Jeremiah 50:13

Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Every one that goeth . . .—We note the reproduction of the formula of Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 49:17.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

50:8-20 The desolation that shall be brought upon Babylon is set forth in a variety of expressions. The cause of this destruction is the wrath of the Lord. Babylon shall be wholly desolated; for she hath sinned against the Lord. Sin makes men a mark for the arrows of God's judgments. The mercy promised to the Israel of God, shall not only accompany, but arise from the destruction of Babylon. These sheep shall be gathered from the deserts, and put again into good pasture. All who return to God and their duty, shall find satisfaction of soul in so doing. Deliverances out of trouble are comforts indeed, when fruits of the forgiveness of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your mother - i. e., Babylon. Confounded ... ashamed. Or, ashamed ... blush.

Behold ... - Translate, "Behold she is the hindermost of the nations, a desert, a thirsty land, and a waste:" - the reason why Babylon is to blush. Once the head of gold Daniel 2:32, she is now the lowest of earthly powers.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. (Isa 13:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

It shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate; the same thing was threatened against Babylon, Isaiah 13:20, It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. Shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues: it seemeth to be a proverbial speech made use of to express the miserable state of a place; we had it before, Jeremiah 49:17, applied to Edom. It is according to the threatening, Deu 28:37. See Jeremiah 25:9,11 29:18 42:18 Ezekiel 5:15.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited,.... That is, Babylon; which the Targum expresses,

"because thou, Babylon, hast provoked the Lord;''

by their idolatry, luxury, ill usage of his people, and profanation of the vessels of the sanctuary; therefore it should be destroyed, and left without an inhabitant in it:

but it shall be wholly desolate; as it now is. Pausanias says (o), in his time there was nothing but a wall remaining; and Jerom (p) says, he had it from a brother Elamite, or Persian, that Babylon was then a park or place for royal hunting, and that beasts of every kind were kept within its walls: of mystical Babylon, see Revelation 16:19;

everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues; any traveller that had seen it in its glory would now be astonished to see the desolation of it; and, by way of scorn and derision, hiss at the judgments of God upon it, and rejoice at them, and shake their head, as the Targum.

(o) Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 509. (p) Comment. in Isaiam, fol. 23. C.

Geneva Study Bible

Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, {n} and hiss at all her plagues.

(n) In sign of contempt and disdain.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Cp. chs. Jeremiah 18:16, Jeremiah 19:8, Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 49:17, with notes.

be inhabited] See on Jeremiah 17:25.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - All but the first clause of this verse is taken from Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 49:17. Jeremiah 50:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The devastation of Babylon and glory of Israel. - Jeremiah 50:11. "Thou ye rejoice, though ye exult, O ye plunderers of mine inheritance, though ye leap proudly like a heifer threshing, and neigh like strong horses, Jeremiah 50:12. Your mother will be very much ashamed; she who bare you will blush: behold, the last of the nations [will be] a wilderness, a desert, and a steppe. Jeremiah 50:13. Because of the indignation of Jahveh it shall not be inhabited, and it shall become a complete desolation. Every one passing by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss because of all her plagues. Jeremiah 50:14. Make preparations against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, do not spare an arrow, for she hath sinned against Jahveh. Jeremiah 50:15. Shout against her round about; she hath given herself up: her battlements are fallen, her walls are pulled down; for it is Jahveh's vengeance: revenge yourselves on her; as she hath done, do ye to her. Jeremiah 50:16. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest. From before the oppressing sword each one will turn to his own nation, and each one will flee to his own land. Jeremiah 50:17. Israel is a scattered sheep [which] lions have driven away: the first [who] devoured him [was] the king of Babylon; and this, the last, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, hath broken his bones. Jeremiah 50:18. Therefore thus saith Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon ad his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. Jeremiah 50:19. And I will bring back Israel to his pasture-ground, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and on the mountains of Ephraim his soul shall be satisfied. Jeremiah 50:20. In those days, and at that time, saith Jahveh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, but it shall not be; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found: for I will pardon those whom I will leave remaining."

Jeremiah 50:11-13

Jeremiah 50:11 does not permit of being so closely connected with what precedes as to separate it from Jeremiah 50:12 (De Wette, Ngelsbach). Not only is the translation, "for thou didst rejoice," etc., difficult to connect with the imperfects of all the verbs in the verse, but the direct address also does not suit Jeremiah 50:10, and rather demands connection with Jeremiah 50:12, where it is continued. כּי, of course, introduces the reason, yet not in such a way that Jeremiah 50:11 states the cause why Chaldea shall become a spoil, but rather so that Jeremiah 50:11 and Jeremiah 50:12 together give the reason for the threatening uttered. The different clauses of Jeremiah 50:11 are the protases, to which Jeremiah 50:12 brings the apodosis. "You may go on making merry over the defeat of Israel, but shame will follow for this." The change of the singular forms of the verbs into plurals (Qeri) has been caused by the plural 'שׁסי , but is unnecessary, because Babylon is regarded as a collective, and its people are gathered into the unity of a person; see on Jeremiah 13:20. "Spoilers of mine inheritance," i.e., of the people and land of the Lord; cf. Jeremiah 12:7; Isaiah 17:14. On פּוּשׁ, to gallop (of a horse, Habakkuk 1:8), hop, spring (of a calf, Malachi 3:20), see on Habakkuk 1:8. דּשׁא is rendered by the lxx ἐν βοτάνη, by the Vulgate super herbam; after these, Ewald also takes the meaning of springing like a calf through the grass, since he explains דּשׁא as exhibiting the correct punctuation, and remarks that פּוּשׁ, like הלך, can stand with an object directly after it; see 282, a. Most modern expositors, on the other hand, take דּשׁא as the fem. participle from דּוּשׁ, written with א instead of ה: "like a threshing heifer." On this, A Schultens, in his Animadv. philol., on this passage, remarks: Comparatio petita est a vitula, quae in area media inter frumenta, ore ex lege non ligato (Deuteronomy 25:10), prae pabuli abundantia gestit ex exsultat. This explanation also gives a suitable meaning, without compelling us to do violence to the language and to alter the text. As to אבּירים, stallions, strong horses (Luther), see on Jeremiah 8:16 and Jeremiah 47:3. "Your mother" is the whole body of the people, the nation considered as a unity (cf. Isaiah 50:1; Hosea 2:4; Hosea 4:5), the individual members of which are called her sons; cf. Jeremiah 5:7, etc. In Jeremiah 50:12, the disgrace that is to fall on Babylon is more distinctly specified. The thought is gathered up into a sententious saying, in imitation of the sayings of Balaam. "The last of the nations" is the antithesis of "the first of the nations," as Balaam calls Amalek, Numbers 24:20, because they were the first heathen nation that began to fight against the people of Israel. In like manner, Jeremiah calls Babylon the last of the heathen nations. As the end of Amalek is ruin (Numbers 24:20), so the end of the last heathen nation that comes forward against Israel will be a wilderness, desert, steppe. The predicates (cf. Jeremiah 2:6) refer to the country and kingdom of Babylon. But if the end of the kingdom is a desert, then the people must have perished. The devastation of Babylon is further portrayed in Jeremiah 50:13, together with a statement of the cause: "Because of the anger of Jahveh it shall not be inhabited;" cf. Isaiah 13:20. The words from והיתה onwards are imitated from Jeremiah 49:17 and Jeremiah 19:8.