Jer 51:47-58 | Clarke

Jeremiah 51:47-58

Verse 48

The heaven and the earth - shall sing for Babylon - Its fall shall be a subject of universal rejoicing. Verse 50

Ye that have escaped the sword - The Jews.

Let Jerusalem come into your mind - Pray for its restoration; and embrace the first opportunity offered of returning thither. Verse 51

Strangers are come into the sanctuaries - The lamentation of the pious Jews for the profanation of the temple by the Chaldeans. Verse 53

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven - Though it were fortified even to the skies, it shall fall by the enemies that I will send against it. Verse 55

The great voice - Its pride and insufferable boasting. Verse 56

The Lord God of recompenses - The fall of Babylon is an act of Divine justice; whatever it suffers, it is in consequence of its crimes. Verse 57

I will make drunk her princes - See on Jer 51:39 (note). Verse 58

The broad walls of Babylon - Herodotus, who saw these walls, says, "The city was a regular square, each side of which was one hand red and twenty stadia, the circumference four hundred and eighty stadia. It was surrounded by a wall fifty cubits broad, and two hundred cubits high; and each side had twenty-five brazen gates." - Herod. lib. 1 c. 178. Had not Cyrus resorted to stratagem, humanly speaking, he could not have taken this city. For the destruction of this wall and its very vestiges, see on Isa 13:19 (note).