Глава 51

1–64. Prophecy for Babylon. Jeremiah 51:1–46. Continuing his speech about the fate of Babylon, the prophet again says that the Lord is punishing Babylon for Israel: the Lord is finally destroying this powerful kingdom, which was previously in His hands an instrument of punishment for different nations. The Prophet clearly names here the destroyers of Babylon - the kings of Media, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minya and Askenaz (1-34); Israel itself recognizes in the destruction of Babylon the work of God's vengeance for the insults inflicted on Israel by the Babylonians (35-46). And everyone will rejoice at the death of this terrible kingdom, (47–58). The end of the chapter tells how Jeremiah instructed Seraiah to read this prophecy and then throw the scroll of prophecy into the Euphrates (59–64). Jer.51:1. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up My adversaries against Babylon and against those who dwell among her. “Among him are My adversaries” - translated from Hebrew: (not living) in the heart (central point) of My adversaries. – In the Russian translation there is no addition to the word: I will raise, but in the Hebrew text there is this addition. There is an expression: ruach maschehil - destructive wind or: spirit of the destroyer. Jer.51:7. Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, making the whole earth drunk; the peoples drank wine from it and went crazy. Gold represents the splendor of life in Babylon, which was enjoyed by various nations friendly to Babylon. They drank from the cup of Babylon and became infected with its wickedness. For this they must share his punishment. Jer.51:10. The Lord brought our truth to light; let us go and proclaim in Zion the work of the Lord our God. Here the Jews are shown speaking. Jer.51:11. Sharpen your arrows, fill your quivers; The Lord stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media, because He has an intention against Babylon to destroy it, for this is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance for His church. “Fill your quivers” - more correctly from the Hebrew: “put on your shields” - here the prophet could generally call the Syrian inhabitants of Iran, including the Persians, Medes. Jer.51:14. The Lord of Hosts swore by Himself: Verily I say, I will fill you with people like locusts, and they will raise a cry against you. Even if Babylon were filled with people like locusts, its enemies would take it and raise their cry of victory in the captured city. Jeremiah 51:15–19. Repetition of Jeremiah 10.12–16. Jer.51:20. You are My hammer, a weapon of war; with you I have struck down nations and with you I have destroyed kingdoms; Jer.51:25. Behold, I am against you, O destructive mountain, says the Lord, destroying the whole earth, and I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will cast you down from the rocks, and I will make you a scorched mountain. Babylon is called the destructive mountain as the kingdom that rules over the whole earth. - “The Burnt Mountain.” In Palestine, mountains were often decorated with forests. If the forest burned down, then the mountain took on a sad look. Jer.51:26. And they will not take from you a corner stone or a foundation stone, but you will forever be desolate, says the Lord. Other states will no longer see support for themselves in Babylon. Jer.51:27. Raise a banner on the earth, blow the trumpet among the nations, arm the nations against him, summon the kingdoms of Ararat, Minya and Askenaz against him, place a leader against him, lead the horses like terrible locusts. Ararat is part of Armenia along the middle reaches of the Araks; The Minnians are the inhabitants of the country near Lake Von, west of Ararat. – Askenaza is approximately in the neighborhood of Armenia. Jer.51:32. and the fords were captured, and the fences were burned with fire, and the soldiers were struck with fear. “Fords” – more correctly: light wooden bridges over the Euphrates and canals. “Fences” are more correct: wooden buildings or sluices that kept water where it was needed. Jer.51:33. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when she threshes there; a little more, and the time for her harvest will come. "While threshing". Since the harvest is yet to come, there can be no talk here of a threshing floor during threshing, but rather of a threshing floor that is trampled down so that later it can be threshed. Jer.51:34. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, devoured me and gnawed me; made me an empty vessel; consumed me like a dragon; filled his belly with my sweets, spewed me out. This is the complaint of Jerusalem (cf. Jer. 51:35). Jer.51:36. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will plead your case and avenge you, and I will dry up its sea and dry up its canals. The river was sometimes called the sea. The Euphrates, which spilled over a vast area in the spring (cf. Isa 21:1, 18:2, 19:5). Jer.51:38. They will all roar like lions, and they will roar like lion puppies. Here we are talking about the Chaldeans in their present situation. Let them triumph, as the prophet would like to say, not for long, it will pass. Jer.51:39. When they are hot, I will make them a feast and make them drunk, so that they may rejoice and fall into an eternal sleep and not awaken, says the Lord. Having eaten, the Chaldeans, like lions, will be thirsty, and the Lord will give them a drink from which they will be delighted (irony), and then fall asleep in eternal sleep! Jer.51:40. I will bring them together like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats. No class in the Chaldean people will be spared (cf. Is 14.9). Jer.51:41. How Sheshach was taken and the glory of the whole earth was won! How Babylon became a terror among the nations! "Sesach" - see Jeremiah 25.26. Jer.51:42. The sea rushed towards Babylon; it is covered with many waves of it. “Sea” is here an image of an all-devastating enemy force. Jer.51:44. And I will visit Bel in Babylon, and I will pluck out of his mouth what he has swallowed, and the nations will flock to him no more, even the walls of Babylon will fall. From “Vil” (Bel) the Lord will take away “what he swallowed” (balah) - an obvious play on words. The pagans usually considered their spoils of war to be the property of their gods. You can also see here an indication that the foreigners who lived in Babylon will all flee from there. - “The Walls of Babylon”. Babylon had two walls - an outer and an inner, both dedicated to Bel or Bel. The outer one was 430 stadia long, fifty cubits thick and 200 cubits high. In addition, all of Babylonia along the lower reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris was protected under Nebuchadnezzar by a huge “Median wall,” built to protect against attacks by the Medes (12–15 miles long, 20 feet thick and 100 feet high) and connecting the Tigris with the Euphrates. Jer.51:45. Come out from among him, My people, and save every man his soul from the fiery wrath of the Lord. Jer.51:46. Let not your heart fail, and do not be afraid of the hearing that will be heard on earth; rumor will come in one year, and then in another year, and there will be violence on earth, ruler will rise up against ruler. The liberation of Israel from captivity will be accompanied by severe political upheavals; From year to year terrible news will come about various catastrophes in the political life of states. But for Israel this will only be a sign of approaching liberation (cf. Matthew 24.6 et seq.). Jer.51:50. Those who have escaped the sword, go away, do not stop, remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem rise into your heart. Appeal to Israel, accumulated in Babylon. Jer.51:55. for the Lord will lay waste Babylon and put an end to the proud voice in her. Their waves will rustle like great waters, their voice will be heard loudly. "Proud Voice". So the prophet denotes that noise, that vanity that constantly reigned on the streets of the greatest trading city - Babylon. This noise of human voices will be drowned out by the noise of the waves approaching Babylon, that is, by the cries of enemies who will attack Babylon. Jer.51:58. Thus says the Lord of hosts: The thick walls of Babylon will be destroyed to the ground, and its high gates will be burned with fire; So the nations labored in vain, and the tribes tormented themselves for the fire. “The nations labored in vain.” Tens of thousands of people had to work on the construction of such long walls as those of Babylon. Moreover, it is known that Nebuchadnezzar built the inner wall of Babylon in 15 days! Jer.51:59. The word which the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign; Seraiah was the chief bed-keeper. Seraiah, as one might think based on Jeremiah 32.12, was the brother of Baruch. Only a person close to the prophet could take on such a mission as is indicated below. Zedekiah, in the 4th year of his reign, traveled to Babylon to assure the Babylonian king of his loyalty, in view of the rumors that could reach Babylon about his plans (see Jeremiah 27.1 et seq.). - “Bedmaster” is more correct: a quartermaster who was supposed to take care of food and accommodation for the king and his retinue. Jer.51:61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you come to Babylon, then see, read all these speeches, “Look,” that is, choose a suitable occasion and place, mainly for performing the symbolic action described below. Jer.51:63. And when you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, The sinking of the scroll is meant to serve as a visual representation of the fall of Babylon. Special notes. The sayings of the prophet about Babylon, spoken by him over a number of years, were placed by him in one scroll in the 4th year of Zedekiah. – There are serious objections to the authenticity of Chapters L and LI, but nevertheless these objections can be eliminated with an impartial consideration of the case. As for the form of the prophetic sayings of chapters L and LI, it clearly reflects the writing style of Jeremiah. The writer very freely conveys, when repeated, Jeremiah’s own words, and only the prophet himself could have done this - another writer would not have dared to do this. They say that here the destruction of Jerusalem and the church is supposed to have already taken place, which contradicts what is indicated in Jeremiah 51.59 v. the point in time when these prophecies were composed; they say that here Jeremiah, prophesying the imminent liberation of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, contradicts his previous speeches, in which he convinced his fellow tribesmen to patiently live in captivity, which should last 70 years. But, according to Jeremiah, the captivity had already begun with the withdrawal of part of the Jews to Babylon under Joachim (in 607), and the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the church was already an accomplished fact for him. But he does not speak anywhere about the destruction of Jerusalem and the church as events that have already occurred. Ch. Jeremiah 51.51 v. Jeremiah speaks only of the invasion of strangers into the sanctuary, which could refer to the taking of the holy. vessels from the church in 607. The Lord still dwells in Jerusalem (Jer 51.50), as does the prophet himself (Jer 50.5). Then, if this section had been written by someone after the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, then it could not have depicted the destruction of Babylon as complete as it is here and as, in fact, it was not under Cyrus. The destroyers of Babylon are such enemies (the kings of Media, etc.) who might have seemed so to the writer who lived before the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. And could a post-captivity writer talk about Babylon as a state standing at the very pinnacle of glory? Then, Jeremiah 50.33 v. could not have been written after the capture of Babylon by Cyrus and the liberation of the Jews from captivity. They also say that earlier Jeremiah spoke of the Chaldeans with greater sympathy, but here he is their hater. But even earlier, the prophet praised the Chaldeans only as executors of the will of God, and without at all giving them any special useful significance in the history of mankind in themselves. – For the fulfillment of the prophecy about Babylon, see Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 14. You might be interested in: