Verse 41- Jeremiah 51:4. - The instruments of the judgment. The section is partly a cento from other prophecies. Thus vers. 41-43 are a repetition of Jeremiah
50:33-46 It is Israel's comfort in distress, that, though they are weak, their Redeemer is strong. This may be applied to believers, who complain of the dominion of sin and corruption, and of their own weakness and manifold infirmities. Their Redeemer is able to keep what they commit to him; and sin shall not have dominion over them. He will give them that rest which remains for the people of God. Also here is Babylon's sin, and their punishment. The sins are, idolatry and persecution. He that will not save his people in their sins, never will countenance the wickedness of his open enemies. The judgments of God for these sins will lay them waste. In the judgments denounced against prosperous Babylon, and the mercies promised to afflicted Israel, we learn to choose to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation,.... The Modes and Persians, whose country lay north of Babylon: See Gill on Jeremiah 50:9;
and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth; the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, Jeremiah 51:27; and of the Armenians and other nations that Cyrus had subdued and brought with him in his army against Babylon, as Xenophon (s) relates. Ten kings shall be raised up against mystical Babylon, and hate her, and burn her with fire, Revelation 17:12.
and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth; the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, Jeremiah 51:27; and of the Armenians and other nations that Cyrus had subdued and brought with him in his army against Babylon, as Xenophon (s) relates. Ten kings shall be raised up against mystical Babylon, and hate her, and burn her with fire, Revelation 17:12.
(s) Cyropaedia, l. 5. c. 15.