Verses 2-10. - Babylon's fall and Israel's deliverance. Verses 2, 3. - The prophet, with the eye of faith, sees his revelation accomplished. Babylon (like Moab) is taken; her idols are destroyed. In his exuberant joy, he calls on the bystanders to proclaim the good news to the sympathetic nations, and to set up (or rather, lift up) a standard (as Jeremiah 4:6), to call the attention of those who might not be within hearing of the proclamation. The idols have been convicted of false pretensions; they are ashamed and dismayed (so we should render rather than confounded and broken in pieces) at the terrible result to their worshippers. Bel and Merodach are not different deifies, but merely different names of one of the two principal gods of the later Babylonian empire. Bel, it is true, was originally distinct from Merodach, but ultimately identified with him. Merodach was the tutelary god of Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar seems to have been specially addicted to his worship, though, indeed, he mentions Nebo also with hardly less honour. This is the beginning of an inscription of this king's, preserved at the India House: - "Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, glorious prince, worshipper of Marduk, adorer of the lofty one, glorifier of Nabu, the exalted, the possessor of intelligence" (Mr. Rodwell's translation, 'Records of the Past,' 5:113). Elsewhere Nebuchadnezzar speaks of Marduk as "the god my maker," "the chief of the gods," and of himself as "his (Marduk's) eldest son, the chosen of his heart." Her images. It is a very peculiar word (gillulim), specially frequent in Ezekiel, and also found in a chapter of Leviticus with which Ezekiel has affinities (Leviticus 26:30). It evidently involves a sore disparagement of idol worship. The etymological meaning is "things rolled," which may be variously interpreted as "idol blocks" (Gesenius), or "doll images" (Ewald).

Verse 3. - Out of the north. There was a peculiar mystery attaching to the north in the Hebrew mind, as, in fact, the word very for "north" in Hebrew (literally, the hidden) indicates. The burnt offering was to be sacrificed on the north side of the altar (Leviticus 1:11), and the four cherubim, in the vision of Ezekiel, are described as coming from the north (Ezekiel 1:4). The horror with which Babylon was regarded was intensified, apparently, by its northern position (Jeremiah 1:14), and now the "hidden" north again pours forth its swarms of warriors against Babylon herself. They shall remove, they shall depart; rather, they are fled, they are gone; almost the same clause occurs in Jeremiah 9:10. The prediction is realized as past.

Verse 4. - In those days, etc. The destruction of Babylon is immediately followed by the deliverance of Israel. But the description of the latter is a remarkable one. We are by no means to regard it as an idealized picture of the return of the Jews under Zerubbabel, any more than we can suppose the glowing promises in the second part of Isaiah to have their sole fulfilment in that disappointing event. No; it is the characteristic of Messianic prophecy that, with "foreshortened perspective," the prophets represent as equally near events which are really separated by ages. In the Book of Isaiah, for instance, preliminary judgments are repeatedly described in terms which, properly speaking, only apply to the great final judgment. In fact, each great political revolution is a stage in the Divine drama of judgment, which will reach its close in the final cataclysm. And so too here (as well as in Isaiah 40-46.) the promise of mercy to Israel, which began to be fulfilled in the edict of Cyrus, is represented as if the still future conversion of the people of Israel were actually accomplished. The description reminds us of Jeremiah 3:18-21. Notice the penitence of the returning exiles, and the reunion of Israel and Judah (see on Jeremiah 3:18). Going and weeping; they shall go; rather, they shall go, weeping as they go.

Verse 5. - Thitherward; rather, hitherward: The prophet is evidently writing from Jerusalem (comp. Jeremiah 51:50). Let us join ourselves. A conjectural emendation (nilveh for nilvu, a difficult reading, meaning, perhaps, "join yourselves"). A perpetual covenant. The same phrase occurs in Jeremiah 32:40. The addition, "that shall not be forgotten," reminds us of "the ark of the covenant," which was "not to be remembered" (Jeremiah 3:16).

Verse 6. - Lost sheep. Not merely with reference to the scattering of the Captivity (as in Isaiah 27:13, where the Authorized Version has "ready to perish"), but to the transgressions of the Law of God, of which the Jews had been constantly guilty (comp. Psalm 119:176; Isaiah 53:6). Their shepherds... mountains. This is the marginal correction in the Hebrew Bible; the text has, "Their shepherds have caused them to go astray upon the seducing mountains" - a strange expression, which is, however, defended by Naegelsbach on the ground of Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:2, 23; Jeremiah 17:2. Their resting place; literally, their couching place; i.e. their pasture, Jehovah, at once their Pasture (ver. 7) and their true Shepherd (Psalm 23:1).

Verse 7. - We offend not; rather, we incur no guilt. As long as Israel lived a life consecrated to Jehovah, "all that devoured him incurred guilt" (Jeremiah 2:3). But now that he had wandered from Jehovah, and so forfeited his protection, his adversaries denied that they could be brought to account. Habitation of justice; strictly, pasture of righteousness. The same title is applied in Jeremiah 31:23 to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem's spiritual efficacy is only derivative; rest and life flow from Jehovah alone, who is, therefore, the true Pasture of his people. In the Hebrew, "Jehovah" is placed emphatically at the end of the verse. The hope of their fathers (comp. Psalm 22:4). To forsake Jehovah was an act of treason to the former generations.

Verse 8. - The prophet returns to the fate of Babylon. He exhorts the captive Israelites to flee in time, before the hostile army reaches the city (comp. Isaiah 48:20). Be as the he goats before the flocks; rather, as the rams, whose example is followed unhesitatingly by the flock. The "flocks" in this case are the strangers in Babylon (ver. 16).

Verse 9. - I will raise; literally, I will stir up (or, awaken); comp. Jeremiah 6:22; Isaiah 13:17. An assembly of great nations. So in a parallel prophecy, "the kingdoms of nations gathered together" (Isaiah 13:4). Callias in Ebers' learned story, 'The Egyptian Princess,' speaks of "an empire so casually heaped together, and consisting of seventy populations of different tongues and customs, as that of Persia." From thence; i.e. from the headquarters of the array of nations. As of a mighty expert man; rather, as of an expert warrior (or, mighty man). The marginal rendering of the Authorized Version represents a various reading of the Hebrew found in three old editions, and presupposed in the Targum and Vulgate, "one making childless," i.e. "a destroyer." The received reading, however, is self-evidently right. None shall return in vain. It seems doubtful whether this refers to the arrow or to the mighty man. The arrow may be said to "return [or, 'turn'] in vain" when it misses its aim or strikes the mark without piercing it (comp. 2 Samuel 1:22, where, however, it is the sword which is thus spoken of); the mighty man when he retires from the field defeated. This wider use of the phrase is sanctioned by Isaiah 55:11.

Verses 11-20. - Babylon's desolation and Israel's glorification. Verses 11, 12. - Because ye were glad, etc.; rather, Truly ye may be glad; truly ye may rejoice, ye spoilers of mine heritage; truly ye may leap as a heifer at grass, and neigh as steeds; yet your mother, etc. Your triumph shall be of short duration; disgrace follows closely upon its heels. "Your mother" is a term for the nation regarded as a whole (comp. Isaiah 51:1; Hosea 2:2; Hosea 4:5). "At grass" is the reading adopted by the Septuagint and Vulgate; the pointed text has (the vowels alone are different), "(a heifer) that thresheth," i.e. allowed to eat its fill of corn, agreeably to the direction in Deuteronomy 25:4. It is not clear why the Authorized Version deserted the received pointing. Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness; rather, Behold, the hindermost of the nations! a wilderness, etc. The subject understood in the first part is obviously the people, in the second the land, of Babylon.

Verse 13. - All but the first clause of this verse is taken from Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 49:17.

Verse 14. - Put yourselves in array, etc. The Authorized Version, guided, perhaps, by considerations of rhythm, has misplaced the first stop, which ought to be after "bow." The Medes are referred to in a parallel prophecy as great archers (Isaiah 13:18).

Verse 15. - Shout against her; i.e. raise the battle cry (comp. Joshua 6:16; Isaiah 42:13). She hath given her hand. This action is generally mentioned as a pledge of friendship or a ratification of a promise (2 Kings 10:15; Ezekiel 17:18; Ezra 10:19); but the notion of surrender or submission would naturally follow (so in 1 Chronicles 29:24; 2 Chronicles 30:8). Dr. Payne Smith well quotes the words of Turnus, when begging his life of AEneas, "Vicisti, et victum tendere palmas Ausonii videre" ('AEneid,' 12:936). Her foundations. The word is difficult, but a comparison with the Syriac suggests the rendering, her walls. "Foundations" is obviously wrong.

Verse 16. - Cut off the sower, etc. "Babylon" here probably means Babylonia, for it is clear from ver. 12 that the curse belongs to the country as well as the city of Babylon; indeed, "Babylon" in ver. 13 seems to be used in the wider sense. Others think of the open spaces within the walls of Babylon, in which it is said that crops were raised to provision the city in case of a siege (see Rawlinson, 'Ancient Monarchies,' 2:518); but this is less natural. They shall turn, etc. The subject is, not the husbandmen, but the strangers in Babylonia; comp. the parallel passage, Isaiah 13:14, on which this passage is based. AEsehylus ('Pers.,' 53) speaks of the Πάμμικτος ὄχλος in Babylon. Whether brought by force from their homes, like the Jews, or voluntary residents for the sake of commerce, all should hurry from the doomed city.

Verse 17. - Israel is a scattered sheep, etc. Here a pause in the discourse occurs. The prophet returns to the present condition of Israel, who is likened to a sheep scared away from its fold by lions. The ruin wrought by the lions is described first as "devouring" and then as "breaking the bones" of Israel - in either case it is complete destruction, but the completeness is more emphasized by the second figure. In fact, when the "ten tribes" were carried captive, the elements of the theocracy still remained in the southern kingdom.

Verse 19. - The flock restored. His habitation is an unfortunate rendering, which obscures the beautiful figure; read, his pasture (as in ver. 7). The places mentioned were all famous for their rich pasturage (comp. Jeremiah 22:6; Isaiah 33:9; Micah 7:14 (especially); Ezekiel 34:13, 14; Song of Solomon 4:1).

Verse 20. - In those days, etc. An evangelical promise, reminding us of Jeremiah 31:34 and Jeremiah 33:8, and of the combination of spiritual with temporal blessings in the latter part of Isaiah.

Verses 21-28. - The punishment of Babylon, corresponding to her crimes. Verse 21. - The land of Merathaim; i.e. of double rebellion. Probably enough an actual geographical name may lie at the root of this singular expression; but we are not able at present to say what it was. The prophet has, at any rate, modified it in such a way as to convey a definite meaning, symbolic of the character of Babylon (comp. on ver. 31). What was this meaning? According to Gesenius, there is an allusion to the two great blows inflicted on Israel and Judah by Assyria and Babylon respectively; but as these two powers were but the instruments of a higher Hand, this explanation would seem to be inconsistent with the prophetic teaching. Dahler, De Wette, and Keil take the two rebellions to be the spiritual ones of idolatry and pride; and there is no obvious objection to this. But the dual may be simply intended to express intensity; comp. ch. 17:18, "Destroy them with double destruction" (see note). The inhabitants of Pekod; i.e. of punishment. But here too a geographical name very probably lies underneath. The Taylor cylinder inscription of Sennacherib mentions a Pukudu ( = Pekod), together with Havrann (Hauran) and Nabatu (Nabathaeans); but this was the name of a tribe. In Ezekiel 23:23 we read, "The Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa," etc.; and in 'Records of the Past,' 11:92, we find a town Pikudu mentioned, lying to the south of Babylon, which may, perhaps, have given its name to a district, and to this district the prophet not improbably alludes. M. Halevy conjectures that the event which corresponds to the prophecy is the decisive battle which virtually terminated the Babylonian empire. According to the newly discovered Cyrus inscription, this battle was fought near a place called Rutu, which appears to have been situated in the neighbourhood of Pukudu ('Records,' l.c.). About the symbolic meaning there can be no doubt: Pekod is a worthy pendant to Merathaim. Sin and punishment are so closely connected in the prophetic mind that one word sometimes covers both notions. It is doubtful, for instance, whether the better rendering of Isaiah 5:18 is "draw sin as with a cart rope" or "draw punishment."

Verse 23. - The hammer of the whole earth. So in Isaiah (Isaiah 14:5), "Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers; which smote peoples in passion with an unceasing stroke." In the next chapter a similar title is conferred upon Israel, with the right to retaliate upon Babylon all the evil which Babylon had done to Zion (Jeremiah 51:20-24). Compare the epithet Martel, "The Hammer," given to Charles, Duke of the Franks, on account of his great victory over the Saraoens at Tours; it is tempting to add "Makkabi," the epithet of Judas (Maccabaeus), but the k is not the same letter as that in maqqab, hammer.

Verse 24. - I have laid a snare for thee. It was very natural, as long as Cyrus's own account of the capture of Babylon was unknown, to refer for a fulfilment to the stratagem which, as Herodotus relates, that king employed, viz. diverting the waters of the Euphrates into an already existing reservoir, and entering the city unexpectedly by the river channel (Herod., 1:191). But the cylinder inscription, translated by Sir H. Rawlinson in 1880, shows that Babylon opened its gates of its own accord, on hearing the defeat and capture of Nabonidus. There is no occasion to look for any further fulfilment of the prophecy than the surprise which must ever come upon the bystander when he sees a mighty empire suddenly pass into the hands of its enemies. The tenses in this verse are not very happily rendered. It would be better to translate, I laid a snare for thee, and thou wast taken, O Babylon, unawares; thou wast found, etc., because thou hadst striven against the Lord.

Verse 25. - Hath opened his armoury. A truly grand figure. The north country (the "hidden" part of the earth, as it was called in Hebrew) is regarded by the prophet as a storehouse of young and "inexhaustible" nations, from which Jehovah can at any time "bring forth weapons of his indignation." The latter phrase, occurs again in the parallel prophecy (Isaiah 13:5), where it is evidently applied to the army of Medo-Persian invaders. For this is the work, etc.; rather, For the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a work.

Verse 26. - Come against her; rather, Come to her. Dr. Payne Smith infers that Babylon has already fallen, and that the persons addressed are not warriors only, but plunderers of every kind. This is almost too subtle. The prepositions "to" and "against' (literally, upon) are so frequently interchanged (comp. Jeremiah 46:22; Jeremiah 49:9). From the utmost border; rather, all together; it is an idiom expressing universality. Those who are spoken of are regarded as a totality, "from the utmost end" of which its members come. Cast her up as heaps; rather, Cast it up as sheaves; i.e. ransack the repositories of Babylon's wealth, and heap it up like corn; last of all, destroy her (rather, it) utterly. The verb is a very emphatic one. Its primary meaning is "to cut off, or shut off." Hence kherem, a devoted thing, is applied in the Law to that which is "tabooed," as it were, cut off from any but sacred uses. In Leviticus 27:21 it is used of a field wholly appropriated to the sanctuary, and in 1 Samuel 15:21 and 1 Kings 20:42 to living beings doomed to destruction. Destruction is generally a part of the meaning; but it is not merely destruction, but an act of homage to the Divine justice.

Verse 27. - In this verse we are told that the kherem, i.e. the Divine ban, falls upon the entire male population, as in the holy wars of Joshua (Joshua 6:21; Joshua 11:11, 20). All her bullocks. As in Jeremiah 51:40 and Isaiah 34:6, the doomed people is likened to sacrificial victims (comp. Jeremiah 46:10). The same fact is described without figure in Jeremiah 48:15. Go down to the slaughter; i.e. be forced down to the slaughtering trough.

Verse 28. - The voice of them that flee, etc.; rather, Hark! those that flee, etc. A confused murmur indicates the approach of the fugitives with their great tidings. The vengeance of his temple; i.e. the punishment due to Babylon for burning the temple; comp. next verse, also ver. 15, "The vengeance of the Lord," and Jeremiah 51:11.

Verses 29-40. - The completeness of Babylon's destruction. Verse 29. - Call together the archers, etc. A dramatic way of indicating that the siege is about to begin.

Verse 30. - With the exception of "her" in the second clause, a repetition of Jeremiah 49:26.

Verse 31. - O thou most proud; rather, O Pride! Just as in ver. 21 Babylon is called Merathaim, and as Egypt is, in Hebrew poetry, called Rahab, i.e. "boisterousness" or "arrogance" (Isaiah 30:7; Isaiah 51:9; Job 26:12; Psalm 87:4; Psalm 89:10).

Verse 32. - The most proud; rather, Pride. Raise him up. For the sake of uniformity, "her" would be better; for it is Babylon who is spoken cf. There is an inconsistency in the use of the persons in the original. Elsewhere in this description Babylon is feminine; here it is masculine, to agree with "Pride."

Verse 33. - At the end of ver. 32 a pause occurs in the discourse. Then the prophet takes up the theme again with renewed emphasis. Were oppressed; rather, are oppressed. Because the oppression of Israel and Judah still continues, whereas Israel has by this time been amply punished ("received double," Isaiah 40:2) for her transgressions, Jehovah will himself interpose. He is, in fact, Israel's Goel ("Redeemer"), i.e. charged, like the next of kin, with the duty of recovering thy rights and avenging thy wrongs (comp. Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 47:4). On the Goel, see Leviticus 25:25; Ruth 4:6; Numbers 30:19.

Verse 34. - That he may give rest to the land; rather, to the earth. Babylon was one of the great world empires; we can hardly dispense with this convenient Germanism. It was the wont of the Chaldeans, as Habakkuk puts it (Habakkuk 1:6), "to walk through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that were not theirs." Observe the striking contrast - "rest" to the world which has been too long deprived of it, and "disquiet" to those who have hitherto spread it far and wide (comp. Isaiah 14:2, 3).

Verses 35-38. - No human aid avails against so terrible a foe; therefore Jehovah calls upon his Sword (see on Jeremiah 47:6) to avenge the cause of his people. Verse 35. - A sword is, etc., should rather be, Sword upon the Chaldea, it is an exclamation equivalent to "Let the Sword come upon the Chaldeans" - that sword which never "returns empty." The wise men are, partly the astronomers and astrologers at the various observatories in Babylonia, whose duty it was to send in monthly reports of the appearances in the sky, which were regarded as having an occult political significance (comp. Isaiah 47:13). In the next verse they are called liars, or praters. In Isaiah 44:25 this word stands parallel to "diviners." Possibly "liars" may be a wider term than "wise men," and includes an inferior grade of pretenders to "wisdom."

Verse 37. - The mingled people; rather, the foreign peoples. Even if in Jeremiah 25:20 the Hebrew 'erebh is an ethnographical term reminding us of the Assyrian Urbi used of Bedouin tribes, it is clear that no such explanation will suit here (see on Jeremiah 25:20).

Verse 38. - A drought. The Maasoretic critics, in their prosaic realism, were unable to see how a "sword" could be "upon the waters;" hence they altered khereb into khoreb. But the sword is merely a symbol of the Divine vengeance, and may be interpreted differently according to the exigencies of the context. Render, Sword upon the waters. They are mad upon their idols; rather, through Terrors they befool themselves. "Terrors" is a synonym for the gods of the heathen, which inspired a feeling of awe rather than affection, unlike Jehovah as he revealed himself through the authors of the psalms and prophecies.

Verse 39. - Parallel passages: Isaiah 34:14; Isaiah 13:20-22. The wild beasts of the desert; rather, wild cats (so Bochart, 'Hierozoicon,' p. 862). Wild beasts of the islands; rather, jackals. Owls; rather, ostriches.

Verse 40. - A verbal copy of Jeremiah 49:18.

Verse 41- Jeremiah 51:4. - The instruments of the judgment. The section is partly a cento from other prophecies. Thus vers. 41-43 are a repetition of Jeremiah