John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 3. Judah is gone into captivity , etc.] Not only Jerusalem the metropolis of Judea was destroyed, but the whole country was ravaged, and the inhabitants of it carried captive into Babylon: because of affliction, and because of great servitude ; because of their sins in oppressing and afflicting their poor brethren, and retaining them in a state of bondage after their seven years’ servitude, contrary to the law of God; for which they were threatened with captivity, ( Jeremiah 34:13-22); so the Targum, “the house of Judah went into captivity, because they afflicted the fatherless and the widows; and because of the multitude of service which they caused their brethren the children of Israel to serve, who were sold unto them; and they did not proclaim liberty to their servants and maidens, who were of the seed of Israel:” or, “through affliction, and through great servitude” f11 ; that is, through the affliction and servitude they suffered by the Chaldeans, into whose hands they fell; though some understand it of the Jews, who, to escape the affliction and servitude of the Chaldeans, went into a kind of voluntary captivity, fleeing to the countries of Moab, Ammon, and Edom, during the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; (see Jeremiah 40:11,12); she dwelleth among the Heathen; the uncircumcised and the unclean ; and so was deprived of both her civil and religious liberties; having no opportunity of worshipping God, and enjoying him in his courts, as formerly; and which must be very uncomfortable living, especially to those who were truly gracious: she findeth no rest . The Targum adds, “because of the hard service to which they subjected her;” she found no natural rest, being carried from place to place; nor civil rest, being kept in hard bondage; nor spiritual rest, being deprived of the worship and ordinances of God; and being conscious of her sins, which had brought all this misery on her: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits ; having hunted her as men hunt wild beasts, and get them into some strait and difficult place, and then seize on them. The Targum interprets it, between the borders; or between the hedges, as Ben Melech; and so Jarchi, of the borders of a field and vineyard; and of a ditch on the one side and the other, that there is no room to escape; and who makes mention of a Midrash, that explains it not of place, but time, between the seventeenth day of Tammuz, and the ninth of Ab; (see Jeremiah 52:7,8).
Matthew Henry Commentary
- Babylon's doom; God's controversy with her; encouragements from thenc to the Israel of God. (Jer. 51:1-58) The confirming of this. (Jer 51:59-64)
Jer. 51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed an interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shal secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Whereve we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears an hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Rev 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, an superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction a ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought bac to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exac fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.
Jer. 51:59-64 This prophecy is sent to Babylon, to the captives there by Seraiah, who is to read it to his countrymen in captivity. Let the with faith see the end of these threatening powers, and comfor themselves herewith. When we see what this world is, how glittering it shows, and how flattering its proposals, let us read in the book of the Lord that it shall shortly be desolate. The book must be thrown int the river Euphrates. The fall of the New Testament Babylon is thu represented, Rev. 18:21. Those that sink under the weight of God' wrath and curse, sink for ever. Babylon, and every antichrist, wil soon sink and rise no more for ever. Let us hope in God's word, an quietly wait for his salvation; then we shall see, but shall not share the destruction of the wicked _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew גלתה1540 יהודה3063 מעני6040 ומרב7230 עבדה5656 היא1931 ישׁבה3427 בגוים1471 לא3808 מצאה4672 מנוח4494 כל3605 רדפיה7291 השׂיגוה5381 בין996 המצרים׃4712
