 51:59, 60).

The repetitions in it make it likely that it consists of prophecies uttered at different times, now collected by Jeremiah to console the Jews in exile and to vindicate God's ways by exhibiting the final doom of Babylon, the enemy of the people of God, after her long prosperity. The style, imagery, and dialogues prove its genuineness in opposition to those who deny this. It shows his faithfulness; though under obligation to the king of Babylon, he owed a higher one to God, who directed him to prophesy against Babylon.

1. Compare

Isa 45:1-47:15.

But as the time of fulfilment drew nearer, the prophecies are now proportionally more distinct than then.

Against ... against - Concerning.