Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues at length to amplify the destruction of Babylon, whence, at verse 14, he amplifies the power of God, by which He will crush the strength of Babylon. Third, at verse 27, He summons many nations against her. Fourth, at verse 34, He assigns the cause: her tyranny over the Jews. Fifth, at verse 45, He warns the Jews to flee from Babylon. Finally, at verse 59, Jeremiah gives this prophecy of his in writing to Seraiah who is going to Babylon, so that he may read it there, and having read it, cast it into the Euphrates, adding that Babylon will be cast down in like manner, with an eternal and irreparable ruin.
Vulgate Text: Jeremias 51:1-16
1. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon and against its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against Me, as it were a pestilential wind. 2. And I will send winnowers into Babylon, and they shall winnow her, and shall destroy her land: for they have come upon her from every side in the day of her affliction. 3. Let not him that bends bend his bow, and let not the armed man rise up; spare not her young men, destroy all her army. 4. And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in her regions. 5. For Israel and Judah have not been widowed by their God, the Lord of hosts: but their land has been filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6. Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let everyone save his soul: be not silent over her iniquity: for it is the time of the Lord's vengeance, He will render unto her a recompense. 7. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunk: the nations drank of her wine, and therefore they were moved. 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl over her, take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed. 9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: let us forsake her, and let us go every one into his own land: for her judgment reaches to the heavens, and is lifted up even to the clouds. 10. The Lord has brought forth our just claims: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. 11. Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers: the Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: and His mind is against Babylon to destroy her, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple. 12. Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard, increase the watch: raise up the watchmen, prepare ambushes: for the Lord has both devised and done whatsoever He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13. O you that dwell upon many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your cutting off. 14. The Lord of hosts has sworn by His own soul: I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they shall sing a shout of triumph over you. 15. He who made the earth by His power, who prepared the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. 16. When He gives His voice, the waters in the heavens are multiplied: He who lifts up
clouds from the end of the earth, He made lightning for the rain: and He brought forth the wind out of His storehouses. 17. Every man is become foolish by his knowledge: every founder is confounded by his graven image, for his casting is a lie, and there is no spirit in them. 18. They are vain works, and worthy of derision; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19. The portion of Jacob is not like these: for He who made all things, He it is, and Israel is the scepter of His inheritance: the Lord of hosts is His name. 20. You dash for Me the weapons of war, and through you I will dash nations in pieces, and through you I will destroy kingdoms: 21. and through you I will dash in pieces the horse and his rider: and through you I will dash in pieces the chariot and him that rides therein: 22. and through you I will dash in pieces man and woman: and through you I will dash in pieces the old man and the child: and through you I will dash in pieces the young man and the maiden: 23. and through you I will dash in pieces the shepherd and his flock: and through you I will dash in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen: and through you I will dash in pieces captains and rulers. 24. And I will render to Babylon, and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their evil that they have done in Zion, in your sight, says the Lord. 25. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the Lord, which corrupts all the earth: and I will stretch out My hand upon you, and will roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 26. And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations, but you shall be destroyed forever, says the Lord. 27. Set up a standard in the land: blow the trumpet among the nations, consecrate nations against her: announce against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: muster against her the Taphsar, bring up horses like bristling locusts. 28. Consecrate nations against her, the kings of Media, her captains, and all her rulers, and all the land of her dominion. 29. And the land shall tremble, and shall be troubled: for the purpose of the Lord against Babylon shall awake, to make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable. 30. The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they have remained in their strongholds: their might has been devoured, and they have become like women: her dwellings are set on fire, her bars are broken. 31. One courier running shall meet another, and one messenger shall meet another: to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from one end to the other: 32. and the fords are seized, and the marshes are burned with fire, and the men of war are in consternation. 33. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor, it is time to thresh her; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 34. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, and he has cast me out. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, says the inhabitant of Zion: and my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, says Jerusalem. 36. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will judge your cause, and will take vengeance for you, and I will make her sea desolate, and will dry up her spring. 37. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place of dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 38. Together they shall roar like lions, they shall shake their manes like young lion cubs. 39. In their heat I will set their feasts, and I will make them drunk that they may be stupefied, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and not awake, says the Lord. 40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with he-goats. 41. How is Sheshach taken, and the renowned of the whole earth seized? How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations? 42. The sea is come up upon Babylon, she is covered with the multitude of its waves. 43. Her cities are become an astonishment, a dry and desert land, a land wherein no man dwells, nor does any son of man pass through it. 44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed up, and the nations shall flow together no more unto him, for even the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45. Go out of the midst of her, My people: that every man may save his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. 46. And lest your heart faint, and you fear the rumor that shall be heard in the land: a rumor shall come in one year, and after that in another year a rumor; and iniquity in the land, and ruler upon ruler. 47. Therefore behold, the days come that I will punish the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48. And the heavens and the earth, and all things that are therein, shall give praise over Babylon: for spoilers shall come to her from the north, says the Lord.
Verse 1: Suscitabo Super Babylonem Ventum Pestilentem (Vel «Ventilatores
1. I will raise up against Babylon a pestilential wind (or 'winnowers,' verse 2, namely Cyrus and the Persians) and against its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against Me — that is, against My people, namely by afflicting and taking captive the Jews. As a pestilential wind — as if to say: I will raise up enemies, namely the Persians and Medes, who like a pestilential wind will blow pestilence, that is death, upon the Babylonians, and will winnow and scatter those who in Babylon, the mistress of all things, thought themselves unconquerable, secure, immovable, and inviolable, as follows: for in the next verse He compares the Chaldeans to a threshing floor winnowed by the wind. So Theodoret. Whence the Septuagint translates: I will raise up against the Chaldeans a burning, corrupting wind.
Second, 'pestilential wind' can be referred to what immediately precedes, 'who have lifted up their heart against Me.' He therefore calls this heart of the proud 'a pestilential wind,' both because before God it stinks and reeks like a pestilential wind and breath, such as Etna or Avernus belches forth; and because it scorches, dries up, and destroys all virtues and all good things, just as a pestilential wind blows upon and destroys all sprouts. As if to say: Against the windy and proud Chaldeans I will raise up the Persians as winnowers, who will winnow them; the pride of the Persians will over- [continued on next page]
whelm their pride, the forces and spirits of Cyrus, greater than those of Belshazzar, will crush theirs. Whence the Septuagint translates: I will send against Babylon insolent men, and they shall treat her with insolence; or the unjust, and they shall wrong her. So Delric, adage 874.
Verse 3: Non Tendat Qui Tendit Arcum Suum
3. Let not him that bends bend his bow — as if to say: Let no one attempt to defend Babylon with his bow and arms, because she is destined by God for certain destruction, and the Persians will prevent all defense. So Hugo and Lyranus. Second, Maldonatus and Sanchez explain it thus: There will be no need in conquering Babylon for the archer to draw his bow, or the armored soldier to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy: for I will stupefy the Chaldeans with feasting and wine, and thus bind their hands and feet, as it were, so that neither can the archers draw their bows, nor the armored soldiers flee or move. Therefore slay them boldly and courageously, and spare them not. Vatablus and Pagninus read this with different vowel points, namely instead of אל al, that is 'not,' they read el, that is 'to'; whence they translate: To him who bends the bow, and to the armored soldier (that is, to the soldiers of Cyrus), the Lord says: Spare not her young men. But these supply and understand much that is not stated. The first sense is therefore plainer, the second is the plainest.
Verse 5: Non Fuit Viduatus Israel
5. Israel has not been widowed — as if to say: Israel is not like a forsaken widow; but her spouse, namely God, still lives, and still cares for her as for a wife; therefore He will free and avenge her, by destroying Babylon.
49. And as Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall: so of Babylon there shall fall slain throughout all the earth. 50. You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 51. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: because strangers have come upon the sanctuary of the house of the Lord. 52. Therefore behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will visit upon her graven images, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 53. If Babylon should mount up to heaven, and if she should fortify her strength on high: from Me there shall come spoilers upon her, says the Lord. 54. A voice of crying from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans: 55. because the Lord has laid waste Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice: and their waves shall roar like many waters, their voice has made a noise. 56. Because the spoiler has come upon her, that is upon Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is weakened, because the Lord who is a strong avenger will surely repay. 57. And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, and her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall not awake, says the King, the Lord of hosts is His name. 58. Thus says the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burned with fire, and the labors of the peoples shall be in vain, and of the nations shall be for the fire, and they shall perish. 59. The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: and Seraiah was chief officer. 60. And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon: all these words that are written against Babylon. 61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you shall come into Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words, 62. you shall say: O Lord, You have spoken against this place to destroy it: so that there should be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be a perpetual desolation. 63. And when you shall have made an end of reading this book, you shall tie a stone to it, and shall throw it into the midst of the Euphrates: 64. and you shall say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring upon her, and she shall be destroyed. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
God, still lives, and still cares for her as for a wife; therefore He will free and avenge her, by destroying Babylon. But their land (of Israel and Judah) was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel — that is, on account of the Holy One of Israel, namely on account of God whom they offended. As if to say: Judea was therefore handed over to the Chaldeans, because she offended God. So Theodoret and Hugo. Second and better: 'Their land,' namely of the Chaldeans, 'was filled with sin,' and therefore to be punished 'by the Holy One of Israel,' that is, on account of the Holy One of Israel offended by the Chaldeans, since they afflicted His people — namely Israel, devoted to and sanctified for the worship of God — with so many injuries in captivity; for when they treated the people of God unworthily, they inflicted injury on God Himself. So Hugo, Lyranus, Vatablus. And the Septuagint and Maldonatus agree: 'With sin,' he says, 'against the Holy One of Israel,' that is, committed against the Holy One of Israel. Third, a Castro: 'With sin,' he says, that is with the punishment of sin and devastation, Chaldea 'was filled' 'by the Holy One of Israel,' that is by God.
Verse 6: Fugite (Tum Judæi
6. Flee (both you Jews, and rather all nations whatsoever) from the midst of Babylon — which is soon to be destroyed, lest you perish with her, since it is likely that when the Persians invaded Babylon by night, not only the Chaldeans but also the Jews and others from any nation whom they encountered were slain indiscriminately. Be not silent over her iniquity — that of Babylon; but rebuke her, O Prophets, lest she think she is unjustly punished. So Rabanus and Hugo.
Second, Maldonatus and Sanchez think it is an apostrophe of the Prophet to the enemies, as if to say: 'Do not, O Persians, do' — that is, dissemble, cease, and spare the Chaldeans. Third and better, from the Hebrew it may be explained thus: Flee from Babylon to other cities and places, O Jews and all others, especially foreigners! Do not be silent, that is, do not rest content in her iniquity, lest you learn and absorb her corrupt morals, and be overthrown with her. For Jeremiah gave this warning long before the siege of Babylon, which itself lasted a considerable time; and to absorb someone's corrupt morals, a brief period of association suffices; for evil is easily learned, good is learned with difficulty. Again, do not be silent 'in iniquity,' that is, amid the punishment of her iniquity, which threatens her. Whence it follows: 'For it is the time of vengeance,' as if to say: Flee from the city, lest her destruction envelop you. Others: Do not be silent, that is, do not cease to exist, and be killed on account of her iniquity. Whence the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus and others translate: Lest you be destroyed, or cut off in her iniquity. So Lot is told: 'Save yourself on the mountain,' Genesis 19:15.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 50 On Conversion, to clerics: 'Why should chastity not be endangered amid delights, humility amid riches, piety amid business, truth amid much speaking, charity in this wicked world? Flee from the midst of Babylon, flee and save your souls, hasten to the cities of refuge, where you may both do penance for past sins, and obtain grace in the present, and confidently await future glory.'
Verse 7: Calix
7. A cup. — Jerome Prado on Ezekiel 27:31 thinks there is an allusion here to the cup of the condemned, which was given from fine and delicate wine to those condemned to death at the place of execution, so that they might more courageously endure the torments and the final agony of death. As if to say: The Babylonians gave other nations the cup of the condemned, that is, they condemned them to death and put them to death. But this cup of Jeremiah's tormented and tortured those who drank; it was therefore full of gall, not wine. There is therefore another simpler and more genuine sense, namely this: 'a golden cup,' that is, wine or rather gall contained in the cup that glows golden, that is, becoming yellow like gold, Proverbs 23:31, 'is Babylon,' that is, God dealt out and inflicted bitter and gall-like punishments on other nations through the Babylonians, say Vatablus and Pagninus. Third and most simply, Theodoret, the Chaldean, Origen, and Rabanus say: Babylon was a golden cup, that is, a rich, splendid kingdom; whence in Daniel 2:32, it is called 'the head of gold.' This cup is full of gall and wormwood, that is, it contains calamities, slaughters, and destructions; it is said to be in the hand of the Lord, because the Lord willed to use its cruelty and tyranny, and through it scourged and struck the nations. The Syriac version signifies this more clearly: A cup of gold (golden) Babylon in the hand of the Lord, from whose wine the Lord makes all the earth drunk.
The Lord therefore serves this cup to other nations, that they may be made drunk from it, that is, be filled with its invasion and slaughters almost to madness: and thus Babylon was the server of calamities to all. She was therefore like the cup of God's wrath, but golden on account of the splendor and glory of the empire: for through these God was inflicting punishment on all those whom He wished to chastise. It would be almost the same as if one said that the Chaldeans were the scourge of God, with which He Himself chastised the nations: but although the scourge was gilded, nevertheless its blow was no less severe. But now this Babylonian cup has fallen and been shattered through Cyrus, because God dashed it to the ground and broke it.
The golden cup also denotes the wealth, luxury, and consequently the idolatry which the Babylonians introduced to other nations. Whence St. John alludes to this, Apocalypse 14:8 and chapter 17:4, namely 'poison' is veiled, served, and 'drunk' not in glass but in 'gold,' as Seneca says.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, book XXXIV of the Morals, chapter viii: 'Babylon,' he says, 'that is, the glory of this world, is called a golden cup, because while it displays temporal things as beautiful, it inebriates foolish minds in their concupiscence; so that they desire beautiful temporal things, and despise invisible beautiful things. The golden cup therefore is Babylon; because, while it displays the vision of outward beauty, it takes away the inner sense of uprightness.' For, as is commonly said: 'When gold speaks,
no speech whatever has any force.' And St. Ambrose, in the book On Elijah, chapter xv: 'Set before your eyes,' he says, 'the pomp of this world, see the beautiful allurement, but the empty grace; let not vessels of gold and silver seduce you; we too have a treasure in earthen vessels. The vessel of the Apostles is earthen, but in it is the treasure of Christ.' See also Origen, homily 2, on this passage, where he teaches that the Babylonian golden cup is speech adorned with the enticements of words, which instills wicked things into its hearers, such as the speech of heretics, harlots, flatterers, etc.
The nations drank, and therefore they were moved. — The Arabic version: All peoples drank, and were babylonized, that is, were confounded.
Verse 8: Tollite Resinam (Q
8. Take balm (as if to say: O nations subject to the Chaldeans! Bring remedy for Babylon's ruin. It is irony. Whence these physicians, namely the nations, respond): 9. We would have healed Babylon, and she is not healed — therefore, despairing of her recovery, let us each depart to our own land. So Theodoret, Hugo and Vatablus. It is a dialogue between the Prophet and the nations.
Others hold it to be the voice of the Prophets, or, as Origen, Rabanus, and Lyranus say, of the guardian angels of Babylon, who since they were accomplishing nothing in healing her, were about to abandon her. Thus at Jerusalem, shortly before its destruction, the voice of angels was heard in the temple on the day of Pentecost: 'Let us depart hence,' says Josephus, book VII of the Wars, chapter xix. But angels do not wail, nor were they ministering temporal aid to the Chaldeans against the attack of the Medes decreed by God (which is what is discussed here), but spiritual aid, against the sins which they were trying to cure.
Tropologically, Origen teaches from this passage that the holy angels abandon the impious soul that despised their corrections and inspirations in life, at the agony of death; when it is assailed on every side by sickness, the world, the flesh, and demons, and is most weak and feeble for resistance: whence it comes about that it is overcome by the enemy, and dragged to the nether regions. Just as a physician, he says, abandons a patient of whose cure he despairs, 'lest the patient dying in his hands should cause the blame for his death to be cast back upon him.'
Her judgment has reached to the heavens. — He calls 'judgment' the enormous crimes of Babylon, which cried out and demanded vengeance and judgment from God in heaven: for these made her wound incurable and hopeless, as was said before. R. Solomon and Maldonatus explain it differently, as if to say: Let us abandon Babylon, because she is assailed not so much by men as by God from heaven; whence she is incurable, and cannot be helped by any man or angel.
Others: 'Judgment,' they say, that is, the punishment inflicted on her by the just judgment of God, 'has reached to the heavens,' that is, it is huge and immense, so that this is a hyperbole, of the same kind as: 'The cry goes up to heaven.'
Verse 10: Protulit Dominus Justitias Nostras
10. The Lord has brought forth our righteous cause. — That is, God has proved by the very fact that our cause is just, in which we complain that we are unjustly oppressed by the Chaldeans: for we inflicted no injury on them; but He has shown the cause of the Chaldeans to be unjust, by inflicting this just destruction on them for their oppression of us — this is clear from what follows. This is the voice of the people of God, that is, the Jews. Let us declare the work of the Lord — namely how He crushed the Chaldeans and freed us.
Verse 11: Implete Pharetras
11. Fill the quivers — with arrows, O Persians, for shooting at the Babylonians. So many interpreters. Or more aptly, 'fill the quivers' with arrows, O Chaldeans, so that with them you may ward off the Persians from Babylon: because 'the Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes' and Persians: 'and His mind is against Babylon.' So Sanchez. R. David translates it as 'gather the shields.' But our translator translates better, 'fill the quivers,' with which the Septuagint and the Chaldean agree, for the Hebrew מלאו milu signifies 'fill,' not 'gather.' Of His temple — which was burned by the Chaldeans in Jerusalem.
Verse 12: Levate Signum
12. Set up a standard. — Theodoret, Hugo, Lyranus, and Sanchez think this is an ironic address to the Chaldeans besieged by the Persians and Medes, as if to say: Raise the standard of your country upon the walls, O Chaldeans! Restore the guards, lay ambushes to spy out the plans of the enemy, draw up your soldiers to resist the Persians. Others, however, such as Rabanus, Vatablus, and Maldonatus, think it is an address to the Persians besieging Babylon: for it was their task to lay ambushes, as if to say: With standards unfurled, O Persians, invade Babylon! See to it that your standards are placed on the very wall of Babylon as a sign of the captured city: and therefore 'increase the watch,' that is, the sentries; 'raise up,' in Hebrew, 'rouse the watchmen,' as if to say: Send in fresh sentinels to surround and encircle the city.
Prepare ambushes — as if to say: Dig tunnels, divert the Euphrates elsewhere, feign quiet or retreat, and lay other stratagems, for the Lord has done, that is, will do, what He has spoken against Babylon.
Verse 13: Quæ Habitas Super Aquas
13. O you that dwell upon many waters — O Babylon, who are situated beside the Euphrates, and are most wealthy! For the Euphrates flowed through Babylon, and drawn off through various channels and streams, meandered through its various streets.
Your end has come, the measure of your cutting off. — He calls this a 'measured end of cutting off,' that is, an end measured by the foot of God, as if by a fair and just measure, apportioned and measured out to the crimes of Babylon. For a foot is a unit of measure, even in the grape harvest and the pressing of wine (to which the Prophets are accustomed to compare punishments justly decreed by God for crimes); whence Pliny, book XVIII, Appendix xxxi, calls it a 'just foot' when a single pressing of grapes fills twenty casks: the word 'cutting off' favors this, which properly belongs to grapes, and denotes destruction.
the Prophets are accustomed to compare); whence Pliny, book XVIII, Appendix xxxi, calls it a 'just foot' when one pressing of grapes fills twenty casks: the word 'cutting off' favors this, which belongs to grapes, and denotes destruction. Hence also in the next verse he says: 'A shout of triumph (which belongs to those treading grapes) shall be sung over you.' Nicolaus Damascenus in Stobaeus, sermon 32, and Alexander ab Alexandro, book IV Genial, chapter xvii, relate that certain Indians called Pedalii were accustomed to ask from God justice alone as the most excellent gift. 'Pedal' therefore is a just foot, or a just measure appointed for the punishment of Babylon, already apportioned and measured out to the crimes of Babylon: for Babylon had already filled up the measure of her cupidity and iniquity, and when that was filled, God had decreed to cut her off and destroy her. For the Hebrew words literally have: Your end has come, that is, the measure, or the limit and completion, of your cupidity, avarice, or rapacity: because it has now reached its summit; whence it becomes your end, namely the time of your cutting off and destruction: for God established and predefined a twofold pedal measure for you and your empire: the first of wealth and glory, as well as of crimes; the second of time, namely that you should hold the empire for 70 years. You have now filled both measures. Therefore God will give you an end, and will punish and cut you off according to your merits.
Morally, note that a small measure, namely a foot's measure, of sins, as well as of pleasures, wealth, and empire, is appointed by God for Babylon and for any kingdom; and much more for any individual man (as St. Augustine teaches, in the book On the Christian Life, chapters III and IV, volume IX), which being filled, He punishes all his crimes at once, and chastises him with present and eternal death according to his merits. Thus when the impious think themselves on course with a favorable wind toward every happiness, think themselves in bloom, think themselves standing on the summit of glory, they are suddenly cast down by God and hurled into destruction.
So Sanchez. Wherefore, justly pitying the wretched lot of men and kings, Sidonius Apollinaris, book VIII, epistle 11 to Lupus, exclaims: 'O wretched necessity of being born, miserable of living, hard of dying!' And Aristides: 'Nothing in human affairs is secure, nothing even, nothing self-sufficient.'
Second, Hugo, Lyranus, and Maldonatus explain it thus: 'Of the pedal cutting off,' that is, so that you may be utterly cut off: for he speaks, he says, of Babylon metaphorically, as of a tree whose foot, that is trunk, is to be cut down, as if to say: The axe is now laid to your root. But the Hebrew אמר ammat signifies not a foot, that is a trunk, but a cubit and a measure. Third, Vatablus and Pagninus translate: The end of your oppression has come, because you used to oppress others with your arm; whence in like manner you are now oppressed by the Medes. Hence also the Chaldean translates: The time of the visitation of your wickedness has come. And Isidore and a Castro say: The end and the time has come when Babylon shall pay as great a measure of punishments as she inflicted and brought upon other nations. The Septuagint translates: Your end has truly come into your bowels, that the Medes may tear them apart: that is, instead of ammat, meaning cubit or foot-measure, they read amen, meaning truly; or אמת emet, meaning in truth.
Verse 14: Replebo Te Hominibus Quasi Brucho
14. I will fill you with men as with locusts. — He compares the multitude and murmur of the Median soldiers to locusts, which flying in swarms upon sprouts, trees, and vines, devour them root and branch: likewise to grape-gatherers encouraging one another with a common shout, as with a work-song, to press the winepress. See the comments on chapter 48:33.
Verse 15: Præparavit
15. He prepared. — In Hebrew מבין mechin, that is, He established, He founded.
Verse 16: Dante Eo Vocem
16. When He gives His voice — as if to say: When God thunders, heaven seems to burst open and pour out rain. He here amplifies the power of God, to show that it is able to overthrow the strength of Babylon. The rest up to verse 20 has been explained at chapter 10:14, 15, 16. Here from verse 16 to 20 there is a long and beautiful description of God, through praises of His strength, wisdom, and beneficence, by which just as He created all things, so He continually assists them, and directs and governs them.
In a similar manner the Gentiles described God. Aristides in a hymn to Jupiter: 'All things everywhere,' he says, 'are full of Jupiter, since he himself sits beside individual things, no differently than teachers beside children, and charioteers beside war-chariot drivers: and all the benefits of the gods are to be attributed to Jupiter; for they, obeying his command as that of a general in an army, provide for human affairs.' And shortly after: 'Jupiter,' he says, 'is the father of all things, of rivers, heaven, earth, gods, men, and plants; he gives and makes all things; he in assemblies and judgments, when he grants victory, is called the Patron of the Forum; in battles, the Trophy-bearer; in diseases or wherever he brings help, the Savior. He is the Liberator, he is the Gentle One, since he is the Father; he is the King, the City-holder, the Summoner, the Rain-giver, the Heavenly Chieftain. With him we ought rightly to begin, and with him to end, always invoking him as the president and helper of all our words and deeds, or rather the emperor of the universe, and sole governor.'
Verse 20: Collidis Tu Mihi Vasa Belli
20. You dash for Me the weapons of war, and through you I will dash nations in pieces. — That is, as the Hebrew has it, O Babylon! you were for Me מפין mephits, that is, a hammer dashing and crushing weapons, that is, the military instruments of other nations, with which hammer I will still crush nations and shatter kingdoms; horses, horsemen, young men, old men, shepherds, farmers, and the rest, whom He describes up to verse 24. Therefore after these things I will 'render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil,' and will crush her in the same way as she crushed other nations. Whence the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, and a Castro thus translate and explain: You, O Babylon, are for Me a hammer and instrument of war, with which I crush other nations; and at last, after all of them, I will crush the hammer itself, that is, you. Thus He called her the hammer of the earth in chapter 50:23.
Note: 'In you' here means the same as 'through you.' Theodoret takes 'for Me' differently, as if to say: You dash for Me, that is, against My people you dash and scatter all your weapons of war. But the former sense is the genuine one. Note: The future 'I will dash' can everywhere here be taken as the past 'I dashed,' and then it coheres better with verse 24, as if to say: I dashed nations through you; now equally, indeed more, you deserve to be dashed than the others.
Verse 23: Agricolam Et Jugales Ejus
23. The farmer and his yoke of oxen — that is, the oxen with which, yoked together, the farmer plows. It is a vivid description of the devastation of war.
and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil,' and I will crush her in the same way as she crushed other nations.
Verse 25: Ecce Ego Ad Te
25. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain. — Note: Babylon is situated in a low place, namely the plain of Shinar; yet it is here called a mountain, both on account of the glory and pride of its empire, so Theodoret and Lyranus; and on account of its lofty palaces, and the height and strength of its walls, so Vatablus and Maldonatus. For the walls of Babylon, says Orosius, book II, chapter vi, were 50 cubits wide, four times as much in height, and 460 stadia in circumference. See the comments on Daniel 4:27.
Destroying. — The Septuagint: a corrupt mountain; the Chaldean: dissipating; the Hebrew: תשחית maschit, that is, devastating; because it draws all nations into its power and impiety. He compares Babylon to a mountain that devastates and tears apart, and brings pestilence, that is death and destruction, to all; because, just as wild beasts are accustomed to come forth from mountains and tear everything apart, so from Babylon soldiers came forth who tore apart all nations. So Maldonatus. Whence it follows: 'Who corrupt,' that is, destroy, devastate, cut off, 'all the earth.'
I will roll you down from the rocks — I will cast you from your towers, walls, and fortifications. He continues the metaphor of the mountain: for just as he called the city a mountain, so he calls the towers rocks; for what rocks are in a mountain, towers are in a city.
And I will make you a burnt mountain — that is, burned out, so that the wild beasts, that is the soldiers, may flee from it.
Verse 26: Non Tollent De Te Lapidem In Angulum
26. And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner. — That is, thus, O Babylon, who appear to be a most solid rock, you shall be so shattered by the hammer of the Persians, and so burned by their fire, that all your stones shall fly apart into small fragments, or be reduced to ashes, and no stones shall remain of sufficient mass and size to be placed in the corners of houses and structures. As if to say: I will reduce the houses, walls, and stones of Babylon to a heap, and to eternal ruins. So Lyranus. It is a hyperbole.
Symbolically, by corner stones, kings and princes are understood, as the Chaldean translates: They shall no longer take from you a king for a kingdom, or a prince for a principality, because all shall be destroyed. So also Theodoret, Hugo, Vatablus, and Maldonatus.
But you shall be destroyed forever. — In Hebrew: you shall be in perpetual desolations, that is, you shall never be restored. The ruins of ancient Babylon can be seen even now. Yet the Prophet speaks more of the abolition of the Babylonian empire.
Verse 27: Levate Signum
27. Set up a standard — that is, a banner. God addresses His centurions and chiliarchs of the Persians and Medes as if He were the commander of war, as if to say: Conscript soldiers, conduct a military levy. Consecrate nations against her — summon nations to wage a holy war against Babylon. See the comments on chapter 6:4. Announce war against her to the kings of Ararat — that is, of Armenia, not the upper and mountainous region, as Vatablus says, but the lower: for Ararat, says St. Jerome on Isaiah chapter 37, is a region in the lowlands of Armenia, through which the Araxes flows and the foothills of the very high Mount Taurus, upon which Noah's ark first rested; whence part of the ark is said to survive in Armenia near the Cordyaean mountains.
Minni. — This appears to be the region of the Minyae in Armenia, about which Josephus writes, book I of the Antiquities, chapter iv. Ashkenaz. — A people neighboring Armenia, named from Ashkenaz the son of Gomer, son of Japheth, son of Noah: Josephus thinks it is Rhegium, a city of Italy; Vatablus, Gothia; the Jews, Germany. But from this passage of Jeremiah it appears that Ashkenaz was a people in Asia, neighbors of the Medes: for they are summoned here together with the Medes for the destruction of Babylon; and it is likely that in later centuries many of these Asiatic Ashkenazi crossed into Europe, and from them our Ashkenazi, that is the Teutons or Germans, descended. So Torniellus, at the year of the world 1931, number 21.
Muster against her the Taphsar. — For Taphsar the Septuagint translates 'siege engines'; the Chaldean, 'warriors'; Vatablus, 'the nobility'; our translator, at Nahum 3:17, translates it as 'minor leaders or princes': for taph signifies
'small,' שר sar signifies 'prince.' He therefore commands princes or leaders to be mustered for this war. So Pagninus and Vatablus. Our translator seems to take Taphsar as a proper name of a place from which soldiers or camp-followers are to be conscripted.
Bring up the horse like the bristling locust — that is, a horse which in battle raises up its mane erect and bristling, and shaggy and rough tresses, like the barbs of locusts, as I said on Isaiah chapter 33:4, which have a sting in their tail, feet, and teeth. For Oppian teaches, and Sanchez after him, that the horses of the Persians are fierce, and have natural goads and barbs, as it were, and do not need external spurs. Wherefore Vatablus translates, 'like a dreadful swarm.'
Verse 29: Evigilabit Quasi Horrendum Evigilabit
29. It shall awake — like a dreadful awakening, the purpose of the Lord regarding the punishment of Babylon, which until now seemed to be sleeping, shall awake. In Hebrew it reads: the thoughts of the Lord shall be stirred up, that is, each one of His thoughts: whatever the Lord has devised, that shall now be stirred up and put into execution.
Verse 31: A Summo Ad Summum
31. From one end to the other — from one extremity to the other.
Verse 32: Vada (Euphratis) Præoccupata Sunt
32. The fords (of the Euphrates) are seized — by the Persians. For when Cyrus had diverted the Euphrates, which flows through Babylon, through ditches made by his soldiers, so that infantry could march through its riverbed, he sent soldiers partly at the point where the Euphrates enters the city, partly at the point where it exits, into the city, as Herodotus attests, book I. And this is what the Prophet says here, 'from one end to the other.' In a similar way, many formerly thought of averting the damaging floods of the Tiber at Rome and keeping the city dry, and still think about it, by diverting the Anio and other rivers that flow into the Tiber into channels through which they might run off through valleys elsewhere. The matter was discussed by Arruntius and Ateius in the senate under Emperor Tiberius; but this opinion prevailed: 'Nature has best provided for mortal affairs, which has given rivers their mouths, their courses and their origin, and likewise their limits: the Tiber itself would not wish to flow with less glory, stripped of its tributary rivers.' So Tacitus, book I.
And the marshes are burned with fire — by the Persians, so that when the reeds, which impeded the passage of soldiers, were burned, the way into the city would be easier for them; or, as Sanchez says, so that with the marshes burning, as if with raised torches, the way might be shown to those crossing through the riverbed of the Euphrates into the city: for Babylon was captured by night. Furthermore, by marshes understand reeds and rushes, say Vatablus and Pagninus, which near the Nile and the Euphrates grow to the height of trees in marshy places; or certainly by marshes understand certain fortifications erected in the marshes.
Note: Through the very Euphrates, in which Belshazzar and Babylon took pride, as if through it the city were impregnable, through the same river it was conquered. Here is that true saying: 'Whence the salvation, thence the wound.'
Verse 33: Filia Babylonis Quasi Area (Male Legunt Aliqui Area)
33. The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor (some incorrectly read 'floor'), it is the time to thresh her — as if to say: Until now Babylon was like a threshing floor full of grain, houses, citizens, wealth, and spoils of all nations; now she shall be threshed, so that all these riches may be shaken out and she may be stripped of them. So Theodoret, Vatablus, and Lyranus. Or rather, the floor, that is, the harvest to be brought to the threshing floor (by metonymy) is Babylon. Whence it follows: 'The time of her harvest' has come, so that she may be reaped by the Persian harvesters and stripped of all her goods: for he calls the stripping of all her possessions a harvest; and the threshing represents the crushing and affliction of the citizens. For thus David threshed the Ammonites, and 'made threshing sledges, and harrows, and iron wagons (for with these grains are threshed and beaten out in Palestine, the Canary Islands, and other places) pass over them,' 2 Samuel 12:31, to which Jeremiah here alludes, and perhaps literally the Persians so threshed the Chaldeans, because they themselves had threshed the Jews, the Moabites, and other nations, as Isaiah says, chapter 21:10, and chapter 25:10, that is, they severely harassed and afflicted them. Babylon is therefore here called a threshing floor, that is, a floor on which, as in a theater, the Chaldeans were to be crushed and punished in life and property, for the public spectacle, terror, and example of all nations. Thus the threshing floor, that is, the arena for crushing martyrs, was the amphitheater of Rome.
Yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come — so that by the flying sickle which Zechariah saw, chapter 5, that is by the sword and arms of the Persians, she may be reaped, that is Babylon may be captured and burned, then threshed (for crops are first reaped before they are threshed), that is, her citizens may be killed, and her wealth shaken out and plundered.
Verse 34: Comedit Me
34. He has devoured me. — These are the words of the assembly of Jews, or of Jerusalem, narrating the oppressions inflicted by the Chaldeans, that she was devoured as if by wild beasts, and left as an empty vessel, all her people having been led away into captivity. The devil does the same thing tropologically to the soul of a sinner whom he subjugates and devastates. The city is called a vessel because it holds citizens, just as a vessel is capable of holding wine; but just as a vessel with its wine exhausted, so also a city with its citizens exhausted, is like an empty and vacant barrel.
He has swallowed me — entirely, just as sea-dragons, that is whales, swallow whole ships. For thus Pharaoh is compared, Ezekiel 29:3. In like manner Nebuchadnezzar, like a monstrous whale, swallowed all Jerusalem, plundering and burning the city, or carrying it away to Babylon. For just as Pharaoh dwelt among the streams of the Nile, so Nebuchadnezzar dwelt among the waters of the Euphrates and Tigris, like a crocodile or a whale. Whence he adds in verse 36: 'I will make her sea desolate.' He (Nebuchadnezzar) filled his belly with my delicacies. — The Hebrew and Septuagint read 'with my delights,' that is: first, with my noble young men, so Hugo; second, with me myself, who have been tenderly nurtured in
the worship of God, so Dionysius; third, with all my goods, namely my delights and riches, and precious things which I loved tenderly; so the Chaldean and Theodoret. And then by 'belly' understand the treasury of Nebuchadnezzar, likewise his avarice; for this is as greedy for gold as a hungry belly for food; but the latter is filled with food, while the former can never be sated with gold, for it is insatiable.
And he has cast me out — that is, he vomited me up. As if to say: After he devoured all my wealth and consumed my houses with fire, he cast me out, that is, my citizens and my children, from my land, and carried them away to Babylon.
Verse 35: Iniquitas Adversum Me
35. The violence done to me — the harm and destruction unjustly inflicted on me, Zion and Judea, by Babylon. And my flesh (of my slain ones shall be) upon Babylon — that she may pay fitting penalties for her tyranny. Whence the Lord adds: 36. I will avenge your vengeance — that is, the injury inflicted on you by the Chaldeans. It is a metalepsis; for the injury to be avenged is called 'vengeance.' I will make her sea desolate — that is, both the Euphrates, which Cyrus diverted elsewhere, so Lyranus; and more properly 'the sea,' that is, the abundance of men and wealth which seemed so great that, like a sea, it seemed impossible to exhaust. So Theodoret and Vatablus.
And her spring — that is, her kingdom and dominion over all and every nation, so Theodoret; or more properly he calls her hidden treasures 'the spring,' so a Castro. Third and most aptly, he calls 'the spring' both the taxes which were paid to the Babylonians by all nations, and the commerce; for from these, as from veins, the continuous wealth of Babylon flowed.
Verse 37: Et Erit Babylon In Tumulos (Tum Lapidum Ex Ruina Domorum; Tum Arenarum
37. And Babylon shall become heaps (both of stones from the ruin of houses; and of sand, from the dried-up bed of the Euphrates; and therefore it shall become) a dwelling place of dragons — land serpents, which inhabit desolate places.
Verse 38: Simul Ut Leones Rugient
38. Together they shall roar like lions. — This can be taken both of the victorious Persians, with Maldonatus and Sanchez; and of the vanquished Chaldeans, with Lyranus, Hugo, and a Castro; for the latter, hearing that the Persians had entered Babylon, and roused from sleep and wine, shall shake their manes and roar with pain, or rather with anger and indignation; but too late and in vain: for what follows applies to the Chaldeans. Hear Virgil in Aeneid XII graphically describing the fury and spirit of a lion: 'As in the Punic fields / a lion wounded in the breast by the hunters' grievous blow, / then at last stirs to arms, and rejoices / shaking the maned muscles of his neck, and undaunted / snaps the embedded weapon of the robber, and roars with bloody mouth.'
Verse 39: In Calore Ponam Potus Eorum
39. In their heat I will set their feasts. — It is a hypallage: that is, in the feasts and drinking bouts of Belshazzar and the Chaldeans I will set their heat, that is, I will make them grow hot, become drunk, and be killed: I will turn their banquets into a perpetual drunkenness from which they shall never awake, but shall sleep an everlasting sleep, namely in death, the grave, and hell. For many of the Chaldeans were killed while sleeping and drunk, others half-asleep and half-sober, others awake and sober; and so all were sent by the sword of the Persians from a temporal sleep to a perpetual sleep. For what is sleep but a short death? And what is death but a perpetual sleep? See the account in Daniel 5:4 and 30.
Isaiah likewise foretold the same, chapter 21:5; for the Chaldeans mocked the Persians besieging them, since they had provisions in the city for twenty years, so that they could endure the siege, says Xenophon, book VII; whence, trusting in their own strength and resources, they indulged in pleasure, and then were overthrown by Cyrus. Behold, this is the end of drinking parties, these are the graves of lust and of revelers.
Verse 41: Quomodo Capta Est Sesach?
41. How is Sheshach taken? — That is, Babylon. See the comments on chapter 25:26. It is an exclamation of the Prophet, marveling that Babylon has been taken, which seemed unconquerable. The renowned of the whole earth. — The Hebrew: The praise and glory of the whole earth; the Syriac translates: How is the chief of kingdoms, the glory of the whole earth, taken? How has Babylon become a cause of astonishment? The Antiochene Arabic: How is Arysche taken, that is, the foremost, and the head of kingdoms? The Alexandrian Arabic: How is the excellent city, the glory of the whole earth, besieged? How has Babylon become a cause of astonishment?
Verse 42: Mare
42. The sea — the great army of the Medes and Persians has overwhelmed Babylon. The Arabic translates: The sea rose up against Babylon, she has been submerged in the multitude of its waves.
Verse 44: Et Visitabo Super Bel (Id Est Super Chaldæos Cultores Beli
44. And I will punish Bel (that is, the Chaldean worshippers of Bel, by metonymy. So the Chaldean and Lyranus. Second and more plainly, by Bel understand the idol of Bel itself; for this daily devoured the many sacrifices and foods offered to it, Daniel chapter 14:2, and a hundred thousand talents of incense, which were daily burned before it, as Herodotus attests. Likewise the votive offerings and gifts, such as the vessels of the temple of Jerusalem. For Nebuchadnezzar brought these into the temple and worship of Bel, Daniel 1:2. Whence he adds): And I will bring forth from his mouth what he had swallowed up — as if to say: Bel swallowed and seized all these things, but Cyrus will compel him to disgorge and return them. So Theodoret and Vatablus. In Hebrew there is an elegant wordplay: I will visit Bel in Babel, and I will cast out בלעו bilo, that is, his devouring, from his mouth, and Babel shall fall.
Verse 46: Veniet (Babylonem) In Anno (Scilicet Primo Balsasaris) Auditio
46. A rumor shall come (to Babylon) in a year (namely the first of Belshazzar) — that is, a report of the war which the Medes are preparing: in the second year the Medes themselves shall come with iniquity, that is, violence: in the third year Babylon shall be conquered by them, and the ruler Cyrus shall kill the ruler Belshazzar. So Vatablus and R. David.
Second and more simply, as if to say: O Jews! Let not your heart grow faint when you hear various rumors of the Persian war against the Chaldeans (for these are called 'a rumor and a rumor,' and 'in a year and after a year,' that is, the whole year through, indeed after the year
the whole year, indeed after the year there shall be frequent and repeated reports), and because of them there shall arise iniquities, that is, seditions, tumults, plundering, and civil wars, some favoring the Persians, others the Chaldeans, others avenging old enmities; because when you see these disturbances and iniquities, know that the destruction of Babylon is imminent, and your liberation is at hand. Christ says something similar about the destruction of the city and the world, Matthew 24:4. So a Castro. Sanchez explains it somewhat differently, understanding by 'iniquity' the continued tyranny and oppression of the Chaldeans against the Jews amid these war rumors, as if to say: Let not your spirits, O Jews, be weakened and broken by the fact that though one year after another the rumor of war is heard, the Chaldeans nevertheless do not relent from their former iniquity and severity toward you, and continue as your rulers, until the new ruler Cyrus succeeds them. For the day will shortly come when I will punish and overthrow Babylon together with her graven images.
Verse 48: Laudabunt Cœli
48. The heavens shall praise. — That is, the angels of heaven shall praise the just vengeance of God upon Babylon, or rather, as if to say: There shall be a new face of the world, so that heaven and earth may seem to leap for joy at the slaying of the Babylonian tyrant, under whom all groaned, and who harassed the earth with taxes, plundering, slaughters, and destruction; nay, he was injurious even to heaven and the heavenly beings, arrogating to himself divine honors, and worshiping idols instead of God, and compelling all to worship them. It is a hyperbolical personification.
Verse 50: Qui Fugistis Gladium
50. You who have escaped the sword. — He speaks to the Jews who had escaped the sword in the devastation, not of Jerusalem, as Vatablus thinks (these had almost all already died, and only a few very old men survived from it), but of Babylon, so that now 'from afar,' that is, after 70 years, they might remember the former worship of the Lord, and the return to Jerusalem, about which they had heard much from their parents, and had indeed received an oracle and promise from God through Jeremiah and Ezekiel. So Rabanus, Theodoret, Lyranus, and others.
We are confounded. — It is a mimesis. For the Jews respond, as if to say: When we remember Jerusalem, we are confounded and ashamed of the reproach which we heard our fathers suffered in the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the insult which the barbarian Chaldeans inflicted on the holy temple of the Lord; and of the reproaches and blasphemies which we often heard them insolently hurl against the Lord and His temple, and mock it, namely that Bel was more powerful than our God, and had overthrown His city, nation, and throne in the temple. To these God replies that He will overthrow Bel together with the other graven images; and will so wound the Chaldeans that they shall not merely groan, but bellow like oxen being slaughtered; and finally that He will devastate Babylon, which seemed most fortified because it raised its towers and walls to heaven.
Verse 54: Vox Clamoris De Babylone
54. A voice of crying from Babylon — shall be heard. Similar to chapter 48:3.
Verse 55: Perdidit Ex Ea Vocem Magnam
55. He has destroyed out of her the great voice — that is, the tumultuous crowd and their loud clamoring, as if to say: God will cause a great silence and solitude to settle upon Babylon, where now there is great noise and murmur from the throng of people, through the killing and flight of the citizens.
And their waves shall roar — the wailings of the Babylonians as they are being killed shall resound like the waves of many waters. So Maldonatus.
Verse 57: Inebriabo Principes Ejus
57. I will make drunk her princes — with the cup of My wrath and extreme destruction, that they may sleep the eternal sleep of death. He alludes again to the debauchery of Belshazzar and the Babylonians when Babylon was captured. See verse 39.
Verse 58: Murus Babylonis Ille Latissimus Suffossione Suffodietur
58. That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly undermined. — For the walls of Babylon were 50 cubits wide, 200 high; and so long that they had a hundred gates around the circumference. So Herodotus, book I, Diodorus, Solinus, and others. See the comments on Daniel 5.
The labors of the peoples shall be for nothing, and of the nations for the fire — as if to say: The insane constructions of Babylon — the palaces, citadels, temples, walls, hanging gardens, etc. — built with so much labor from nearly all of Asia over so many years, shall be burned with fire and reduced to nothing. So the Chaldean, Lyranus, and others. Vatablus explains it differently, as if to say: The peoples and populace shall be exhausted (in extinguishing the fire), and shall grow weary, that is, they shall not be able to extinguish the fire with which Babylon will blaze.
Verse 59: Cum Sedecia
59. With Zedekiah — who was going to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, to greet him and offer him gifts, so as to make him well-disposed toward himself and the captive Jews: for these things occurred in the fourth year of Zedekiah, as it says here, when everything in Jerusalem was peaceful with the Chaldeans. So the Hebrews in Seder Olam, chapter x, and the Latins. Less correctly, therefore, the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate: When he went away from Zedekiah, as if Zedekiah did not go to Babylon, but sent Seraiah as his ambassador there.
From what has been said it is clear that this prophecy against Babylon found in chapters 50 and 51 (which, written in this scroll by Jeremiah, was given to Seraiah so that he might read it to the Jews held captive in Babylon, and then submerge it in the Euphrates) was spoken by Jeremiah in the fourth year of Zedekiah, that is, seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem.
And Seraiah was chief of the prophecy — that is, of the address and the embassy, so that he might plead as an orator before Nebuchadnezzar. Thus Aaron is called a prophet, that is, the interpreter and speaker of Moses before Pharaoh, Exodus 7:1. Again, 'of the prophecy,' namely of that prophecy which Jeremiah here entrusted in the name of the whole Jewish commonwealth, so that he might proclaim it by voice in Babylon, and carry it out in reality. So Sanchez. In Hebrew it reads 'prince of rest'; because in rest and in dreams God often of old revealed His secrets to Prophets and Saints. Vatablus explains it differently: 'of rest,' he says, meaning lest anyone disturb the king while resting — this Seraiah guarded the royal bedchamber, as if to say: he was the prefect of the royal bedchamber; or he was the prefect of rest, that is, of the king's recreation. And so what our translator renders as 'prophecy,' a Castro explains: 'Of prophecy,' that is, of psalms and music, to recreate the king thereby. Maldonatus also explains differently. He was, he says, 'chief of prophecy,' that is, the first among the Levites who were accustomed to chant the prophecies, or the chief of the priests, as he is called in the next chapter, verse 24. But it is doubtful whether that Seraiah is the same as this one.
Prophets and Saints He would reveal His secrets. Vatablus explains it differently: 'of rest,' he says, meaning lest anyone disturb the king while resting — Seraiah guarded his bedchamber, as if to say: he was the prefect of the royal bedchamber; or he was the prefect of rest, that is, of the king's recreation. And so what our translator renders 'prophecy,' a Castro explains as: 'of prophecy,' that is, of psalms and music, to recreate the king thereby.
Finally, the Chaldean and Septuagint instead of מנחה menucha, meaning 'rest,' read מנחה mincha, meaning 'offerings,' as if to say: Seraiah was the prefect of gifts to be offered to the king, or distributed by the king, whom they later in the courts of kings and princes called the count or prefect of the sacred largesses. This sense coheres with the first (for the same person was both ambassador and distributor of gifts), which seems the most fitting.
Verse 61: Et Dixit Jeremias Ad Saraiam: Cum Veneris In Babylonem
61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you come to Babylon, and shall see, and shall read all these words — that is, by seeing and examining you shall read these words which I have written in the book given to you about the destruction of Babylon; 'you shall read them,' I say, not to the Babylonians; for if they heard from you about the fall of Babylon, they would rage against you as well as against the captive Jews; but to Jehoiachin and the Jews held in Babylon; so that you may soothe their grief, and the afflictions of their captivity with the hope of the liberty to be given them by Cyrus, when he overthrows Babylon.
Verse 63: Projicies
63. You shall cast it. — First, for the consolation of the Jews held captive in Babylon, that they may be raised in hope of liberation. So Theodoret. Second, for the warning of the Chaldeans, who through the Jews shall understand that by God's command and divine oracle you have read these things about their destruction, and having read them, cast them into the Euphrates; so that they might escape this destruction by repentance: hence Jeremiah warned them in the fourth year of Zedekiah, that is, almost 70 years before God would inflict this destruction on them. So Micah says, chapter 7:19: 'He will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea,' that is, He will utterly abolish them, just as what is cast into the bottom of the sea is abolished. Thus the Phocaeans, as Herodotus attests, book I, entering into a pact among themselves not to return to their homeland, cast a mass of iron into the sea with a solemn imprecation, that they would not return to their homeland until that mass should of its own accord leap from the bottom to the surface of the sea: 'they sank an iron mass in the sea,' he says, 'and swore not to return to Phocaea until this mass should rise from the bottom of the sea and float on the surface of the water.' Horace employs this oath and imprecation as a pledge of eternal duration in the Epodes, ode 16: 'But let us swear to this: when stones, lifted from the lowest depths, / shall float again, let it not be a sin to return.'
Verse 64: Sic Submergetur Babylon
64. Thus shall Babylon sink — not so much into the Euphrates as into the sea of destruction and calamities. St. John often alludes to this chapter in Apocalypse 18, describing the destruction of the new Babylon, that is, of Rome returning to paganism at the end of the world, and specifically alludes to this verse at verse 21, saying: 'And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With such violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more.' Where Alcazar understands by the mighty angel, Jeremiah. See the comments there.
Thus far the words of Jeremiah — namely concerning Babylon; for this is the epilogue of the prophecy against Babylon, corresponding to the title at chapter 50:1: and this because the prophecy about her was rather long. Something similar occurred in the prophecy against Moab, chapter 48:47. Others, however, hold that this is absolutely the end of the entire prophecy of Jeremiah, and this is truer and more fitting; for the following chapter is history, not prophecy, drawn from 4 Kings, the final chapter. It appears that Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe, added this closing note, and thus collected all the prophecies of Jeremiah, issued at various times, into this volume, without however observing the chronological order in which they were issued: which Jeremiah would certainly have preserved, if he had written each one in its own time and order to compile them into a single volume. Therefore the Septuagint and the Alexandrian Arabic immediately before chapter 51, at this place, put last chapter 45 of Jeremiah according to the Vulgate edition, which contains Jeremiah's prophecy to Baruch, and about Baruch, and then they place chapter 52, after which they immediately append the prophecy of Baruch itself, and after it the Lamentations.