Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 6. For promotion cometh neither from the east, &c. ] As if the Lord had said, speaking to the Babylonians, None of all the surrounding powers shall be able to help you; none shall pluck you out of my hand. I am the Judge: I will pull you down, and set my afflicted people up, ver. 7.
Calmet has observed that the Babylonians had Media, Armenia, and Mesopotamia on the EAST; and thence came Darius the Mede: that it had Arabia, Phoenicia, and Egypt on the WEST; thence came Cyrus, who overthrew the empire of the Chaldeans. And by the mountains of the desert, µyrh rbdm midbar harim, which we translate SOUTH, Persia, may be meant; which government was established on the ruins of the Babylonish empire. No help came from any of those powers to the sinful Babylonians; they were obliged to drink the cup of the red wine of God's judgment, even to the very dregs. They were to receive no other punishment; this one was to annihilate them as a people for ever.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 6-10 - No second causes will raise men to preferment without the First Cause It comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south He mentions not the north; the same word that signifies the north signifies the secret place; and from the secret of God's counsel it does come. From God alone all must receive their doom. There ar mixtures of mercy and grace in the cup of affliction, when it is pu into the hands of God's people; mixtures of the curse, when it is pu into the hands of the wicked. God's people have their share in commo calamities, but the dregs of the cup are for the wicked. The exaltatio of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints' everlastin praises. Then let sinners submit to the King of righteousness, and le believers rejoice in and obey him _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew כי3588 לא3808 ממוצא4161 וממערב4628 ולא3808 ממדבר4057 הרים׃7311
