Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 50
Albert Barnes Commentary
Jeremiah 50
Albert Barnes Commentary
Jeremiah 50
"The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet." — Jeremiah 50:1 (ASV)
Against ... against - Concerning.
"Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed." — Jeremiah 50:2 (ASV)
Confounded ... confounded - ashamed ... ashamed.
Merodach - This deity, in the inscriptions Marduk, was the tutelary god of Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar, who called his son Evil-Merodach, appears to have been especially devoted to his service. He was really identical with Bel, and his equivalent among the planets was Jupiter: and as such he was styled “King of heaven and earth.”
"For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and beast." — Jeremiah 50:3 (ASV)
Out of the north - Media lay to the northwest of Babylon. This constant use of the north, the quarter where the sun never shines, and therefore the region of darkness, is symbolic of the region from where danger ever comes.
They shall remove ... - Translate it : from man even to cattle they are fled, they are gone.
"In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God." — Jeremiah 50:4 (ASV)
The fall of Babylon is to be immediately followed by the return of the exiles homewards, in tearful procession, because they go as penitents; and yet with joy, because their faces are toward Zion. The cessation moreover of the schism between Israel and Judah is one of the signs of the times of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:12–13), and symbolically represents the gathering together of the warring empires of the world under the peaceful scepter of the Church’s King.
Going and weeping: they shall go — Omit the colon; that is, "they go ever onward weeping."
"They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying], Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten." — Jeremiah 50:5 (ASV)
Toward that place - Toward this place; the writer evidently was at Jerusalem.
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