their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her
JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS
Alexander the Great, who, together with his catamite, burnt the tower. Nor is there a doubt but that many memorable transactions were deposited there. But Alexander being drunk, seized a torch and burnt the tower; for he thought that the memory of the Oriental monarchy could thus be abolished.
We now then perceive why the Prophet expressly mentions here the Medes; and he adds, the captains and princes He includes, no doubt, under these names, all the satraps and kings. At length he adds, the whole land of its dominion, or jurisdiction; and by this word he designates the kingdoms already mentioned. It now follows, ---
Jeremiah 51:29
29. And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
29. Et contremuit terra, et doluit (similitudo sumpta est a parturientibus,) quia stabilita fuit super Babylon cogitationes (in plurali numero ponit cum tamen verbum sit singulare, hoc est, stabilitae sunt cogitationes) Jehovae ad ponendum terram
Babylonis in solitudinem, ita ut non sit habitator (vel, qui illic habitet.)
The Prophet no doubt endeavored to remove all doubts from the minds of the godly, which would have otherwise weakened confidence in his doctrine. It might have occurred to the minds of all, that the whole world would sooner come to nothing than that Babylon should fall. Though it were so, says the Prophet, that the whole earth trembled, yet Babylon will be destroyed. Hence, he says, Tremble shall the land and be in pain, even because confirmed, etc. There is here a striking contrast between the moving of the earth and the stability of God's purpose. The verb means properly to rise, but it is taken in many places in the sense of confirming or establishing, and necessarily so in this passage. he then says, Tremble shall the land, 452 even because confirmed shall be the thoughts of God respecting Babylon
But he mentions thoughts in the plural number, as though he had said, that whatever God had appointed and decreed would be unchangeable, and that the whole earth would sooner be shaken than that the truth of God should lose its effect. Then this verse contains nothing else but a confirmation of the whole prophecy. But the
Prophet shows, that if even all the hindrances of the world were in favor of the perpetuity of Babylon, yet what God had decreed respecting its destruction, would be fixed and unchangeable. It afterwards follows, ---
Jeremiah 51:30
30. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
30. Cessarunt fortes Babylonis ad pugnandum (hoc est, destiterunt pugnare fortes Babylonis,) sederunt in munitionibus, deficit (vel, elanguit) virtus ipsorum, fuerunt in mulieres, accenderunt habitacula ejus, confracti sunt vectes ejus.
The Prophet shows here, as by the finger, the manner of the destruction of Babylon, such as it is described by heathen authors. He then says, that the valiant men of
452The "earth" here is evidently the land of Chaldea or Babylon, — And tremble shall the land and be in pain; For confirmed respecting Babylon shall be the purposes of Jehovah, To set the land of Babylon a waste, Without an inhabitant. — Ed