John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed , etc.] The kingdom removed; the priesthood ceased; the temple, their beautiful house, burnt; the palaces of their king and nobles demolished; and everything in church and state that was glorious were now no more: her princes are become like harts [that] find no pasture ; that are heartless and without courage, fearful and timorous, as harts are, especially when destitute of food. The Targum is “her princes run about for food, as harts run about in the wilderness, and find no place fit for pasture:” and they are gone without strength before the pursuer ; having no spirit nor courage to oppose the enemy, nor strength to flee from him, they fell into his hands, and so were carried captive; (see Jeremiah 52:8-10). Jarchi observes, that the word for “pursuer” has here all its letters, and nowhere else; and so denotes the full pursuit of the enemy, and the complete victory obtained by him.
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 ויצא3318 מן4480 בת1323 ציון1323 כל3605 הדרה1926 היו1961 שׂריה8269 כאילים354 לא3808 מצאו4672 מרעה4829 וילכו1980 בלא3808 כח3581 לפני6440 רודף׃7291
