(47) Therefore, behold, the days come . . .--The first word has its full force. The Israelite exiles were to infer from the rumours and disorders of the preceding verse, that the day of vengeance was at hand. The formula, "behold, the days come," was Jeremiah's customary manner of announcing a prediction (comp. Jeremiah 7:32; Jeremiah 16:14, et al.). For "slain" some commentators read "wounded" or "smitten," as the word is rendered in Psalm 69:26; Job 24:12, the words that follow indicating that the wounded shall have no power to escape, but shall fill the city with their corpses.
51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.
Therefore, behold, the days come that I will do judgment on the graven images of Babylon,.... Because of the connection of these words, some understand Jeremiah 51:46 of the report of the deliverance of the Jews time after time; and yet nothing came of it, which disheartened them; and they were used more cruelly, and with greater violence, by the Chaldeans and their kings, one after another; and "therefore" the following things are said; but the particle may be rendered "moreover" (n), as some observe; or "surely", certainly, of a truth, as in Jeremiah 5:2; the time is hastening on, the above things being done, when judgment shall be executed, not only upon Bel the chief idol, Jeremiah 51:44; but upon all the idols of the Chaldeans; which should be broke to pieces, and stripped of everything about them that was valuable; the Medes and Persians having no regard to images in their worship; though Dr. Prideaux (o) thinks that what is here said, and in Jeremiah 51:44; were fulfilled by Xerxes, when he destroyed and pillaged the Babylonian temples:
and her whole land shall be confounded; the inhabitants of it, when they see their images destroyed, in which they trusted for their safety:
and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her; in the midst of Babylon; where the king and his army were shut up, and dared not move out; and where they were slain when the army of Cyrus entered.
(n) "praeterea"; so Gataker. (o) Connexion, par. 1. B. 2. p. 101. B. 4. p. 242, 243.
and her whole land shall be confounded; the inhabitants of it, when they see their images destroyed, in which they trusted for their safety:
and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her; in the midst of Babylon; where the king and his army were shut up, and dared not move out; and where they were slain when the army of Cyrus entered.
(n) "praeterea"; so Gataker. (o) Connexion, par. 1. B. 2. p. 101. B. 4. p. 242, 243.