Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He predicts destruction for the Chaldeans through Cyrus and Darius, because they had proudly oppressed other nations, especially the Jews, to whom he promises freedom: hence in verse 21, he calls forth Darius and Cyrus and sends them against Babylon. Third, in verse 33, he threatens the Jews with salvation, and the Chaldeans everywhere with the sword. Fourth, in verse 41, he describes the strength and ferocity of the Persians. Jeremiah prophesied these things in the fourth year of Zedekiah, as is clear from chapter 51, verse 59.
Vulgate Text: Jeremias 50:1-8
1. The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, and concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. 2. Declare among the nations, and make it heard: raise up a standard, proclaim it, and do not conceal it: say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is defeated, its graven images are confounded, its idols are overcome. 3. For a nation from the north has come up against her, which shall make her land desolate: and none shall dwell in it, from man to beast: they are moved, they are gone. 4. In those days, and in that time, says the Lord: the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together: walking and weeping they shall hasten, and they shall seek the Lord their God. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces set toward it. They shall come, and shall be joined to the Lord in an everlasting covenant, which shall not be forgotten. 6. My people have been a lost flock: their shepherds have led them astray, and made them wander in the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place. 7. All who found them devoured them: and their enemies said: We have not sinned — because they have sinned against the Lord, the beauty of justice, and the hope of their fathers, the Lord. 8. Depart from the midst of Babylon, and go out from the land of the Chaldeans: and be as he-goats before the flock.
(1) After having predicted to the Egyptians, Philistines, Edomites and other neighboring nations the evils which Nebuchadnezzar was about to bring upon them, Jeremiah finally comes to Babylon and the Chaldeans, and prophesies what was threatening them from Cyrus and the other kings who were to succeed him, who were going to overthrow the empire of Nebuchadnezzar and reduce Babylon to the condition of the most wretched of cities. For the things he predicts against Babylon did not all happen at the same time. For it was not completely destroyed until many decades and centuries had passed. (Calmet.) And that was perhaps the reason why Rosenmuller asserted that the two chapters L and LI which now follow are not one continuous prophecy, but several discourses against Babylon delivered at different times, which, as is noted at the end of this section below in chapter 51:59, Jeremiah committed to writing, joined them in a single book, and delivered them to Seraiah.
9. For behold, I will raise up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north: and they shall set themselves in array against her, and from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be like those of a mighty warrior who slays; none shall return empty. 10. And Chaldea shall become a spoil: all who plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord. 11. Because you rejoiced, and spoke great things, plundering My inheritance: because you have spread yourselves like calves upon the grass, and bellowed like bulls. 12. Your mother is greatly confounded, and she who bore you is leveled with the dust: behold, she shall be the last among the nations, desolate, pathless, and dry. 13. Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited, but shall be wholly reduced to desolation: everyone who passes through Babylon shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all her wounds. 14. Prepare yourselves against Babylon on every side, all you who bend the bow; fight against her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the Lord. 15. Shout against her on every side; she has surrendered, her foundations have fallen, her walls are destroyed, for it is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her. 16. Destroy the sower from Babylon, and him who holds the sickle in the time of harvest: before the sword of the dove, everyone shall turn to his own people, and each one shall flee to his own land.
17. Israel is a scattered flock, lions have driven him out: first the king of Assyria devoured him: this last one, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, has broken his bones. 18. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria: 19. and I will bring Israel back to his dwelling place: and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and on Mount Ephraim and Gilead his soul shall be satisfied. 20. In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none; and the sin of Judah, and it shall not be found: because I will be merciful to those whom I shall leave as a remnant. 21. Go up against the land of the rulers, and against its inhabitants punish, scatter, and slay those who come after them, says the Lord: and do according to all that I have commanded you. 22. The noise of war is in the land, and great destruction. 23. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and shattered! How has Babylon become a desert among the nations! 24. I have laid a snare for you, and you are taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it: you are found and caught, because you provoked the Lord. 25. The Lord has opened His treasury, and has brought forth the weapons of His wrath: for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. 26. Come against her from the farthest borders, open her granaries: pile her up like heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing be left. 27. Destroy all her mighty ones, let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment! 28. The voice of those who flee, and of those who have escaped from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of His temple. 29. Summon archers against Babylon, all who bend the bow: camp against her on every side, let none escape: repay her according to her work; according to all she has done, do to her, for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. 30. Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets: and all her warriors shall be silenced in that day, says the Lord. 31. Behold, I am against you, O proud one, says the Lord God of hosts: for your day has come, the time of your punishment. 32. And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and there shall be none to raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour everything around him. 33. Thus says the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah suffer oppression together: all who captured them hold them fast and will not let them go. 34. Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is His name: He will surely plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 35. A sword against the Chaldeans, says the Lord, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes, and against her wise men. 36. A sword against her diviners, and they shall become fools: a sword against her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed. 37. A sword against her horses, and against her chariots, and against all the mixed multitude in her midst; and they shall become like women: a sword against her treasures, and they shall be plundered. 38. A drought upon her waters, and they shall dry up: for it is a land of graven images, and they glory in monstrous idols. 39. Therefore wild beasts shall dwell there with jackals: and ostriches shall dwell in it: and it shall be inhabited no more forever, nor shall it be built up from generation to generation. 40. As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord: no man shall dwell there, nor shall any son of man inhabit it. 41. Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall rise from the ends of the earth. 42. They shall take up bow and shield: they are cruel and without mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea; and they shall ride upon horses, every man set in array like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon. 43. The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands grew feeble: anguish seized him, and pain as of a woman in labor. 44. Behold, like a lion he shall come up from the swelling of the Jordan against the fair and strong land: for I will suddenly make him run against her; and who is the chosen one, whom I may set over her? For who is like Me? And who shall endure Me? And who is that shepherd who can resist My face? 45. Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, which He has purposed against Babylon; and His plans, which He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall drag them out; surely He shall make their dwelling desolate with them. 46. At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.
By the hand of Jeremiah — through Jeremiah, by the work of Jeremiah.
Verse 2: Annuntiate In Gentibus
2. Declare among the nations. These are the words of the Prophet commanding that the destruction of Babylon be proclaimed among all nations, because she had imposed the yoke of servitude upon nearly all nations, so that they might now receive the most joyful news of recovered liberty from this yoke being cast off. Raise up a standard — that is, a banner, so that peoples may be gathered to it for battle for the destruction of Babylon; so Sanchez: or rather as a sign of its destruction and the victory won over it, so that all the nations oppressed by them may celebrate feast days and a triumph over the extinction of the Chaldean tyranny and the recovery of liberty. Hence it follows: 'Say: Babylon is taken,' the mistress of nations, the hammer of the world, the monarch of the universe — io, triumph!
Sanchez adds that by 'standard' one can understand boundary stones, or the gods Terminus, which were erected at the borders of fields to mark them off from the property of others — of which we see many here in Rome as relics of ancient paganism — as if to say: O Jews! Now that Babylon is captured, overthrow the markers and signs that the Chaldeans erected in Judea, as if they were its masters and lords; and restore your own in their place. For now, with the Chaldean yoke thrown off, Judea will be restored to you as to its ancestral masters and lords. The Prophet therefore, here foreseeing future events in the spirit, presents them as though already accomplished and past; for although Babylon was yet to be captured, he says: 'It is taken'; and he introduces the nations exulting and congratulating each other over its capture, thus:
Bel is confounded (that is, will certainly be confounded), Merodach is defeated (will be defeated). These are two gods and idols of the Babylonians. So Rabanus and Vatablus. Note: Bel, or Belus, was Nimrod, the first king and tyrant in the world, and founder of the Babylonian empire, as I said on Genesis 10:8. His son Ninus placed him among the gods; and thence idols are everywhere in Scripture called Bel, Baal, Baalim: for first the Babylonians, then the Phoenicians and Jews, and then the Carthaginians worshiped Bel or Belus.
Merodach was the son of Baladan, who was the first, as the Assyrian empire declined, to restore the Babylonian empire, and therefore seems to have been placed among the gods, just as Saturn, Jupiter, Hercules, and other first princes of nations were placed among the gods by their peoples. Second, by Merodach one can understand, with Theodoret, Hugo, and Lyra, Belshazzar: for he was properly defeated and slain by Cyrus, and he was called Evil-merodach, as I said on Daniel chapter 5:1. For just as from the first Pharaoh the other kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs, from Caesar the Caesars, and from Seleucus the kings of Asia were called Seleucids: so from the first Merodach, his posterity, the kings of Babylon, were called Merodach.
Bel is therefore confounded; because he was unable to help his Babylonian worshipers against Cyrus, and was stripped of them — indeed, he was led captive with them into Persia: 'Merodach is defeated,' whether the god or Belshazzar.
Verse 3: Gens Ab Aquilone
3. A nation from the north. For the Medes and Persians, who are to the east of Babylon, summoned the northern nations — namely the Armenians, Hyrcanians, Sacae, Cadusians, and others — against Babylon, to remove the Chaldean, their common tyrant. Moreover, Media inclines somewhat to the north of Babylon. He calls them northern rather than eastern because the north was unlucky and hostile to the Jews, and equally terrible, from the fact that they had first heard, and then actually experienced, that a harsh scourge was being aimed at them from the north, namely from Chaldea. That voice of Jeremiah from chapter 1 stuck in their ears and minds: 'From the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.' Therefore the north was proverbial among them, so that when they wished to signify a great disaster or evil, they would name the north. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: You, O Jews, had your north wind, namely the Chaldeans; know that they too will have their north wind, namely the Persians and Medes, and the nations allied with them. So Sanchez.
They are moved — they will be moved, that is, scattered. And they are gone — that is, they will flee, or go into captivity.
Verse 4: Venient Filii Israel
4. The children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together. Note: Cyrus and afterwards Artaxerxes gave permission to return not only to the two tribes, but also to the ten tribes: many of them therefore returned from Media and neighboring Assyria (for Cyrus the conqueror and monarch now occupied both) and joined themselves to Judah and Ezra under one head, as one commonwealth. Hence all were called Jews, not Samaritans, Reubenites, Gadites, etc. Josephus indicates this in Antiquities XI, chapter 5, and it is gathered from Isaiah 41:24, and other places where God promises to bring back both Israel and Judah from captivity.
They shall come. In Hebrew nilchu — they shall join themselves, unite themselves. Weeping for joy at their return from Babylon in the time of Cyrus; second and more importantly, as if to say: The faithful in the time of Christ, of whom Cyrus was a type, will weep for joy, returning from the captivity of the devil.
Verse 5: In Sion Interrogabunt Viam
5. They shall ask the way to Zion — saying: Which is the way to Judea, to Jerusalem? Mystically, to the Church. Their faces shall be set toward it — that is, they shall look and strive directly toward it. They shall come, and shall be joined. In Hebrew nilvu — that is, they shall be united, bound together, and inseparably joined to the Lord, and to His people by an everlasting covenant — which, that is, lasts forever, that is, as long as Judaism and the Jewish commonwealth endure; second and properly, this everlasting covenant is the Evangelical covenant, which Christ established with His faithful.
Verse 6: Grex Perditus (Q
6. A lost flock (as if to say: Israel wandered through the mountains like sheep, because) their shepherds (that is, kings) led them astray (when) they made them wander in the mountains (to worship their idols — to wander, I say, from one mountain and idol to another; hence) they forgot their resting place — that is, the temple, in which they used to rest. So Theodoret and Rabanus. Second, the Chaldee, Vatablus, and Maldonatus explain it of the punishment of exile and captivity, as if to say: My people, seduced by kings and false prophets, sinned; hence without shepherd, without king, without priest, it wanders in captivity: and was led from mountain to mountain until it came to Babylon; where, exiled for a long time, it has as it were forgotten its resting place, that is, its homeland: for the poverty, servitude, and hardships it suffers for so many years in Babylon so oppress it that they have driven from it the memory of its rich, happy, and blessed homeland. Hence he said in the preceding verse: 'They shall ask the way to Zion.' Hence the second meaning follows from the first: for it was the effect and punishment of the first.
(1) Roim, shepherds, in this place are not only kings, but also priests and prophets, whose duty it was to lead the people rightly, to keep them in the true worship of God.... Mountains are dangerous for sheep if they become entangled in thickets, through which they cannot find the path. This refers to the superstitious and impious worship which used to be practiced especially on mountains. (Rosenmuller.)
(2) St. Jerome considered neve to be of the same meaning as the name manoah (neve, manoah)... J. D. Michaelis approves the Greek Alexandrine interpretation of neve tsedeq as 'pasture of justice,' which interpretation pleases us all the more because it persists in the simile of the flock, verse 6.
Verse 7: Comederunt
7. They devoured — they plundered them. And their enemies (of the Jews) said: We have not sinned by plundering the Jews; indeed, we thought we were doing a service to God by destroying a people so impious, who had so sinned against the Lord so holy and just; and therefore they seem to have been exposed by Him as prey for all, and given over to plundering and spoil. For soldiers do not sin when they take and plunder a hostile city given over to plunder by their commander. Hence follows: 'Because they sinned against the Lord.'
The beauty of justice. He so calls God, first, because He had adorned His people with justice before they sinned; second, because He was the beauty of His people on account of the laws of justice which He had given them and by which He governed them; third, because He adorned and rewarded their justice and piety with many blessings. It can secondly be translated 'dwelling place of justice,' that is, in whom, when they were just, they trusted, and by whom they were protected as in a dwelling, saying: 'He who dwells in the help of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.' Hence the Chaldee translates: They sinned by departing from God, the dwelling place of justice and truth.
And the hope of their fathers — that is, in whom the fathers hoped, namely the Lord God, they sinned against: for He is the hope of Israel, chapter 14:8. See what was said there, lest we uselessly repeat the same things at a waste of paper and time.
Verse 8: Estote Quasi Haedi Ante Gregem
8. Be as he-goats before the flock. Let no one among you shrink from taking the lead in the return from Babylon to Judea; indeed, let everyone strive to be first in the column of those returning: just as he-goats, that is, male goats of full age and strength (for this is what the Hebrew attudim signifies), are accustomed to go nobly and swiftly before the flock, even over steep crags, mountains, and rocks, and to leap ahead of it; for you shall return happy and secure, even though some difficulties must be overcome. Hence the Chaldee translates: Be as leaders at the head of the people, as if to say: Until now you have wandered as a flock without a leader; now appoint for yourselves leaders who shall go before the people, and return to your fold. Otherwise Theodoret: as if to say: Be superior to the Babylonians, as rams or he-goats are superior to sheep. Others explain it: as if to say: Return, O Jews, from Babylon cheerful and eager, like kids leaping for joy, according to the Poet's words: 'And the frisky kids trample the flowers.'
And indeed the Prophet also looks to this. Tropologically, Hugo says: The he-goats are the penitent, who flee Babylon — that is, the confusion of vices, and their proximity and occasions, according to Revelation 18:4: 'Come out of her (Babylon), My people, that you may not share in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues.'
Verse 9: Inde
9. From there — from the place where Cyrus first pitched his camp, Babylon will be captured as if by the first assault and attack. So Vatablus. He signifies that Cyrus will not change his camp, will not summon new forces, but through his first camp will quickly and easily capture Babylon. Erroneously Hugo and Dionysius read 'in a day'; for in Hebrew it is misham, that is, 'from there': nor was Babylon captured by day, but by night, Daniel chapter 5:30.
Their arrow (that is, the arrows of those nations, shall be) like that of a mighty warrior who slays. In Hebrew maskil, that is, one who bereaves; or, as the Septuagint and Vatablus, of a prudent man (for maskil with shin means to bereave, with sin to understand) — that is, skilled in archery. Who is this mystically? Surely the preacher, who, full of the Spirit of God, hurls fiery words at the heart, so as to penetrate the heart of the Babylonians, that is, of sinners, so that his words may be like the sharp arrows of a mighty man in the hearts of the enemies of Christ, that he may slay them for Christ — indeed, may raise them to new life. Literally, in Scripture the bow and arrows are attributed to the Elamites, that is, the Persians, because these were their principal weapons: hence they were most skilled archers, and struck whatever target or enemy they wished with an aimed shot, with certain accuracy.
Verse 10: Replebuntur
10. They shall be filled — they will be enriched with spoils, and, as the Hebrew has it, will be satisfied.
Verse 11: Quoniam Exsultatis (Causam Dat Excidii Babylonis
11. Because you rejoice (he gives the reason for the destruction of Babylon, namely that it had exulted in the destruction of the Lord's inheritance, that is, the Jews), and spoke great things (that is, proud things, attributing the victory to itself, and) because you have spread yourselves. He signifies their greediness in conquering and plundering the land of the Jews — that, just as a calf rushes at the grass, and grazes it most greedily, and fattens itself on it, becoming wild and wanton, and therefore lowing: so they themselves had devoured Judea and the Jews. So Rabanus and Hugo. This applies well to a calf, less well to a bull; for a bull does not low on account of grass, but either on account of a female, or on account of an enemy already trampled by it; for then it is proud, and celebrates its victory with a bellow, and insults the vanquished with it. Hence Pagninus translates: Like a heifer that feeds on sprouting grass, and you have exulted like bulls after winning a victory. And this is what the Hebrew tsahal properly signifies, that is, to neigh, as the horses of victors neigh. Hence by catachresis it signifies the same joyful emotion and sound in oxen and bulls, which they express through lowing. So Delrio, adage 871. Thus Christ says in Psalm 22:13: 'Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me.'
Verse 12: Mater Vestra
12. Your mother — Babylon, as is clear from what follows. Leveled with the dust — completely destroyed and razed to the ground. It is hyperbole. She shall be the last among the nations — she shall be the most abject among the nations.
Verse 13: Sibilabit
13. He shall hiss — that is, he shall be astonished, or shall mock. See the preceding chapter, verse 17.
Verse 15: Ubique (Scilicet) Clamate (Quod) Dedit Manum
15. Shout against her on every side (namely) that she has surrendered — that is, Babylon is conquered, and confesses herself conquered: for when a soldier gives his hand to the enemy, he also gives his arms, and has given and submitted himself and all his possessions to him as to the victor and master. So Turnus says to Aeneas the victor, Aeneid XII: 'You have conquered, and the Ausonians have seen the vanquished stretch out his palms: Lavinia is your bride.'
Again, the vanquished extends a suppliant hand to the victor, to obtain from him life and pardon. So the Saxon, defeated by Charles V, leaping from his horse and extending his hand to him, said: 'Most merciful Caesar, I present myself to you vanquished, and beg for pardon.' To whom the Emperor replied: 'Now you acknowledge and call me Caesar, who before used to call me Charles of Ghent.' The Septuagint translates: her hands are weakened; the Chaldee: she is delivered into their hands, namely of the enemies. Otherwise Rabanus and Hugo: as if to say: Babylon extended her hand to lay waste all kingdoms; hence she too will be laid waste.
(1) 'She has given her hand' — with the gesture of those who submit themselves, and promise loyalty and submission, or as if offering their hands to be bound, as in Lamentations 5:6; 2 Chronicles 30:8 — a phrase customary also among the Latins. Cicero, book On Friendship, chapter 26, at the end: 'Let him give his hand and allow himself to be conquered.' Lactantius, Institutes, book V, chapter 1: 'For they fear lest, refuted by us, they may someday be compelled to give their hand.' (Rosenmuller.)
(2) 'Her walls are destroyed.' This did not happen when Cyrus captured Babylon — he entered the city through the dried-up Euphrates — but under Darius Hystaspes, who dug up all its walls and demolished its gates, as Herodotus testifies, book III, chapter 159.
(3) Some, like Grotius, refer this to the fact that Babylon had a circuit more like a region than a city, as Aristotle says, Politics, book III, chapter 11. Hence in the city there were many fields in which sowing and reaping was customary (Pliny, Natural History, book XVIII, chapter 17); so that the city was always self-sufficient for procuring food, nor could it be forced to surrender by famine. (Rosenmuller.)
Verse 16: Disperdite Satorem
16. Destroy the sower — as if to say: Kill in Babylon not only the soldiers, but also the farmers who sow; who, however, are usually spared in the destruction of cities — so that no one remains, neither one who sows nor one who reaps. So Theodoret. Hence the Septuagint translates: Scatter the seed from Babylon. The Chaldee thinks 'the sower' is Nebuchadnezzar, who sowed wars and disasters everywhere; the same is called 'the reaper,' because he reaped nations with the sword.
Before the sword of the dove — that is, for fear of the Persian sword, extended against the dove, that is, against the Chaldean army, everyone flees. See what was said in chapter 25:38. For a dove does not have a sword with which to strike, but a neck by which it may be slaughtered by the enemy's sword. Instead of 'dove,' the Septuagint translates 'Greeks,' because Cyrus, says Theodoret, brought the Ionians and other Greeks, previously conquered by him, with him against Babylon. But they incorrectly read yavan, that is, Greece, instead of yonah, that is, dove, as I said in chapter 25. Therefore some are not correct in understanding the Medes and Persians here by 'dove' — on the grounds that along with the empire, the military standard of the Chaldeans, bearing the insignia of a dove, was transferred to them: for this had not yet been transferred. Besides, the insignia of the Persians was sometimes an eagle, according to Xenophon, book VII of the Cyropaedia; sometimes an image of the sun, according to Curtius, book III.
Verse 17: Grex Dispersus
17. A scattered flock — as if to say: Israel, because it abandoned the one God, was scattered among idols; therefore, like a scattered flock, it became prey to tyrants, who are fierce like lions. For first, Shalmaneser 'devoured' — that is, laid waste — the ten tribes like flesh surrounding bones, leaving only the bones themselves, that is, the strongest tribe of Judah, in which was the kingdom, the priesthood, and the temple, like the bones and strength of the people; but Nebuchadnezzar broke, crushed, and tore away these bones; and so he completely overthrew and virtually extinguished the commonwealth of the Jews. So everywhere the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins say. He gives the reason for the destruction of Babylon: because it destroyed the Jews.
Verse 19: Pascetur Carmelum
19. He shall feed on Carmel — in the rich pastures of Carmel, that is, of Judea; Judah shall feed sumptuously as the Lord's flock (previously scattered, as he said in verse 17) and shall graze upon these things returning from Babylon. So the Septuagint. By Carmel he understands the whole of Judea, as fertile and rich, by synecdoche. His soul shall be satisfied — that is, their appetite; thus 'soul' is used in Psalm 42:3, Psalm 63:6, Isaiah 5:14.
Verse 20: Quaeretur Iniquitas Israel
20. The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, and there shall be none — as if to say: If (for the Hebrews often omit and imply this), or even if the iniquity of Israel is sought, it shall not be found: because the Jews after their return from Babylon no longer worshiped idols, as they had done before, on account of which they were captured and punished. So Theodoret, Hugo, Lyra. Consequently, 'iniquity' shall not be found — that is, the punishment for iniquity, namely captivity, famine, poverty, exile, etc. — as if to say: No remnants of captivity and disaster will be seen. So Sanchez, as this is a metonymy frequent in this word in Scripture.
Second and more truly: as if to say: In the time of Christ, through Christ all their iniquity will be erased and taken away. So Vatablus and Dionysius. Those whom I shall leave as a remnant. For a remnant of Israel was saved, Romans 9:27, and chapter 11:5.
Verse 21: Ascende (Scilicet
21. Go up (namely, O Darius and Cyrus!) against the land of the rulers (that is, of the Chaldeans, who like a 'hammer' struck the whole earth, as is said in verse 23), punish and scatter (Babylon), and slay its inhabitants. So Theodoret. It is an apostrophe of God and the Prophet to the enemies of the Chaldeans.
Note: Instead of 'punish,' the Chaldee, Vatablus, and the Hebrews retain the Hebrew Pekod, and translate: Go up against the inhabitants of Pekod — as though Pekod were the name of a city in Chaldea: or rather, Babylon is called Pekod, that is, 'punish' or 'to punish,' that is, 'visitation,' so that by its very name it may always be warned that it will shortly be visited and punished by God. Similar is Isaiah 8:3, Ezekiel 23 in the Hebrew.
Slay those who come after them — destroy all their posterity, namely their sons and grandsons. According to all that I have commanded. He calls it a 'command,' the impulse and instigation which God put into the Persians to invade Babylon, as I said in Canon 37.
Verse 22: Vox Belli
22. The noise of war — a battle cry is heard, as if to say: I seem to hear the blare of trumpets and the crash of the arms of Cyrus and the Persians, and to see with what heavy destruction and ruin Babylon has fallen.
Verse 23: Quomodo Confractus Est
23. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken and shattered? That is, Babylon, which like an adamantine hammer struck and battered the whole earth; so that nothing, however hard or bronzen, could resist it or withstand its blow without being broken and shattered. So Emperor Frederick II boasted that he was the hammer of Rome and of the Roman Church, and indeed of the whole world; but he was broken and crushed by Innocent II and other Pontiffs, as I said on Isaiah 1:10. So Isaiah says of the Assyrians, chapter 10:5: 'Woe, Assyria, the rod of My fury!' And of Cyrus, through whom God punished the Chaldeans, chapter 45:1: 'Whose right hand I have grasped.' So Attila was called 'the terror of the world and the scourge of God.'
St. Augustine says admirably on Psalm 73: 'Their wickedness,' he says, 'was made like God's axe; they were made the instrument of the wrathful one, not the kingdom of the pleased one. For God does this, which a man also commonly does. Sometimes an angry man picks up a stick lying nearby, perhaps any kind of branch: he beats his son with it, and then throws the branch into the fire, and preserves the inheritance for his son. So sometimes God corrects the good through the wicked.' Therefore those who are corrected through the wicked should not be angry at them, nor impute their blows to them, but to God who justly chastises.
Beautifully Blessed Dorotheus says, Instruction VII: 'But we,' he says, 'when we hear any word spoken against us, imitate dogs. For if someone throws a stone at them, they let the thrower go and bite the stone instead. So we, leaving God aside, who arranges such tribulations for the purging of our sins, run to the stone, that is, to our neighbor.' St. Job did otherwise, who, despoiled by the Chaldeans, struck by disease from Satan, said: 'The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away' — not the Chaldeans, not Satan. Hence St. Augustine says on Psalm 31: 'Absolutely,' he says, 'refer your scourge to your God, because the devil does nothing to you unless He permits it, who has power from above.'
Symbolically, St. Augustine, in the treatise On the Virtue of Women, tome IX, teaches that the Babylonian hammer, once dominating and crushing the whole earth — that is, all men — is lust: 'And although,' he says, 'after the coming of Christ, through all the monasteries of monks, and through clergy, and even through laity who preserve chastity, that hammer seems to have been broken; yet there are still many more who are daily crushed by that hammer than those who are freed from the ruin of its striking.' St. Gregory, book 34 of the Moralia, chapter 10, understands the hammer as the devil; St. Paulinus, epistle 12, as the care of temporal things.
How has Babylon become a desert among the nations? — among the nations, or rather, like other nations, has Babylon been reduced to a desert and solitude?
(1) He calls the Chaldeans a hammer for the same reason that one of the Franks was called Martellus (the Hammer). (Grotius.)
Verse 24
24. I have laid a snare for you, like a trap set unexpectedly and without warning; because Babylon was captured while it was celebrating a feast, and Belshazzar was getting drunk with his courtiers, Daniel 5:1; for then Cyrus diverted the Euphrates into ditches, and sent his soldiers into the city through the dry riverbed, and slaughtered the citizens buried in sleep and wine. This is the drought of which Jeremiah speaks here. Jeremiah indicates the same in the next chapter, verse 32.
Frontinus reports, book V, chapter 7, that by the stratagem just described Babylon had been captured three times: namely, first by Semiramis; second, by Cyrus; third, by Alexander.
Otherwise Maldonatus: as if to say: God will send barrenness and drought upon Chaldea. Note: Our translator read yabeshtu, that is, 'they will dry up'; hence he translates: 'A drought upon the waters'; but the Septuagint read with a different vocalization yaboshu, that is, 'they will be ashamed over the waters.'
Verse 25: Aperuit Dominus Thesaurum Suum
25. The Lord has opened His treasury. He gives the reason and the means by which so great a city was so easily captured and overthrown, namely that God opened His armory or arsenal — namely Persia and Media, says Vatablus. Or rather, the storehouse of His omnipotence and vindicating justice, in which are contained infinite weapons and punishments which He may hurl against His enemies — namely error, torpor, overconfidence, famine, plague, war, etc., and indeed hailstones, thunders, lightning bolts, and all creatures: for these fight and wage war for God against the foolish. From this God brought forth Darius and Cyrus, and their armies, strength, and courage, as weapons with which to overthrow Babylon — hence he calls the overthrow of Babylon the work of God. So Theodoret. For he adds: Because the Lord God of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans — as if to say: Just as an architect wishing to build a palace procures stones, mortar, laborers, craftsmen, and everything necessary; and just as a king preparing for war carefully gathers soldiers, commanders, arms, provisions, and everything else that is needed: so God also summoned and provided Cyrus and the Persians; because He intended to accomplish this work of Babylon's destruction through them; and therefore He supplied them with forces, money, strength, courage, and everything else suitable for this work.
Verse 26: Venite Ad Eam Ab Extremis Finibus
26. Come against her from the farthest borders — namely, O Persians! Gather soldiers from the remotest regions against Babylon. Otherwise Vatablus and Pagninus translate: Come against her at her end — as if to say: O Darius and Cyrus! Invade Babylon; the end of her empire is at hand; hence the Septuagint translates: Because her times have come — namely, of destruction — that her empire and monarchy may be ended.
26 (cont.). Open (namely the gates and cities) so that soldiers may go out to attack and trample Babylon. Sanchez thinks these words are spoken by God to the guardian angels of the Persians, as if to say: You, O angels who preside over the Persians! Remove the barriers and obstacles which until now have restrained the zeal of the Persians, and their ambitious desire to fight and rule against the Chaldeans. For Zechariah recalls these barriers and gates of empires in chapter 6:1, and Isaiah in chapter 45:1, speaking of Cyrus and the Persians. Vatablus translates: Open her granaries, and plunder them; for in Hebrew, abus means a manger, a storehouse; hence the Septuagint also translates: Open her storehouses, search her as a cave, as if to say: O Persians! Diligently search the storehouses of Babylon, and track down and plunder the treasures and riches hidden in them as in caves. Our translator derives abus from bus, that is, 'he trampled.'
It can, secondly, be translated with Vatablus: Trample her as sheaves of wheat are usually trampled on the threshing floor, to press out the grains. So Rabbi David and Rabbi Solomon. Third, Rabbi Joseph translates: Raise up heaps upon heaps, that is, make many piles of the spoils of the Chaldeans.
Remove the stones from the way, and pile them in heaps — as if to say: Make the way flat and clear, so that nothing may delay the Persians coming to Babylon to lay it waste. For army commanders are accustomed to send ahead diggers and cutters, who fell trees and hedges, and level and widen the road for the coming army — such as we have seen in the Belgian wars, whom they themselves call pioneers, and the Italians guastatori. So Hannibal broke through and leveled the Alps with vinegar, to bring his forces across into Italy. To these diggers therefore the Prophet here turns, and commands them to prepare the roads for the Persians into Babylon.
Verse 27: Fortes
27. Her mighty ones. In Hebrew parim, that is, young bulls — that is, the strong ones, like young bulls. He compares the Chaldeans to calves and young bulls about to be slaughtered and butchered.
Verse 28: Vox Scilicet
28. The voice — namely, the voice of fleeing Jews will be heard; for some Jews, as soon as Babylon began to be besieged, fled from it to Jerusalem, and there announced that Babylon was now being besieged and captured; and thus the vengeance was being fulfilled which Jeremiah had threatened and predicted against it on account of the disaster inflicted on the Jews and the nations, and that consequently the Jews would shortly be freed from it and return to their homeland.
Verse 29: Annuntiate In Babylonem
29. Summon archers against Babylon. That is, announce everywhere, and call together those skilled in archery, that they may assemble at the designated place, ready to go against Babylon — what the French call: Donnez le rendez-vous. So Maldonatus; hence the Hebrew has: Announce against Babylon to many: all who shoot the bow, encamp against her. According to her work — just as she herself did and laid waste other nations.
Verse 31: Ecce Ego Ad Te (Id Est Contra Te Venio)
31. Behold, I am against you (that is, I come against you), O proud one! God addresses Nebuchadnezzar, or rather Belshazzar, and under him any proud person.
Verse 33: Calumniam
33. They suffer oppression — that is, as the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Chaldee have it, violence and oppression — that is, the Jews endure a violent captivity, unjustly condemned to it as if by slander in the tyrannical court and judgment of the Chaldeans. Alluding to this he adds: 34. Their Redeemer is strong — as if to say: Though the Chaldeans are strong and hold the Jews firmly in Babylon; yet the Lord is stronger than they, who will redeem and liberate the Jews from Babylon. In justice (that is, with justice, or justly) God will defend their cause (the Jews'), to terrify the land (of the Chaldeans; Vatablus translates: That He may give rest to the land — to the other nations), and to shake the inhabitants of Babylon.
Verse 36: Gladius Ad Divinos (Contra Divinos Et Astrologos Chaldaeorum Veniet)
36. A sword against the diviners (against the diviners and astrologers of the Chaldeans it shall come), who shall become fools — that is, shall be exposed as such, because they cannot divine their own destruction.
Verse 38: Siccitas Super Aquas Ejus Erit
38. A drought shall be upon her waters. Note from Xenophon, book VII of the Cyropaedia, Herodotus book I, Theodoret, Vatablus, Capella, and a Castro, that Cyrus captured Babylon by this stratagem: namely, he diverted the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, into many wide and deep ditches previously dug by the soldiers for this purpose, on the night when the Babylonians, as if perfectly secure, were celebrating feasts and banquets; so that he sent his soldiers into the city through the dry riverbed, and slaughtered the citizens buried in sleep and wine. This is the drought of which Jeremiah speaks here. Jeremiah indicates the same in the following chapter, verse 32.
In monstrous idols — that is, in the monstrous and portentous images of their gods and idols. In Hebrew emim means terrors, that is, terrifying and fierce men or gods.
Verse 39: Dracones Cum Faunis Ficariis
39. Dragons with fig-fauns. So the Roman edition: not 'foolish assassins,' as the Plantin editions have; nor 'foolish dry-dwellers,' that is, those inhabiting dry places, as Maldonatus reads and explains. In Hebrew it is tsiim and iim, which the Chaldee translates as marmosets with cats; others, cats with screech-owls; Pagninus best translates it as wild beasts and monsters or specters — namely demons who inhabit deserted lands or islands. For the Hebrew tsi means a dry desert, and ii an island; hence our translator, in Isaiah 34:21-22, translates it as beasts and screech-owls; and in Isaiah 34:14 translates it as demons and onocentaurs; here he translates it as dragons with fig-fauns. Fauns are monsters — that is, beasts (born from the unspeakable union of humans with beasts, for example, of shepherds with goats) — or demons living in the likeness of humans in forests and deserted mountains. They are called ficarii (fig-fauns) because they are sustained by the wild fig tree and eat its figs.
He signifies therefore the utter desolation of Babylon, so that it becomes a den of dragons, wild beasts, and demons. See what was said on Isaiah 34:14.
Note: Fauns are so called as if they 'cannot speak' (fari nesciant), because they speak inarticulately and screech like beasts — for example, bleating like goats: or, as Hesychius says, they are called Fauns as if phainomenoi, that is, 'showing themselves' — either because they are rarely seen, or because demons are accustomed to appear in their form. Such was perhaps the one whom St. Anthony saw offering him palm fruits, and the other whom he saw showing him the way to St. Paul the first hermit.
It shall be inhabited no more forever. You will ask: How do Jeremiah and Isaiah say that Babylon will be utterly desolated, when after Nebuchadnezzar, even in the time of Alexander the Great, it was famous for its wealth and was one of the seven wonders of the world? I respond that this prophecy was fulfilled not all at once, but gradually and progressively: for first, through Cyrus, the monarchy and empire was taken from Babylon; second, Darius Hystaspes conquered Babylon when it resisted, and leveled its walls to the ground, as Herodotus testifies, book III, and Justin, book I; third, Seleucus Nicator, having founded Seleucia near Babylon (which was then also called Babylonia), drained Babylon of its citizens and wealth and transferred them to Seleucia; the Parthians did the same by founding Ctesiphon near Babylon, as Pliny testifies, book VI, chapter 26; fourth, in the time of Emperor Hadrian: 'Babylon,' says Pausanias, book VIII, 'the greatest of all cities that the sun ever saw, now has nothing left but its walls'; fifth, in the time of Emperor Theodosius, St. Jerome, on chapter 13 of Isaiah, writes that there are only royal hunting grounds in Babylon, and that beasts of every kind are contained only within the circuit of its walls. Even today the ruins of ancient Babylon can be seen, which sufficiently attest and testify to its remarkable extent and magnificence.
Hence allegorically, in the destruction of Babylon is foreshadowed the destruction of the world and of the reprobate, and specifically of Rome, which will return to Neronian times, and will be most wicked at the end of the world, as I said on Revelation chapter 17.
Verse 41: Reges
41. Kings. Xenophon, book V of the Cyropaedia: Cyrus, he says, brought many kings with him against Babylon and other nations, either voluntarily allied or conquered by arms, such as Embdas of the Armenians, Antuchas of the Hyrcanians, Damaras of the Cadusians, Croesus of the Lydians, etc.
Verse 44: Ecce Quasi Leo Ascendet De Superbia Jordanis
44. Behold, like a lion he shall ascend from the swelling of the Jordan. In chapter 49:19 he said the same of Nebuchadnezzar, and Rabanus, Hugo, and Lyra understand it of him here — that having conquered Judea, he proudly ascended as a triumphant conqueror to his beautiful city of Babylon.
Second, Vatablus says: Darius the Mede ascended against the Chaldean from the swelling of the Jordan — that is, on account of the proud glory and magnificence of Judea, which had been laid waste and trampled by the Chaldean. Third and best, a Castro explains it as if to say: Just as a lion is accustomed to ascend from the pastures of the swollen Jordan to its prey, so the Persian will come against Babylon, the beautiful and invincible city. The rest through to the end of the chapter was explained in the preceding chapter from verse 19 to 22, where the same was said against the Edomites.
See here, O Christian, the vicissitude of human affairs! Consider and compare the lot of the Babylonians with that from which they fell, and thence gather that to transfer the mind from perishable to eternal things, and to cling to God and heavenly things, is alone true wisdom: 'For no one can love changeable things and himself remain unchanged,' says St. Gregory, book VII of the Moralia, chapter 28; or according to the new edition, chapter 24: 'Let temporal things therefore be for use, eternal things for desire; the former for the journey, the latter for the arrival,' says the same St. Gregory, homily 36 on the Gospel.
(1) Interpreters generally refer this to the fact that Cyrus captured Babylon by diverting the Euphrates, which made the city inaccessible, into a marsh, and entering the city through the riverbed from which it had receded... But the mention of drying up the waters pertains to the description of the desert into which Babylon is to be reduced, just as what is said in verse 39 about wild beasts dwelling in its place. (Rosenmuller.)
For it is just, says Aristotle in Ethics V from Rhadamanthus, that whatever damage one has unjustly inflicted on others, one should undergo and suffer the same. For this is the law of retaliation: He who kills shall be killed, he who maims shall be maimed, he who drives into exile shall be exiled and wander as a vagabond over the whole world, he who burns shall be burned, he who destroys shall be destroyed.
...and wished to destroy their name, kingdom, and nation. For it is just, says Aristotle...
The hammer of the whole earth? This is Babylon, which like an adamantine hammer struck and battered the whole earth; so that nothing, however hard or bronzen, could resist it or withstand its blow without being broken and shattered. So Emperor Frederick II boasted that he was the hammer of Rome and of the Roman Church, and indeed of the whole world; but he was broken and crushed by Innocent II and other Pontiffs, as I said on Isaiah 1:10. So Isaiah says of the Assyrians, chapter 10:5: 'Woe, Assyria, the rod of My fury!' And of Cyrus, through whom God punished the Chaldeans, chapter 45:1: 'Whose right hand I have grasped.' So Attila was called 'the terror of the world and the scourge of God.' St. Augustine says admirably on Psalm 73...