Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

“Minni--Lower or Lesser Armenia. RAWLINSON says that Van was the capital of Minni. It was conquered by Tettarrassa, the general of Tetembar II, the Assyrian king whose wars are recorded on the black obelisk now in the British Museum.”

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me.

“Her groans are what bring down retribution in kind on Babylon (Jer 50:17; Ps 102:13, 17, 20). empty vessel--He has drained me out. dragon--The serpent often "swallows" its prey whole; or a sea monster [GROTIUS]. filled his belly . . .”

Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.

“The capture of Babylon was effected on the night of a festival in honor of its idols. roar . . . yell--The Babylonians were shouting in drunken revelry (compare Da 5:4).”

How Sheshach has been captured! The praise of all the earth has been seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

“Sheshach--Babylon (compare Note, see Jer 25:26); called so from the goddess Shach, to whom a five days' festival was kept, during which, as in the Roman Saturnalia, the most unbridled licentiousness was permitted; slaves ruled their masters, and in every house one called Zogan, arrayed…”

The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered in turbulent waves.

“The sea--the host of Median invaders. The image (compare Jer 47:2; Isa 8:7, 8) is appropriately taken from the Euphrates, which, overflowing in spring, is like a "sea" near Babylon (Jer 51:13, 32, 36).”

Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.

“Her cities--the cities, her dependencies. So, "Jerusalem and the cities thereof" (Jer 34:1). Or, the "cities" are the inner and outer cities, the two parts into which Babylon was divided by the Euphrates [GROTIUS].”

Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.

“GROTIUS translates, "her dancers," as in Jud 21:21, 23; 1Sa 18:6, the same Hebrew word is translated, alluding to the dancing revelry of the festival during which Cyrus took Babylon.”

You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.”

“So great will be the slaughter that even some of God's people shall be involved in it, as they had deserved. afar off--though ye are banished far off from where ye used formerly to worship God.”

“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

“I know you will say in despair, "We are confounded," &c. "Wherefore (God saith to you) behold, I will," &c.”

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

“I . . . judgment upon . . . images--in opposition to the Babylonian taunt that Jehovah's religion was a thing of naught, since they had burned His temple (Jer 51:51): I will show that, though I have thus visited the Jews neglect of Me…”

For the LORD will destroy Babylon; He will silence her mighty voice. The waves will roar like great waters; the tumult of their voices will resound.

“Or, "when" is connected thus: "the great voice" in her, when her "waves," &c. (compare Jer 51:13). CALVIN translates, "their waves," that is, the Medes bursting on her as impetuous waves; so Jer 51:42.”

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,

“read--not in public, for the Chaldeans would not have understood Hebrew; but in private, as is to be inferred from his addressing himself altogether to God (Jer 51:62) [CALVIN].”

Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

“Eze 12:13: "I will bring him to Babylon . . . yet shall he not see it." prison--literally, "the house of visitations," or "punishments," that is, where there was penal work enforced on the prisoners, such as grinding.”

Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

“Fulfilling the prophecy (Jer 27:19). See 1Ki 7:15, 23, 27, 50. Nothing is so particularly related here as the carrying away of the articles in the temple.”

The bronze capital atop one pillar was five cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates all around. The second pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar.

“But 2Ki 25:17 has "three cubits." There were two parts in the chapiter: the one lower and plain, of two cubits; the other, higher and curiously carved, of three cubits.”

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king…

“(2Ki 25:27-30). five and twentieth day--but in 2Ki 25:27, it is "the twenty-seventh day." Probably on the twenty-fifth the decree for his elevation was given, and the preparations for it made by releasing him from prison; and on the twenty-seventh day it was carried into…”