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That Babylon, which hath been a scourge to my people, and to all the nations round about, is now taken itself, and seized upon in my wrath their great idol, Bel, in whom they trusted, is confounded; their great monarch is overthrown; and all their petty gods and images are broke in pieces.

L. 3. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her. For the mighty nation of the Medes and Persians shall come up against her.

L. 4. In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD.

In those days the children of Israel and the children of Judah shall, through the favour of the Persian monarchs, go up together, weeping for joy, to return to their country, and to the place of God's worship and service.

L. 6. My people hath been lost sheep their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains : they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.

Their kings and priests and prophets have misled them into abominable idolatries: they have seduced them to superstitious devotions, on their high places; persuading them to go, one while to one idol, another while to another, till they had forgotten the temple of God, to which God had appointed them to confine their

service.

L. 8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. Get you gone, O ye Jews; go, with joy and gladness, out of Chaldea, the land of your captivity; and go forth with courage and speed, as the he-goats are wont to go before the rest of the flock.

L. 9. From the north country. See verse 3.

L. 12. Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Your mother city, Babylon, shall be sore confounded, &c., and Chaldea, which was the queen of all nations, shall now be cast behind all the rest, and become a very wilderness, a barren desert.

L. 16. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every man to his own land.

Spare not so much as the husbandman, that soweth the corn in the fields of Babylon, or the reaper thereof: let no man escape, though never so harmless, or never so useful: as for the hired forces, they shall run away, every one to his own home.

L. 17. Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away:

first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.

Israel is as a sheep scattered from the flock: those heathen kings, which were fierce as lions, have driven them out of their country: first, the kings of Assyria made havock of them; then, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, hath perfected their de

struction.

L. 19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, &c.

I will bring Israel back from his captivity to his own land; and he shall now be as a sheep grazing upon the fruitful hills of Carmel and Bashan, &c.

L. 20. In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

There shall not be found in Israel those sins, and that heinous iniquity, which was the cause of their late captivity; and the sins of Judah shall be done away, through my grace and mercy.

L. 21. Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod waste and utterly destroy after them.

Go up, ye Medes and Persians, against the territories of Babylon; even against the land of these proud rebels, against the land of those who have visited my people with the sword and merciless destruction, and do ye utterly destroy them.

L. 23. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!

How is it, that Babylon, which was the hammer to beat all other nations in pieces, is now broken in pieces?

L. 36. A sword shall be upon the liars.

A sword shall be upon their lying astrologers and diviners, unto whom they trusted.

L. 41. Behold, a people shall come from the north, &c. So verse 3.

L. 44. He shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan, &c.

See chapter xlix. 19. Behold the Babylonians shall come up, &c. L. 45. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out. See chapter xlix. verse 20.

LI. 1. A destroying wind.

A furious adversary, which shall come in, as a strong tempestuous wind.

LI. 2. And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fun her, and shall empty her land.

I will send unto Babylon the Medes and Persians, which shall put them to the fan of tribulation and dispersion.

LI. 3. Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men ; &c.

Suffer not, O ye Medes, the Babylonian archers so much as to bend their bows, &c. But cut them off in the first offer of their assault; and make no spare of any of them.

LI. 6. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man

his soul; &c.

See chap. L. 8. Continue not in Babylon, while ye may be free; but depart away from the danger, both of her sins and judgment.

LI. 7. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

Babylon hath been hitherto as a golden cup, out of which God would have all the nations of the earth drink their bitter draught of his wrath and indignation: they have drunk out thence, and have been so grievously afflicted by her cruelty, that they have been ready to run mad with grief.

LI. 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

Babylon is suddenly fallen: howl and mourn, O ye her associates, for the downfall of so great a monarchy; and, if it may be, use some helps for her recovery.

LI. 9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, &c.

Alas, we have not slackened our endeavours, shall they say, to have succoured and relieved her, but all in vain; for her wound, which God's wrath hath inflicted upon her, is utterly incurable: away therefore, let us shift for ourselves; let us run every man to his own country, and leave her to the revenge of the Almighty, which is indeed so great, as that it reacheth to the very heavens, &c.

LI. 10. The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

The Lord hath magnified his great mercy and truth to us, in that he hath taken upon him the patronage and protection of us his people, and hath been thus openly revenged of our enemies; oh come, therefore, and let us declare in his holy temple the great works of our God.

LI. 11. Make bright the arrows; gather the shields.

Now, therefore, ye Medes and Persians, address yourselves to the fight; scour up your armours; brighten your arrows.

LI. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

O thou great and wealthy Babylon, that wert seated upon the famous river of Euphrates, which divided itself for thy commodity

and made many islands for thy profit and defence, thine end is

now come.

LI. 14. Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

I will fill thee with enemies so thick, as if they were swarms of caterpillars. See for the rest of the verse, chap. xxv. verse 30. LI. 17. Every man is brutish by his knowledge; &c. See chap.

x. verse 14.

LI. 19. The portion of Jacob is not like them. See chap. x. verse 16.

LI. 20. Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms.

Ö Babylon, I have hitherto made use of thee, for the subduing of divers kingdoms, and for breaking of many nations in pieces.

LI. 25. Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

Behold, I am against thee now, O Babylon, thou huge pile of perdition; which hath hitherto crushed the whole earth with thy vastness and power, &c. I will make thee like a hill of rubbish, a heap of burnt ruins.

LI. 27. Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause her horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.

Muster up together the kingdoms of both Armenias, and of the lesser Asia; set generals and captains over the appointed bands; cause the troops of horses to come in, as thick as the swarms of caterpillars; and all, to go up against Babylon.

LI. 33. The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, it is time to thresh her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest

shall come.

The city of Babylon is like a threshing floor: the sheaves, that are in her, must be beaten and thoroughly trodden out her harvest is now near at hand, wherein God will lay upon her, with the flail of his heavy judgments.

LI. 34. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, &c.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, shall Jerusalem say, hath devoured me; he hath utterly destroyed me.

LI. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh, &c.

And now, let God repay to Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians the violence, which they did to me and my people.

LI. 38. They shall roar together like lions, &c.

They shall roar together, in their pain and horror, like lions, that yell for hunger.

LI. 39. In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.

When they are heated with wine in their feasts, and drunken in their merry banquets, quaffing healths and praising their gods in the bowls of my temple, even then will I bring the sword of Cyrus upon them, and smite them that they shall sleep their last. See Daniel, chap. v.

LI. 41. How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! &c.

What an incredible thing is this?

How can it be, that Babylon, the great mistress of the world, should thus be spoiled and defaced?

LI. 42. The sea is come up upon Babylon: &c.

The innumerable and mighty hosts of the Medes is, like a raging sea, broken in upon Babylon.

LI. 44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up.

I will break in pieces and put to shame the idol Bel, that was worshipped of the Babylonians; and will fetch out of his mouth those many and rich offerings, which were made to that dunghill deity.

LI. 45. Go ye out of the midst of her. See verse 6.

LI. 46. Ruler against ruler.

Cyrus against Belshazzar.

LI. 48. Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon.

The heavens and the earth, and all creatures shall rejoice, and praise God for the just destruction, that is brought upon Babylon.

LI. 49. As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

As Babylon hath slain my people of Israel, so the Babylonians shall be slain, all the earth over; and in Babylon shall fall those of all the countries round about, which shall be there slaughtered.

LI. 51. For strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house.

Pagans have come into the sanctuary of God's temple, and have defiled it, and razed it to the ground.

LI. 52. And through all her land the wounded shall groan. Through all her land, those, that are not slain, right out, shall lie groaning and roaring for the pain of their wounds.

LI. 57. I will make drunk her princes, &c. See verse 39. LI. 58. And the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

In vain shall the people labour to quench that fire, which is kindled for the consuming of Babylon.

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