John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 50:13

"Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues." — Jeremiah 50:13 (ASV)

Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited ,
&c.] That is, Babylon; which the Targum expresses, "because you, Babylon, have provoked the Lord;" by their idolatry, luxury, ill usage of his people, and profanation of the vessels of the sanctuary;

therefore it should be destroyed, and left without an inhabitant in it: but it shall be wholly desolate ;
as it now is.

Pausanias says ^F15 , in his time there was nothing but a wall remaining; and Jerom ^F16 says, he had it from a brother Elamite, or Persian, that Babylon was then a park or place for royal hunting, and that beasts of every kind were kept within its walls:

of mystical Babylon, see (Revelation 16:19) (18:2) ;

everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all
her plagues ;
any traveller that had seen it in its glory would now be astonished to see the desolation of it; and, by way of scorn and derision, hiss at the judgments of God upon it, and rejoice at them, and shake their head, as the Targum.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F15: Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 509.
• F16: Comment. in Isaiam, fol. 23. C.