Zion the work of the LORD our God.
JOHN CALVIN
heal her, but she has not been healed.''
He then adds, Leave her, and let us depart, every one to his own land. This was the language of foreign soldiers and mercenaries. When they saw that the safety of the city was hopeless, they began to counsel one another, ``What do we? Ought we not rather to consult our own safety? for our efforts are wholly useless. It is then time for every one to return to his own country, for the end of Babylon is come.''
But the change of person has much more force than if the Prophet had spoken thus,
time shall come when the auxiliaries shall flee away, for they will see that it would be all in vain to defend her.'' But when he compares them to physicians, this similitude more fully illustrates the case; and then when he speaks in their person, this renders what is said still more emphatieal.
He at length adds, For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and has been elevated to the clouds. Jeremiah could not have properly addressed what he said to the unbelieving, if you explain this of God being adverse and hostile to the Babylonians; for it never occurred to the hired soldiers, that Babylon perished through the just judgment of God. But the Prophet, according to a usual mode of speaking, says, Her judgment (that is, her destruction) reached to the heavens, and has been elevated to the clouds; that is, no aid shall be found under heaven, which can deliver Babylon, --- how so? because it will be the same as though destruction came from heaven itself, and from the clouds. For when danger is nigh either from behind or from before us, we can turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, so that we may escape the evils which men may bring on us: but when heaven itself seems to threaten our heads, then an escape is attempted in vain. This then is the reason why the Prophet says that the judgment of Babylon had reached to the heavens and had been elevated to the clouds. 444 It follows, ---
Jeremiah 51:10
10. The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in
Zion the work of the LORD our God.
10. Eduxit (vel, protulit; egredi fecit, ad verbum) Jehova justitias nostras: venite et narremus in Sion opus Jehovae, Dei nostri.
The Prophet here addresses the faithful, and especially shows, that the ruin of
Babylon would be a sure evidence of God's paternal favor towards his Church. And it was no common consolation to the faithful, in their extreme miseries, to know, that so dear and precious to God was their salvation, that he would by no means spare the Babylonians, whom the whole world regarded as half gods; for, as I have said, the power of that monarchy filled the minds of men with astonishment. When the faithful, then, knew that the Babylonians were to perish, because they had oppressed and cruelly treated them, an invaluable consolation, as I have said, must hence have been conveyed to them. The Prophet then reminds us here, that it would be a singular testimony as to God's favor to his Church, when he subverted Babylon, and
444Another view has been given of this clause: It is a mode of speaking to express the greatness of a thing; see Psalm 36:5; Ezra 9:6. The judgement or punishment of Babylon would be so great, that it might be compared to what may reach to the heavens, and to the ethereal regions; for such is the meaning of the last word, and is rendered "stars," by the Sept., — For to the heavens has reached her judgement, And it has risen up to the ethereal regions. By "heavens," are often meant the skies. — Ed.