เยเรมีย์ 51:48 วิจารณ์

The prophet, in this chapter, goes on with the prediction of Babylon's fall, to which other prophets also bore witness. He is very copious and lively in describing the foresight God had given him of it, for the encouragement of the pious captives, whose deliverance depended upon it and was to be the result of it. Here is, I. The record of Babylon's doom, with the particulars of it, intermixed with the grounds of God's controversy with her, many aggravations of her fall, and great encouragements given thence to the Israel of God, that suffered such hard things by her (v. 1-58). II. The representation and ratification of this by the throwing of a copy of this prophecy into the river Euphrates (Jer 51:59-64).

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 51 The former part of this chapter is a continuation of the prophecy of the preceding chapter, concerning the destruction of Babylon, Jer 51:1; the latter part of it contains a prophecy of Jeremiah sent to the captives in Babylon by the hand of Seraiah, with the copy of the above prophecy against Babylon, and an order to fasten a stone to it, and cast it into the river Euphrates, as a sign, confirming the utter and irreparable ruin of Babylon, Jer 51:59.

Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still,.... The Jews, who had escaped the sword of the Chaldeans when Jerusalem was taken, and were carried captive into Babylon, where they had remained to this time; and had also escaped the sword of the Medes and Persians, when Babylon was taken; these are bid to go away from Babylon, and go into their land, and not stay in Babylon, or linger there, as Lot in Sodom; or stop on the road, but make the best of their way to the land of Judea: remember the Lord afar off; the worship of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it; the worship of the Lord in the sanctuary at Jerusalem, from which they were afar off at Babylon; and had been a long time, even seventy years, deprived of it, as Kimchi explains it: and let Jerusalem come into your mind; that once famous city, the metropolis of the nation, that now lay in ruins; the temple that once stood in it, and the service of God there; that upon the remembrance of, and calling these to mind, they might be quickened and stirred up to hasten thither, and rebuild the city and temple, and restore the worship of God. It is not easy to say whose words these are, whether the words of the prophet, or of the Lord by him; or of the inhabitants of the heavens and earth, whose song may be here continued, and in it thus address the Jews.

CONTINUATION OF THE PROPHECY AGAINST BABYLON BEGUN IN THE FIFTIETH CHAPTER. (Jer. 51:1-64) in the midst of them that rise . . . against me--literally, "in the heart" of them. Compare Psa 46:2, "the midst of the sea," Margin; Eze 27:4, "the heart of the seas"; Margin; Mat 12:40. In the center of the Chaldeans. "Against Me," because they persecute My people. The cabalistic mode of interpreting Hebrew words (by taking the letters in the inverse order of the alphabet, the last letter representing the first, and so on, Jer 25:26) would give the very word Chaldeans here; but the mystical method cannot be intended, as "Babylon" is plainly so called in the immediately preceding parallel clause. wind--God needs not warlike weapons to "destroy" His foes; a wind or blast is sufficient; though, no doubt, the "wind" here is the invading host of Medes and Persians (Jer 4:11; Kg2 19:7).

heaven . . . earth . . . sing for Babylon-- (Isa 14:7-13; Isa 44:23; Rev 18:20).

Heaven and earth, with all that is in them (i.e., the whole world, with its animate and inanimate creatures), break out into rejoicing over the fall of Babylon (cf. Isa 44:23), for Babylon has enslaved and laid waste all the world. The second part of Jer 51:48, "for the destroyers shall come from the north," is logically connected with Jer 51:47, to which Jer 51:48 is to be taken as subordinate, in the sense, "over which heaven and earth rejoice." On Jer 51:48, cf. Jer 50:3, Jer 50:9,Jer 50:41. Both parts of Jer 51:49 are placed in mutual relation by גּם־גּם. These two particles, thus used, signify "as well as," "not only...but also," or "as...so." Ewald, Hitzig, and Graf have quite missed the meaning of both clauses, since they take חללי ישׂראל as a vocative, and render the whole thus: "Not only must Babylon fall, O ye slain ones of Israel, but slain ones of the whole earth have fallen on the side of Babylon (or through Babylon)." This view of the expression "slain ones of Israel" cannot be established, either from grammatical considerations or from a regard to the meaning of the whole. Not only is there no occasion for a direct address to the slain ones of Israel; but by such a view of the expression, the antithesis indicated by גּמרררגּם, between "the slain ones of Israel" and "the slain ones of the earth," is thereby destroyed. Viewed grammatically, "the slain ones of Israel" can only be the subject dependent on the inf. לנפּל: "the fall of the slain ones of Israel." Kimchi has long ago hit the meaning in the explanation, גּם בּבל היתה סבּת לנפּל, "as Babylon was the cause of the slain ones of Israel falling." Similarly Jerome: et quomodo fecit Babylon ut caderent occisi ex Israel. This paraphrase may be vindicated on grammatical grounds, for the inf. constr. with ל, with or without היה, is used to express that on which one is engaged, or what one is on the point of doing; cf. Gesenius, 132, 3, Rem. 1. In this meaning, לנפּל stands here without היה: "Just as Babylon was concerned in making the slain ones of Israel fall;" or better: "Just as Babylon was intent on the fall of slain ones in Israel, so also there fall because of Babylon (prop. dative, for Babylon) slain ones of all the earth;" because there are to be found, in the capital of the empire, people from all quarters of the world, who are slain when Babylon is conquered. The perf. נפלוּ is prophetic, like פּקדתּי in Jer 51:47.