tuus, tempus visitationis tuae.
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.
31. Ecce ego contra to, superbe, dicit Dominus Jehova exercituum quia venit dies tuus, tempus visitationis tuae.
Jeremiah, in order more fully to confirm what he had said, again introduces God as the speaker. And we have stated how necessary this was, because he could have hardly gained credit otherwise to his prophecy; but when he introduced God, he removed every doubt. Behold, he says, I am against thee, O proud one He again calls the Babylonians proud, even because they had not been led to war by levity or folly, or vain ambition, but because they had assailed God and men without any reverence and without any regard to humanity.
He says that the time had come, because the faithful would have otherwise interrupted him and said, ``How is this, that God so long delays?'' That they might then sustain and cherish hope until the time which God had prescribed for his vengeance, he says, that the day had come, and the time of visitation Whenever this mode of speaking occurs, let us know that all the natural instincts of our flesh are checked; for there is no one of us who does not immediately jump to take vengeance when we see the faithful oppressed, when we see many unworthy things done to our brethren, when we see innocent blood shed, and the miserable cruelly treated by the ungodly.
When, therefore, all these instances of barbarity happen, none of us can contain himself; hence God puts on us a bridle, and exhorts us to exercise patience, when he says, that the time of visitation is not yet completed.
As long then as God delays, let us know that the fit time is not yet come, because he has a fixed day of visitation, unknown to us. It follows, ---
Jeremiah 50:32
32. And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and
I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
32. Et impinget superbus et cadet, et nemo qui eum erigat; et accendam ignem in urbibus ejus, qui consumet omnia quae sunt in circuitu (per circuitus ejus, ad verbum.)
The Prophet continues the same subject: as then he had announced in God's name that the time of visitation would come when God would rise up against the
Chaldeans, he now adds, stumble shall the proud, and fall The verb {,}כשלcashel, means also to fall; but as it is added, {,}ונפלvanuphel, and fall, it ought to be rendered stumble here. Stumble, then, shall the proud, and fall --- for the Prophet denotes a gradation. Some render the words, ``Fall shall the proud and tumble down:'' but more suitable is the rendering I have given, that the proud would stumble, and then that he would fall. And no one, he says, shall raise him up By these words,
God intimates, that though Babylon had many nations under its authority, yet there would be no help given to it, when the time of visitation came. It indeed often happens that many busy themselves, and make every effort to assist the wicked, but without any success. When, therefore, God declares that there would be no one to raise up Babylon when fallen, the meaning is not, that courage would be wanting to all, but that the efforts of all would be of no avail, even because God, when Babylon fell, would be against her, so that were the whole world to unite for her relief, all