Jeremiah 50
The Lord's Word Against Babylon 1–3
Israel's Return and Restoration 4–7
Flee Babylon! The Northern Attack 8–16
God Vindicates Israel 17–20
The Hammer of the Earth Is Broken 21–32
The Redeemer of Israel 33–34
A Sword of Judgment on Chaldea 35–38
Permanent Desolation and Final Warning 39–46
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Jeremiah 50
Verse 1
against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans — The last of the oracles on the nations, the judgment promised at 25:12, ‘when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon’. ‘By Jeremiah’ is literally ‘by the hand of Jeremiah’. The words were written in a book and sent to Babylon with Seraiah, to be read there and sunk in the Euphrates (51:59–64).
Verse 2
Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces — Bel is the god of Isa 46:1, ‘Bel boweth down’, and is punished again at 51:44; ‘Merodach’ is named only here. The fall of Babylon and her idols is the news to ‘Declare ye among the nations’ with a raised ‘standard’, and the escaped carry it to Zion (v.28).
Verse 3
out of the north there cometh up a nation — The north from which ‘an evil shall break forth’ on Judah (1:14) now sends a nation against Babylon, and ‘great nations from the north country’ in v.9. They are named in 51:11 as ‘the kings of the Medes’, as Isa 13:17 foretold: ‘I will stir up the Medes against them’. ‘Both man and beast’ will go, as in 51:62.
Verse 4
the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together — The two kingdoms return as one (Hos 1:11; Ezek 37:22, ‘one nation’). ‘Going and weeping’ is how they come in 31:9, ‘They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them’, and ‘seek the LORD their God’ is the word of Hos 3:5.
Verse 5
ask the way to Zion — They ask ‘with their faces thitherward’, as the watchmen of Ephraim call, ‘Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion’ (31:6). ‘Join’ is lavah, to be attached, the verb of the stranger who ‘hath joined himself to the LORD’ (Isa 56:3). The ‘perpetual covenant’ is the ‘everlasting covenant’ of 32:40, the new covenant of 31:31–34 (Heb 8:8–12).
Verse 6
My people hath been lost sheep — ‘Lost’ is abad, the word of Ps 119:176, ‘I have gone astray like a lost sheep’. The ‘shepherds’ are the leaders Ezek 34:2–6 charges with feeding themselves while ‘my sheep wandered through all the mountains’. ‘Restingplace’ is rebets, the ‘place… to lie down in’ of Isa 65:10. Christ sends the Twelve to ‘the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt 10:6).
Verse 8
Remove out of the midst of Babylon — The exiles are called out before the fall, ‘as the he goats before the flocks’. Attud, the he goat, goes first and the flock follows; the word is rendered ‘chief ones’ of the earth in Isa 14:9. The call is repeated in 51:6 and 51:45, in Isa 48:20, and in Rev 18:4, ‘Come out of her, my people’.
Verse 9
an assembly of great nations from the north country — ‘Assembly’ is qahal, the word used of Israel’s own congregation. The LORD says ‘I will raise’, as of the Medes in 51:11. Verse 51:27 names the kingdoms called up, ‘Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz’, and 51:28 adds ‘the kings of the Medes’. ‘None shall return in vain’ is like Jonathan’s bow, which ‘turned not back’ (2 Sam 1:22).
Verse 11
destroyers of mine heritage — Babylon was the instrument of the LORD’s anger (Isa 47:6, ‘I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand’), yet its gladness is the charge, for ‘they helped forward the affliction’ (Zech 1:15). ‘Bulls’ is abbir, ‘strong ones’, the word behind ‘valiant men’ in 46:15.
Verse 15
she hath given her hand — To give the hand is to yield (Lam 5:6; 2 Chr 30:8, ‘yield yourselves’). ‘Foundations’ is ashyah, found only here. Her ‘walls are thrown down’, the ‘broad walls of Babylon’ of 51:58, and the vengeance is paid in kind, ‘as she hath done, do unto her’ (cf. Ps 137:8; Rev 18:6).
Verse 17
Israel is a scattered sheep — The figure of v.6 continues, with two lions. Assyria came ‘first’ and carried Israel away (2 Kgs 17:6; 18:11), and Nebuchadrezzar ‘last’. Jeremiah had used the image before: ‘The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste’ (2:15).
Verse 19
Carmel and Bashan… mount Ephraim and Gilead — Carmel is on the west, Bashan and Gilead beyond Jordan, Ephraim in the hill country: the pasture lands of the whole people. Mic 7:14 asks, ‘let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old’. ‘Habitation’ is naveh, a pasture or fold, and Ezek 34:13–14 promises ‘a good pasture’ on ‘the high mountains of Israel’.
Verse 20
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none — The pardon of the new covenant: ‘I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’ (31:34), quoted in Heb 10:17. Mic 7:19 casts sins ‘into the depths of the sea’, and Ps 103:12 removes them ‘as far as the east is from the west’. ‘Whom I reserve’ is sha’ar, to leave over, the remnant.
Verse 21
Merathaim… Pekod — Both are names for Babylon’s land. Merathaim is a dual form, ‘double bitterness’, and occurs only here. Pekod, ‘punishment’, comes from paqad, the verb of ‘I will punish the king of Babylon’ (v.18), and appears again in Ezek 23:23 among the Babylonian peoples. The command is ‘waste and utterly destroy’ (charam).
Verse 23
the hammer of the whole earth — ‘Hammer’ is pattish, found elsewhere only in 23:29, ‘like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces’, and Isa 41:7. The cry ‘How is… broken!’ is the note of the taunt on the king of Babylon in Isa 14:4, 12, where he ‘made the world as a wilderness’ (Isa 14:17).
Verse 24
I have laid a snare for thee — The LORD lays it, and Babylon is ‘taken’ (lakad, as in v.2) ‘and thou wast not aware’. Daniel records the end at a feast: ‘In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain’ (Dan 5:30), and ‘Darius the Median took the kingdom’ (5:31). ‘Striven against the LORD’ is Dan 5:23, ‘lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven’.
Verse 28
the vengeance of his temple — The same words recur in 51:11, with ‘the kings of the Medes’. The temple’s vessels were used at Belshazzar’s feast, ‘the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God’ (Dan 5:3), and Dan 5:23 charges him with it. The escaped ‘declare in Zion’, as 51:10 says, ‘the work of the LORD our God’.
Verse 33
they refused to let them go — Israel and Judah were ‘oppressed together’ (ashaq). ‘Refused to let them go’ is the word given to Pharaoh, ‘If thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still’ (Ex 9:2). The next verse names the one who redeems them from this hold.
Verse 34
Their Redeemer is strong — Go’el, the kinsman who buys back and avenges. ‘The LORD of hosts is his name’ is the title of Isa 47:4 and 54:5, ‘thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel’. ‘Plead their cause’ is riv, to argue a case (Mic 7:9; 51:36). ‘Give rest’ and ‘disquiet’ are two verbs of near sound, hirgia and hirgiz.
Verse 35
A sword is upon the Chaldeans — ‘A sword is upon’ opens five lines in vv.35–37 (the Chaldeans, the liars, the mighty men, the horses, the treasures). It is the sword of 47:6, ‘the sword of the LORD’. The ‘wise men’ who fall had failed before: ‘they could not read the writing’ (Dan 5:8).
Verse 36
A sword is upon the liars — ‘Liars’ is bad, empty talkers, the word of Isa 44:25, ‘that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad’. ‘Dote’ is ya’al, to become foolish, so the men who advised Babylon are the first to lose their counsel. Her ‘mighty men’ are ‘dismayed’ (chathath).
Verse 38
A drought is upon her waters — ‘Drought’ is choreb, written with the same consonants as ‘sword’ (chereb) in vv.35–37, so the refrain turns on one set of letters. Isa 44:27 says to the deep ‘Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers’, and 51:36 ‘I will dry up her sea’. ‘Idols’ is emim, ‘terrors’, the word of ‘Fear and dread’ in Ex 15:16.
Verse 39
the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands — The words of Isa 13:20–22: ‘wild beasts of the desert shall lie there… owls shall dwell there… the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses’. ‘From generation to generation’ is Isa 13:20, and ‘it shall be no more inhabited’ is the sentence of 25:12, ‘perpetual desolations’.
Verse 40
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah — The overthrow of Gen 19:24–25, with the ‘neighbour cities’ Admah and Zeboim (Deut 29:23). Isa 13:19 used the comparison for Babylon, and 49:18 repeats these words for Edom. Peter calls the overthrow ‘an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly’ (2 Pet 2:6).
Verse 41
a people shall come from the north, and a great nation — Nearly the words of 6:22 against Judah: ‘a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth’. They now come against Babylon. ‘Raised up’ is ’ur, the verb of v.9, and the ‘many kings’ are ‘the kings of the Medes’ and the kingdoms of 51:27–28.
Verse 44
like a lion from the swelling of Jordan — This repeats 49:19, the lion that came against Edom, now come against Babylon. ‘Shepherd’ is also the word for a ruler, as the LORD says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd’ (Isa 44:28). ‘Who is like me?’ is the claim of Isa 46:9, ‘there is none like me’. ‘Who will appoint me the time?’ uses ya’ad, the verb of 47:7.