John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief , etc.] Or, “for the head” f13 ; or are the head, as was threatened, ( Deuteronomy 28:44); and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them: her enemies prosper ; in wealth and riches, in grandeur and glory; live in ease and tranquillity, enjoying all outward felicity and happiness; while Zion was in distress; which was an aggravation of it; and yet this was but righteous judgment: for the Lord hath afflicted her ; who is righteous in all his ways: the Chaldeans were but instruments; the evil was from the Lord, according to his will and righteous determination, as appears by what follows: for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy ; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried captive by the enemy, and drove before them as a flock of sheep, and that for the sins of the nation; and these not a few, but were very numerous, as Mordecai and Ezekiel, and others, who were carried captive young with Jeconiah, as well as many now.
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 היו1961 צריה6862 לראשׁ7218 איביה341 שׁלו7951 כי3588 יהוה3068 הוגה3013 על5921 רב7230 פשׁעיה6588 עולליה5768 הלכו1980 שׁבי7628 לפני6440 צר׃6862
