20“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
21With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.
22With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.
23With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.
20 “You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.
22 With you I will break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein. With you I will break in pieces man and woman. With you I will break in pieces the old man and the youth. With you I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin.
23 With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock. With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke. With you I will break in pieces governors and deputies.
KJVKing James Version
20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;
22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
20 Thou art My maul and weapons of war, and with thee will I shatter the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
21 And with thee will I shatter the horse and his rider, and with thee will I shatter the chariot and him that rideth therein;
22 And with thee will I shatter man and woman, and with thee will I shatter the old man and the youth, and with thee will I shatter the young man and the maid;
23 And with thee will I shatter the shepherd and his flock, and with thee will I shatter the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee will I shatter governors and deputies.
Isaiah 41:15-16(v20)Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make…
Micah 4:13(v20)Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; and you will beat in pieces many…
Isaiah 37:26(v20)“ ‘Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours…
Zechariah 9:13-14(v20)For indeed I bend Judah as a bow for me. I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece,…
Exodus 15:1(v21)Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, “I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. He has…
Show all 35 cross-references
2 Chronicles 36:17(v22)Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had…
Isaiah 14:5-6(v20)Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers, who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled…
Jeremiah 27:5-7(v20)‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give…
Isaiah 10:5(v20)Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
Jeremiah 25:9(v20)behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my…
Jeremiah 50:23(v20)How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
Matthew 22:7(v20)When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Isaiah 13:5(v20)They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
Isaiah 13:18(v22)Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
Jeremiah 25:11(v20)This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
Zechariah 10:5(v21)They shall be as mighty men, treading down muddy streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because Yahweh is with them; and the riders…
1 Samuel 15:3(v22)Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing…
Isaiah 10:15(v20)Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who…
Ezekiel 9:6(v22)Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at…
Micah 5:10(v21)“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses out from among you, and will destroy your chariots.
Nahum 2:13(v21)“Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions;…
Haggai 2:22(v21)I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and…
Zechariah 12:4(v21)In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of…
Deuteronomy 32:25(v22)Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
Psalms 46:9(v21)He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
Isaiah 13:16(v22)Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
Jeremiah 6:11(v22)Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of…
Jeremiah 51:57(v23)I will make her princes, her wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men drunk. They will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not…
Lamentations 2:11(v22)My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,…
Revelation 19:18(v21)that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them,…
Exodus 15:21(v21)Miriam answered them, “Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
Psalms 76:6(v21)At your rebuke, God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
Isaiah 20:4(v22)so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with…
Jeremiah 50:37(v21)A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A…
Ezekiel 39:20(v21)You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war,” says the Lord Yahweh.’
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn v20The Prophet here obviates the doubts of many; for…
The Prophet here obviates the doubts of many; for as he had spoken of the destruction of Babylon, it might have been readily objected, that the monarchy which was fortified by so many defenses, and which had subjugated all the neighboring nations, was impregnable. Hence the Prophet here shows that the power and wealth of Babylon were no hindrances that God should not destroy it whenever he pleased; for it is an argument derived from what is contrary. We have before seen that God roots up what he has planted, (Jeremiah 45:4;) and then we have seen the metaphor of the potter and his vessels. When the Prophet went down to the potter, he saw a vessel formed and then broken at the will and pleasure of the potter (Jeremiah 18:2-4.) So also now God shows that the destruction was as it were in his hand, because the Chaldeans had not raised themselves to eminence through their own power, but he had raised them, and employed them for his own purpose. In short, he compares the Babylonians in this passage to a formed vessel, and he makes himself the potter:
“I am he who has raised Babylon to so great a height; it therefore belongs to me to pull it down whensoever it pleases me.”
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We now understand the design of this passage, though the Prophet employs different words.
He says that Babylon was a hammer and weapons of war to break in pieces the nations. The verb נפף, nuphets, means to break in pieces, and carelessly to scatter here and there, and also violently to scatter. He says then, “I have by thee scattered the nations, and by thee have destroyed kingdoms.” But as the Chaldeans had enjoyed so many victories and had subjugated so many nations, he adds, I have by thee broken in pieces the horse and his ride,; the chariot and its rider; and then, I have broken in pieces men and women, old men and children, the young men and the maidens, the shepherds and also their flocks He enumerates here almost all kinds of men. He then mentions husbandmen and yokes of oxen, or of horses; and lastly, he mentions captains and rulers All these things are said by way of concession; but yet the Prophet reminds us that no difficulty would prevent God to destroy Babylon, because Babylon in itself was nothing. According to this sense, then, it is called a hammer. In short, the Prophet takes away the false opinion which might have otherwise disturbed weak minds, as though Babylon was wholly invincible. He shows at the same time that God executed his judgments on all nations by means of Babylon. Thus the faithful might have been confirmed; for otherwise they must have necessarily been cast down when they regarded the formidable power of Babylon; but when they heard that it was only a hammer, and that they would not have been broken in pieces by the Babylonians had they not been armed from above, or rather had they not been driven on by a celestial power, it then appeared that the calamity which the Jews had suffered was nothing more than a punishment inflicted by God’s hand. When, therefore, they heard this, it was no small consolation; it kept them from succumbing under their miseries, and from being swallowed up with sorrow and despair. But it now follows, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v20He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did…
He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did before call the Babylonians his hammer, Jer. 50:23.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv20–23Jer 51:20 Thou [art] my battle axe [and] weapons…
Jer 51:20 Thou [art] my battle axe [and] weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
Ver. 20. Thou art my battle axe, and weapon of war.] Cestra fuisti mihi, Thou hast been my pole axe, such as horsemen use to batter their enemies’ helmets and other harness.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv20, 23Interpreters are here divided, whether by
Interpreters are here divided, whether by
thou or
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thee in this and the following verses to understand Cyrus, whom God made use of to destroy Babylon and many other places, or Babylon. Our translators understand it of Cyrus, and therefore speak of the future tense,
will I. The Hebrew text will not resolve us; I rather incline to interpret it of Babylon, as indeed the most do, and so it should be, Thou hast been, and art, for that is the sense; Cyrus and Darius were not yet in being. God had made use of Babylon like a hammer or battle-axe to break many nations in pieces.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv20–23And with thee also will I break in pieces…
And with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman,.... Or, "have broken"; having no respect to any sex, and to the propagation of posterity:
and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; not sparing men of any age, however useful they might be, the one for their wisdom, the other for their strength:
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and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; who by procreation of children might fill and strengthen commonwealths.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v23Break in pieces - The sense of all these…
Break in pieces - The sense of all these three verses is the same; that God had made use, and was still making use of the Babylonians to destroy many nations, to spoil much people, wasting their goods, routing their armies, killing all sorts of their inhabitants.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v20Verse 20. Thou art my battle axe] I believe…
Verse 20. Thou art my battle axe] I believe Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is called, Jer 50:23, the hammer of the whole earth. Others think the words are spoken of Cyrus. All the verbs are in the past tense: "With thee have I broken in pieces," &c., &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v20Jer 51:20-24. Thou art my battle-axe, &c. — Cyrus,…
Jer 51:20-24. Thou art my battle-axe, &c. — Cyrus, or rather the army of the Medes and Persians, seems to be intended here; compare Jer 51:11-12; as elsewhere the instrument of God’s vengeance is called a sword, a rod, a scourge. This army, with Cyrus, their general, God here says he will make use of for destroying the whole power of the Babylonish empire, and all orders and degrees of men in it, as he had formerly made that empire the executioner of his judgments upon other countries, Jer 50:23. “Or else,” says Lowth, “the words may be understood of the church, and imply, that God will destroy all those earthly powers and kingdoms which are adversaries to his truth and people, in order to establish and advance his church. This will be fulfilled at the fall of mystical Babylon, when God’s kingdom shall break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, in the destruction of that remnant of the fourth monarchy, according to Daniel’s prophecy, Dan 2:44.” And I will render unto Babylon all their evil (see Jer 51:11, and Jer 50:28) that they have done in Zion, in your sight — This may either refer to the evil done at Jerusalem and in Judea, by the Chaldeans, in the sight of God’s people, or to the open and public manner in which judgment would be executed on Babylon.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv20, 23Or, Thou art my maul, weapons of war etc.…
Or, Thou art my maul, weapons of war etc. The maul or mace Pro 25:18 only differs from the hammer Jer 50:23 in being used for warlike purposes.
Omit the “will” in “will I break.” The crushing of the nations was going on at the time when the prophet wrote. Most commentators consider that Babylon was the mace of God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v20Thou, Cyrus, (Grotius) or more commonly the Chaldeans are…
Thou, Cyrus, (Grotius) or more commonly the Chaldeans are understood.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v2020 A hammer13 art thou to me, weapons of…
14. HOW THE LORD PUNISHES HIS OWN HAMMER
Jer_51:20-24
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20 A hammer13 art thou to me, weapons of war,
And with thee I break nations in pieces,
And with thee I overthrow kingdoms.
21 And with thee I break in pieces the horse and his rider,
And with thee I break in pieces the chariot and its driver.
22 And with thee I break in pieces man and woman,
And with thee I break in pieces old man and boy,
And with thee I break in pieces young man and maiden,
23 And with thee I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock,
And with thee I break in pieces the husbandman and his team,
And with thee I break in pieces magistrates and rulers.14
24 And I recompense to Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea all the evil,
Which they have done to Zion before your eyes, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
A picture very clearly complete in itself. The prophet sees in spirit a large number of persons before him who are to serve the Lord for a hammer, in order therewith to dash to pieces nations and kingdoms, especially, however. Babylon in all its parts, and thus to recompense to it what it has inflicted, on Zion.
Jer_51:20-24. A hammer … saith Jehovah. In Jer_50:23 Babylon was called “the hammer of the whole earth,” and it might certainly be addressed again in the same way here. Many expositors, the LXX., Jerome, Theodoret at their head, are of opinion that it is so. But I, it should be observed that another word and, indeed, one formed ad hoc is chosen. Comp. Textual Note 1. May not the prophet have intended to indicate by using another word, specially formed for the occasion, that he meant another hammer than that spoken of before in Jer 50:23? 2. The perfects with the Vau consecutive may, indeed, be taken in a past sense (comp. Jer_18:4; Jer_19:4-5; Jer_37:11), but this construction is not normal. The imperfect would be more correct. 3. וְשִׁלַּמְתֵּי, Jer_51:24, must at any rate be taken in a future sense. Since, however, this word is a perfectly similar form to the previous perfects and similarly construed, there is a presumption that the perfects are also to be rendered as futures. 4. In Jer_50:21 we found an ideal person addressed, of which the Lord would make use as His instrument in the chastisement of Babylon. It is to the same that the prophet here tarns. That he referred in thought to 50.21, 22, is evident from מַכִּץ, which he opposes to כַּטִיש there used. He here, however, extends the task appointed to the hammer, for it is not to visit Babylon only, as in Jer_50:21, but many nations and kingdoms. Who this chosen instrument was to be the prophet was ignorant.—To take כִּלֵיweapon, as singular for כְּלִי, with Hitzig and Graf, appears to me unnecessary. The former is not a single weapon, but comprehends all weapons of war. The objects enumerated as to be broken form in a certain measure a circle, proceeding from the great and strong to the small and weak, and then rising from the young man and maiden again to the great and strong.—Chaldea. Kasdim as the name of the country, as in Jer_50:10 coll. Jer_51:35.—Before your eyes, is to be referred to I recompense, since it would be superfluous referred to have done, and expresses the thought that those who now hear of the destruction of Babylon will also see it, and thus be convinced by ocular demonstration of the truth of Jeremiah’s prediction.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. “Daniel’s Babylonian empire resumes, as it were, the thread which was broken off with the tower-erection and kingdom of Nimrod. In the Babylonian tower-building the whole of the then existing humanity was united against God; with the Babylonian kingdom began the period of the universal monarchies, which again aspired after an atheistical union of entire humanity. Babylon has since and even to the Revelation (Jeremiah 18) remained the standing type of this world.” Auberlen, Der proph. Daniel, S. 230.
2. For what reason does Babylon appear as a type of the world? Why not Nineveh, or Persepolis, or Tyre, or Memphis, or Rome? Certainly not because Babylon was greater, more glorious, more powerful or prouder and more ungodly than those cities and kingdoms. Nineveh especially was still greater than Babylon (comp. Duncker, Gesch. d. Alterth. I. S. 474, 5), and Assyria was not less hostile to the theocracy, having carried away into captivity the northern and larger half of the people of Israel. Babylon is qualified for this representation in two ways: 1. because it is the home of worldly princedom and titanic arrogance (Gen_10:8; Gen_11:1-4); 2. because Babylon destroyed the centre of the theocracy, Jerusalem, the temple and the theocratic kingdom, and first assumed to be the single supreme power of the globe.
3. “When God has used a superstitious, wicked and tyrannical nation long enough as His rod, He breaks it in pieces and finally throws it into the fire. For even those whom He formerly used as His chosen anointed instruments He then regards as but the dust in the streets or as chaff before the wind.” Cramer.
4. “No monarch is too rich, too wicked, too strong for God the Lord. And He can soon enlist and engage soldiers whom He can use against His declared enemies.” Cramer.
5. “Israel was founded on everlasting foundations, even God’s word and promise. The sins of the people brought about that it was laid low in the dust, but not without hope of a better resurrection. Babylon, on the other hand, must perish forever, for in it is the empire of evil come to its highest bloom. Jeremiah owns the nothingness of all worldly kingdoms, since they are all under this national order to serve only for a time. We are to be subject to them and seek their welfare for the sake of the souls of men, whom God is educating therein; a Christian however cannot be enthusiastic for them after the manner of the ancient heathen nor of ancient Israel, for here we have no abiding city, our citizenship is in heaven. The kingdoms of this world are no sanctuaries for us and we supplicate their continuance only with the daily bread of the fourth petition. Jeremiah applies many words and figures to Babylon which he has already used in the judgments on other nations, thus to intimate that in Babylon all the heathenism of the world culminates, and that here also must be the greatest anguish. What, however, is here declared of Babylon must be fulfilled again on all earthly powers in so far as, treading in its footprints, they take flesh for their arm and regard the material of this world as power, whether they be called states or churches.” Diedrich.
6. On Jer_50:2. In putting into the mouth of Israel, returning from Babylon, the call to an everlasting covenant with Jehovah, the prophet causes them 1. to confess that they have forgotten the first covenant; 2. he shows us that the time of the new covenant begins with the redemption from the Babylonish captivity. He was far, however, from supposing that this redemption would be only a weak beginning, that the appearance of the Saviour would be deferred for centuries, that Israel would sink still deeper as an external πολιτεία, and that finally the Israel of the new covenant would itself appear as a μυστήριον, εἰς ὃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι (1Pe_1:9-12).
7. From what Jeremiah has already said in Jer_31:31-34 of the new covenant we see that its nature and its difference from the old is not unknown to him. Yet he knows the new covenant only in general. He knows that it will be deeply spiritual and eternal, but how and why it will be so is still to him part of the μυστήριον.
8. On Jer_50:6. Jeremiah here points back to Jeremiah 23. Priests, kings and prophets, who should discharge the office of shepherds, prove to be wolves. Yea, they are the worst of wolves, who go about in official clothing. There is therefore no more dangerous doctrine than that of an infallible office. Jer_14:14; Mat_7:15; Mat_23:2-12.
9. On Jer_50:7. It is the worst condition into which a church of God can come, when the enemies who desolate it can maintain that they are in the right in doing so. It is, however, a just nemesis when those who will not hear the regular messengers of God must be told by the extraordinary messengers of God what they should have done. Comp. Jer_40:2-3.
10. On Jer_50:8. “Babylon is opened, and it must be abandoned not clung to, for the captivity is a temporary chastisement, not the divine arrangement for the children of God. God’s people must in the general redemption go like rams before the herd of the nations, that these may also attach themselves to Israel, as this was fulfilled at the time of Christ in the first churches and the apostles, who now draw the whole heathen world after them to eternal life. Here the prophet recognizes the new humanity, which proceeds from the ruins of the old, in which also ancient Israel leads the way; thus all, who follow it, become Israel.” Diedrich.—“The heathen felt somewhat of the divine punishment when they overcame so easily the usually so strongly protected nation. But Jeremiah shows them still how they deceived themselves in thinking that God had wholly rejected His people, for of the eternal covenant of grace they certainly understood nothing.” Heim and Hoffmann on the Major Prophets.
11. On Jer_50:18. “The great powers of the world form indeed the history of the world, but they have no future. Israel, however, always returns home to the dear and glorious land. The Jews might as a token of this return under Cyrus; the case is however this, that the true Holy One in Israel, Christ, guides us back to Paradise, when we flee to His hand from the Babylon of this world and let it be crucified for us.” Diedrich.
12. On Jer_50:23. “Although the Chaldeans were called of God for the purpose of making war on the Jewish nation on account of their multitudinous sins, yet they are punished because they did it not as God with a pure intention, namely, to punish the wrong in them and keep them for reformation; for they were themselves greater sinners than the Jews and continued with impenitence in their sins. Therefore they could not go scot-free and remain unpunished. Moreover, they acted too roughly and dealt with the Jews more harshly than God had commanded, for which He therefore fairly punished them. As God the Lord Himself says (Isa_47:6): When I was angry with My people I gave them into thine hands; but thou shewedst them no mercy. Therefore it is not enough that God’s will be accomplished, but there must be the good intention in it, which God had, otherwise such a work may be a sin and call down the divine punishment upon it.” Würtemb. Summ.
13. On Jer_50:31-34. “God calls Babylon Thou Pride, for pride was their inward force and impulse in all their actions. But worldly pride makes a Babylon and brings on a Babylon’s fate .… Pride must fall, for it is in itself a lie against God, and all its might must perish in the fire; thus will the humble and meek remain in possession of the earth: this has a wide application through all times, even to eternity.” Diedrich.
14. On Jer_51:33. “Israel is indeed weak and must suffer in a time of tyranny; it cannot help itself, nor needs it to do so, for its Redeemer is strong, His name The Lord Zebaoth—and He is, now, having assumed our flesh, among us and conducts our cause so that the world trembles.” Diedrich.
15. On Jer_50:45. “An emblem of the destruction of anti-christian Babylon, which was also the true hammer of the whole world. This has God also broken and must and will do it still more. And this will the shepherd-boys do, as is said here in Jer_51:45 (according to Luther’s translation), that is, all true teachers and preachers.” Cramer.
16. On Jeremiah 51. “The doctrines accord in all points with the previous chapter. And the prophet Jeremiah both in this and the previous chapter does nothing else but make out for the Babylonians their final discharge and passport, because they behaved so valiantly and well against the people of Judah, that they might know they would not go unrecompensed. For payment is according to service. And had they done better it would have gone better with them. It is well that when tyrants succeed in their evil undertakings they should not suppose they are God’s dearest children and lean on His bosom, since they will yet receive the recompense on their crown, whatever they have earned.” Cramer.
17. [“Though in the hand of Babylon is a golden cup; she chooses such a cup, in order that men’s eyes may be dazzled with the glitter of the gold, and may not inquire what it contains. But mark well, in the golden cup of Babylon is the poison of idolatry, the poison of false doctrines, which destroy the souls of men. I have often seen such a golden cup, in fair speeches of seductive eloquence: and when I have examined the venomous ingredients of the golden chalice, I have recognized the cup of Babylon.” Origen in Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
“The seat and throne of Anti-christ is expressly named Babylon, namely, the city of Rome, built on the seven hills (Rev_17:9). Just as Babylon brought so many lands and kingdoms under its sway and ruled them with great pomp and pride (the golden cup, which made all the world drunk, was Babylon in the hand of the Lord (Jer_51:7), and all the heathen drank of the wine and became mad)—so has the spiritual Babylon a cup in its hand, full of the abomination and uncleanness of its whoredom, of which the kings of the earth and all who dwell on the earth have been made drunk. As it is said of Babylon that she dwells by great waters and has great treasures, so writes John of the Romish Babylon, that it is clothed in silk and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls (Rev_18:12). Of Babylon it is said that the slain in Israel were smitten by her; so also the spiritual Babylon is become drunk with the blood of the saints (Rev_17:6). Just, however, as the Chaldean Babylon is a type of the spiritual in its pride and despotism, so also is it a type of the destruction which will come upon it. Many wished to heal Babylon but she would not be healed; so many endeavor to support the ruinous anti-christian Babylon, but all in vain. For as Babylon was at last so destroyed as to be a heap of stones and abode of dragons, so will it be with anti-christian Babylon. Of this it is written in Rev_14:8 : She is fallen, fallen, that great city, for she has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. And again, Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils and a hold of all foul and hateful birds (Rev_18:2). As the inhabitants of Babylon were admonished to flee from her, that every man might deliver his soul (Jer_51:6)—and again, My people, go ye out from the midst of her and deliver every man his soul, etc. (Jer_51:45)—so the Holy Spirit admonishes Christians almost in the same words to go out from the spiritual Babylon, that they be not polluted by her sins and at the same time share in her punishment. For thus it is written in Rev_18:4, I heard, says John, a voice from heaven saying, Go ye out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins reach unto heaven and God remembers her iniquities.” Wurtemb. Summarien.
18. On Jer_51:5. “A monarch can sooner make an end of half a continent than draw a nail from a hut which the Lord protects.—And if it is true that Kaiser Rudolph, when he revoked the toleration of the Picards and the same day lost one of his principal forts, said, ‘I thought it would be so, for I grasped at God’s sceptre’ (Weismanni, Hist. Eccl. Tom. II. p. 320)—this was a sage remark, a supplement to the words of the wise.” Zinzendorf.
19. On Jer_51:9. We heal Babylon, but she will not be healed. Babylon is an outwardly beautiful but inwardly worm-eaten apple. Hence sooner or later the foulness must become noticeable. So is it with all whose heart and centre is not God. All is inwardly hollow and vain. When this internal vacuity begins to render itself externally palpable, when here and there a rent or foul spot becomes visible, then certainly come the friends and admirers of the unholy form and would improve, cover up, sew up, heal. But it does not avail. When once there is death in the body no physician can effect a cure.
20. On Jer_51:17; Jer_51:19-20. “The children of God have three causes why they may venture on Him. 1. All men are fools, their treasure is it not; 2. The Lord is their hammer; He breaks through everything, and 3, they are an instrument in His hand, a heritage; in this there is happiness.” Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer_51:41-44. “How was Sheshach thus won, the city renowned in all the world thus taken? No one would have thought it possible, but God does it. He rules with wonders and with wonders He makes His church free. Babylon is a wonder no longer for its power, but for its weakness. We are to know the world’s weakness even where it still appears strong. A sea of hostile nations has covered Babylon. Her land is now a desolation. God takes Bel, the principal idol of Babylon, symbolizing its whole civil powers in hand, and snatches his prey from his teeth. Our God is stronger than all worldly forces, and never leaves us to them.” Diedrich.
22. On Jer_51:58. “Yea, so it is with all walls and towers, in which God’s word is not the vital force, even though they be entitled churches and cathedrals … God’s church alone possesses permanence through His pure word.” Diedrich.
23. On Jer_51:60-64. When we wish to preserve an archive safely, we deposit it in a record-office where it is kept in a dry place that no moisture may get to it. Seraiah throws his book-roll into the waters of the Euphrates, which must wash it away, dissolve and destroy it. But this was of no account. The main point was that he, Seraiah, as representative of the holy nation had taken solemn stock of the word of God against Babylon, and as it were taken God at His word, and reminded Him of it. In this manner the matter was laid up in the most enduring and safest archive that could be imagined; it was made a case of honor with the omniscient and omnipotent God. Such matters can, however, neither be forgotten, nor remain in dead silence, nor be neglected. They must be brought to such an end as the honor of God requires.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_50:2. This text may be used on the feast of the Reformation, or any other occasion with reference to a rem bene gestam. The Triumph of the Good Cause, 1. over what enemies it is gained; 2. to what it should impel us; (a) to the avoidance of that over which we new triumph; (b) to the grateful proclamation of what the Lord has done for us, by word and by deed.
2. On Jer_50:4-8. The deliverance of Israel from the Babylonian captivity a type of the deliverance of the Church. 1. The Church must humbly acknowledge the captivity suffered as a judgment of God. 2. She must turn like Israel inwardly with an upright heart unto the Lord; 3. She must become like Israel to all men a pattern and leader to freedom.
3. On Jer_50:5. A confirmation sermon. “What is the hour of confirmation? 1. An hour which calls to separation; 2. an hour which leads to new connections; 3. an hour which fixes forever the old covenant with the soul’s friend.” Florey, 1853.
4. On Jer_50:18-20. Assyria and Babylon the types of all the spiritual enemies of the church as of individual Christians. Every one has his Assyria and his Babylon. Sin is the destruction of men. Forgiveness of sins is the condition of life, for only where forgiveness of sins is, is there life and blessedness. In Christ we find the forgiveness of sins. He destroys the handwriting. He washes us clean. He is also the good shepherd who leads our souls into green pastures, to the spiritual Carmel.
5. On Jer_50:31-32. Warning against pride. Babylon was very strong and powerful, rich and splendid. It seemed invincible by nature and by art. Had it not then a certain justification in being proud, at least towards men? No; for no one has to contend only with men. Every one who contends has the Lord either for his friend or his enemy. It is the Lord from whom cometh victory (Pro_21:31). He it is who teacheth our hands to fight (Psa_18:35; Psa_144:1). His strength is made perfect in weakness (2Co_12:9). He can make the lame (Isa_33:23; Mic_4:7) and mortally wounded (Jer_37:10) so strong that they overmaster the sound (comp. Jer_51:45). He can make one man put to flight a thousand (Deu_32:30; Isa_30:17). With him can one dash in pieces a troop and leap over a wall (Psa_18:29). No one accordingly should be proud. The word of the Lord, “I am against thee, thou proud one!” is a terrible word which no one should conjure up against himself.
6. On Jer_50:33-34. The consolation of the Church in persecution. 1. It suffers violence and injustice. 2. Its redeemer is strong.
7. On Jer_51:5. God the Lord manifests such favor to Israel as to declare Himself her husband (Jer_2:2; Jer_3:1). But now that Israel and Judah are in exile, it seems as if they were rejected or widowed women. This, however, is only appearance. Israel’s husband does not die. He may well bring a period of chastisement, of purification and trial on His people, but when this period is over, the Lord turns the handle, and smites those through whom He chastised Israel, when they had forgotten that they were not to satisfy their own desire, but only to accomplish the Lord’s will on Israel.
8. On Jer_51:6. A time may come when it is well to separate one’s self. For although it is said in Pro_18:1; he who separateth himself, seeketh that which pleaseth him and opposeth all that is good—and therefore separation, as the antipodes of churchliness, i.e., of churchly communion and humble subjection to the law of the co-operation of members (1Co_12:25 sqq.) is to be repudiated, yet there may come moments in the life of the church, when it will be a duty to leave the community and separate one’s self. Such a moment is come when the community has become a Babylon. It should, however, be noted that one should not be too ready with such a decision. For even the life of the church is subject to many vacillations. There are periods of decay, obscurations, as it were, comparable to eclipses of the stars, but to these, so long as the foundations only subsist, must always follow a restoration and return to the original brightness. No one is to consider the church a Babylon on account of such a passing state of disease. It is this only when it has withheld the objective divine foundations, the means of grace, the word and sacrament, altogether and permanently in their saving efficacy. Then, when the soul can no longer find in the church the pure and divine bread of life; it is well “to deliver the soul that it perish not in the iniquity of the church.” From this separation from the church is, however, to be carefully distinguished the separation within the church, from all that which is opposed to the healthy life of the church, and is therefore to be regarded as a diseased part of the ecclesiastical body. Such separation is the daily duty of the Christian. He has to perform it with respect to his private life in all the manifold relations, indicated to us in Mat_18:17; Rom_16:17; 1Co_5:9 sqq.; 2Th_3:6; Tit_3:10; 2Jn_1:10-11.—Comp. the article on Sects, by Palmer in Herzog, R.-Enc., XXI., S. 21, 22.
9. On Jer_51:10. The righteousness which avails before God. 1. Its origin (not our work or merit, but God’s grace in Christ); 2. Its fruit, praise of that which the Lord has wrought in us (a) by words, (b) by works.
10. On Jer_51:50. This text may be used at the sending out of missionaries or the departure of emigrants. Occasion may be taken to speak 1, of the gracious help and deliverance, which the Lord has hitherto shown to the departing; 2, they may be admonished to remain united in their distant land with their brethren at home by (a) remembering the Lord, i.e., ever remaining sincerely devoted to the Lord as the common shield of salvation; (b) faithfuly serving Jerusalem, i.e., the common mother of us all (Gal_4:26), the church, with all our powers in the proper place and measure, and ever keeping her in our hearts.
Footnotes:
[13]Jer_51:20.—מַכֵּץ (a participial form derived from the Hiphil. Comp. e.g., מַסְגֵר, and as a related synonym מֵכִּיץ, Pro_25:18) does not occur elsewhere.
[14]Jer_51:23.—כּחות. Comp. Jer_51:28; Jer_51:57; Eze_23:6; Eze_23:23; 1Ki_10:15; Neh_2:7; Ezr_8:36 Est_8:9. According to Benfey (Monatsnamen, S. 195), the word comes from the Sanscrit (Pakscha, socius, amicus), and is certainly related to the Arabic Pascha. Comp. Gesen., Thes., pag. 1100.—סגנים, which occurs only in the plural (Isa_41:25; Ezr_9:2; Neh_2:16, etc.), are likewise præfecti provinciarum. On the different derivations comp. Gesen. Thes., pag. 937.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22(See on Jer 50:23). "Break in pieces" refers to…
(See on Jer 50:23). "Break in pieces" refers to the "hammer" there (compare Nah 2:1, Margin). The club also was often used by ancient warriors.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v2020-24. Thou art — By “thou,” Ewald understands the…
20-24. Thou art — By “thou,” Ewald understands the king of Israel; Grotius, Cyrus and the Medes; Nagelsbach, an ideal person; Calmet and most expositors, Babylon. The last is to be preferred, and is supported by Jer_50:23. The enumeration of the things which this battle-hammer should break in pieces is an orderly one. 1) The nations and kingdoms. 2) The military forces — the horse and his rider, the chariot and his rider. 3) The people — man and woman… old and young…young man and… maid. 4) Occupations — shepherd… husbandman… captains and rulers.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv20, 2320. battle axe] mg. maul, a war-club, mace. “The…
20. battle axe] mg. maul, a war-club, mace. “The Assyrian mace was a short thin weapon, and must either have been made of a very tough wood, or—and this is more probable—of metal. It had an ornamented head, which was sometimes very beautifully modelled, and generally a strap or string at the lower end, by which it could be grasped with greater firmness.” (Rawlinson’s Anc. Mon. I. p. 458.) For this figure, as applied to Babylon, cp. Jer_50:23.
20–24. Is it (a) Cyrus, as conqueror of Babylon, or (b) Babylon herself, that is addressed? Jer_51:24 seems to support (a), but on the whole (b) is perhaps preferable. The future tenses can as well be rendered as presents, denoting what Babylon has hitherto been accustomed to do as the instrument of Jehovah. This view also harmonizes with Jer_51:14 (while we omit 15–19; see note there), as well as with Jer_51:25 ff., where Babylon is certainly the subject.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv20, 23(20) Thou art my battle ax . . .—Better,…
(20) Thou art my battle ax . . .—Better, my mace. The axe is not found on Assyrian monuments as a weapon of war till a comparatively late period. It is a question who is thus addressed—Babylon, or Cyrus as the destroyer of Babylon, or Israel. On the whole, the second seems the more probable answer. The “hammer of the whole earth” is broken by a mightier weapon than itself. (See Note on Jer_50:23.)
With thee will I break in pieces . . .—The tense, in this and in the following, should be the present. The force of the verb is multiplied by the emphatic iteration. All obstacles are to be crushed in the victorious march of the conqueror.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv20, 23Vers. 20-26. Israel is now to be Jehovah"s hammer,…
Vers. 20-26. Israel is now to be Jehovah"s hammer, striking down everything, even the Chaldean colossus. But though Babylon may be as great and as destructive as a volcanic mountain, it shall soon be quite burnt out.
My battle axe; or, my mace. The mace (for a picture of which, see Rawlinson, "Ancient Monarchies," 1:459) was a weapon constantly employed by the Assyrians and presumably by the Babylonian kings. The battle axe was much less frequently used. But who is addressed by this terrible title? The commentators are divided, some inclining to Babylon,
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(1) because Babylon was the last person addressed (see ver. 14), and
(2) because a similar title was given to Babylon in Jer_50:23: others to Israel, on the ground that the tenses are the same throughout the passage (vers. 20-24).
The latter view is probably the best. How could Babylon be said to shatter her own "governors" and "viceroys" (for the prophet deliberately chooses the Babylonian official names)? The argument from the context is not very weighty; for it is clear that the connection of the parts of this prophecy is very loose. We may assume, then, that ver. 20 begins a fresh paragraph, standing quite apart from that which precedes. The objection of Graf and Keil, is that Israel could not himself be styled a "mace," it being Israel"s destiny to be delivered by others. But is not a very similar statement made of Israel in Isa_41:15 Psa_149:7-9? (Kuenen offers a third explanation Cyrus.) The nations... kingdoms. First the great social organisms are mentioned; next comes the military power; next the population, according to sex, age, and class.
God"s battle axe.
I GOD SOMETIMES WORKS DESTRUCTION. He does not. delight in destruction. It is not his chief work. But he has performed it and he may again. When a thing is absolutely evil it is best that it should cease to be. For the prevention of further evil it must be destroyed. The Creator then becomes the destroyer.
II GOD USES HUMAN INSTRUMENTS. He might have sent death, as he created life, with a word. But he chose to use a weapon, "a battle axe," i.e. a human instrument. Thus
(1) he honours good men by making them his servants, and
(2) he counteracts the evil influence of bad men by overruling it for ends of Divine judgment.
III THEY WHO CANNOT SERVE GOD IN THE HIGHER WORK MAY YET SERVE HIM IN SOME NEEDFUL MISSION. The man who cannot become a prophet may act as "God"s battle axe." In God"s great kingdom there is work for all classes and kinds of men. Rough and rude natures may find some mission. Still the highest mission is not that. of destruction. The most worthy servant of God is he who follows Jesus Christ and "goes about doing good.
The Church God"s battle axe.
God ever employs instruments to accomplish his purposes. He is a God that "hideth" himself. Hence many see nothing but instruments, and forget, or deny, the hand that uses them. "That does not seem much of a sword;" said one, as he looked upon the treasured weapon of a great national hero and valiant soldier. Ah, but you do not see the hand that wielded it, was the just reply. So as we look on the agencies God employs, how feeble they seem to be! But think of the force behind them, and then the works they accomplished are explained. Now, this is true of all God"s works. Especially is it true in all the great spiritual achievements which we have heard of or seen. This verse refers to Israel, in reference to the idolatrous nations around them, and to Babylon especially. Israel was the unseen cause that led to the overthrow and destruction of one nation after another. For the Church"s sake God governs the world. "All things are yours." Now, note
I THE WITNESS OF HISTORY to the truth that God"s people are his "battle axe and weapons of war." "I came not to send peace upon earth, but a sword," said Jesus, and in the same sense as this verse declares that word is true. "Magna est veritas, et prevalebit," is another rendering of the same fact.
1. Before the birth of Christ the pure monotheistic faith of Israel had, after their captivity, begun its iconoclastic work. Over large portions of the then civilized world that faith began to permeate and cleave its way. So that the old idolatries were in many places stricken with a mortal blow before even he was proclaimed who was to draw all men unto him.
2. The downfall of paganism. Notwithstanding the many accretions of error and superstition with which the pure faith of Christ so soon became encumbered, there yet remained inherent in it and inseparable from it such vital and mighty energy that it smote as with a "battle axe" one falsehood after another, until they were well nigh all slain. The forces against her in that ancient world were simply tremendous, but the Church went forth conquering and to conquer. In vain the scorn of the great, the fires of awful persecution, the power of venerable superstition; in vain the hindrances which she herself put in her own way; the Church was still God"s destroying power against the false religions of that age, until at length the last emperor of Rome who endeavoured to revive paganism, Julian whom a corrupt hierarchy malignantly branded as "the apostate," though, in fact, he was less apostate than themselves confessed with his dying breath, "O Galilaean, thou hast conquered!" In all that long and heart-stirring conflict this declaration of the prophet was illustrated again and again.
3. In the Reformation. Not alone in those nations in which the Reformation principles took root, but in the Church of Rome herself, was the error and evil destroying power of the truth that dwelt in the hearts of God"s people made manifest. See in such a book as Ranke"s "History of the Popes" what vast difference and improvements were brought about in the Catholic Church itself by the awful discipline through which she had then to pass. Whatever stern censures may have to be passed on that Church since the days of the Reformation and they are neither few nor light yet candour must admit that they are far fewer and far lighter than those which the outraged conscience of Christendom heaped upon her in the generations before.
4. In all missionary and evangelistic triumphs over heathendom.
II THE WITNESS OF INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. We are wont to speak of the truth of God as "mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of sin and Satan." This is a Christian commonplace. And is it not true? What but this battle axe slew the giant sins that ruled and oppressed in each soul?
III THE SECRET OF THIS FORCE. What makes the Church God"s battle axe? We answer:
1. The truth that sustains her. The truth concerning God and our relations to him he our Father and we all his children.
2. The spirit that animates her; not one of hate or disregard to man, as was common before Christ came, but love love even towards the vilest for Christ"s sake.
3. The rule that regulates her. The heathen looked on with amazement at the blamelessness of life and the sanctity of character which the faith of the Church produced, and they felt and owned its power.
4. The love that constrains her. She ever "bore about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," and, mindful of that, she shrank from no suffering and refused no service.
5. The hope that cheers her. She wrought, not for a corruptible crown, but an incorruptible; and the hope, "that blessed hope," of her Lord"s appearing to receive and reward his people, cheered them on amid the awful sufferings which they were called on to bear. And still it is in proportion as these mighty motives animate the Church in the individual soul that faithful and effectual service is done for Christ against the many and mighty adversaries of God with which the world abounds. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv20, 22You are
You are
"You, the Babylonian army, are"
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With you I will smash
Yahweh speaks of punishing people as if he were smashing them with a hammer. AT: "With you I will punish" (See: Metaphor)
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On v20 The Prophet here obviates the doubts of many; for…
The Prophet here obviates the doubts of many; for as he had spoken of the destruction of Babylon, it might have been readily objected, that the monarchy which was fortified by so many defenses, and which had subjugated all the neighboring nations, was impregnable. Hence the Prophet here shows that the power and wealth of Babylon were no hindrances that God should not destroy it whenever he pleased; for it is an argument derived from what is contrary. We have before seen that God roots up what he has planted, (Jeremiah 45:4;) and then we have seen the metaphor of the potter and his vessels. When the Prophet went down to the potter, he saw a vessel formed and then broken at the will and pleasure of the potter (Jeremiah 18:2-4.) So also now God shows that the destruction was as it were in his hand, because the Chaldeans had not raised themselves to eminence through their own power, but he had raised them, and employed them for his own purpose. In short, he compares the Babylonians in this passage to a formed vessel, and he makes himself the potter:
“I am he who has raised Babylon to so great a height; it therefore belongs to me to pull it down whensoever it pleases me.”
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We now understand the design of this passage, though the Prophet employs different words.
He says that Babylon was a hammer and weapons of war to break in pieces the nations. The verb נפף, nuphets, means to break in pieces, and carelessly to scatter here and there, and also violently to scatter. He says then, “I have by thee scattered the nations, and by thee have destroyed kingdoms.” But as the Chaldeans had enjoyed so many victories and had subjugated so many nations, he adds, I have by thee broken in pieces the horse and his ride,; the chariot and its rider; and then, I have broken in pieces men and women, old men and children, the young men and the maidens, the shepherds and also their flocks He enumerates here almost all kinds of men. He then mentions husbandmen and yokes of oxen, or of horses; and lastly, he mentions captains and rulers All these things are said by way of concession; but yet the Prophet reminds us that no difficulty would prevent God to destroy Babylon, because Babylon in itself was nothing. According to this sense, then, it is called a hammer. In short, the Prophet takes away the false opinion which might have otherwise disturbed weak minds, as though Babylon was wholly invincible. He shows at the same time that God executed his judgments on all nations by means of Babylon. Thus the faithful might have been confirmed; for otherwise they must have necessarily been cast down when they regarded the formidable power of Babylon; but when they heard that it was only a hammer, and that they would not have been broken in pieces by the Babylonians had they not been armed from above, or rather had they not been driven on by a celestial power, it then appeared that the calamity which the Jews had suffered was nothing more than a punishment inflicted by God’s hand. When, therefore, they heard this, it was no small consolation; it kept them from succumbing under their miseries, and from being swallowed up with sorrow and despair. But it now follows, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v20 He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did…
He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did before call the Babylonians his hammer, Jer. 50:23.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–23 Jer 51:20 Thou [art] my battle axe [and] weapons…
Jer 51:20 Thou [art] my battle axe [and] weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
Ver. 20. Thou art my battle axe, and weapon of war.] Cestra fuisti mihi, Thou hast been my pole axe, such as horsemen use to batter their enemies’ helmets and other harness.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 Interpreters are here divided, whether by
Interpreters are here divided, whether by
thou or
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thee in this and the following verses to understand Cyrus, whom God made use of to destroy Babylon and many other places, or Babylon. Our translators understand it of Cyrus, and therefore speak of the future tense,
will I. The Hebrew text will not resolve us; I rather incline to interpret it of Babylon, as indeed the most do, and so it should be, Thou hast been, and art, for that is the sense; Cyrus and Darius were not yet in being. God had made use of Babylon like a hammer or battle-axe to break many nations in pieces.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–23 And with thee also will I break in pieces…
And with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman,.... Or, "have broken"; having no respect to any sex, and to the propagation of posterity:
and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; not sparing men of any age, however useful they might be, the one for their wisdom, the other for their strength:
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and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; who by procreation of children might fill and strengthen commonwealths.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v23 Break in pieces - The sense of all these…
Break in pieces - The sense of all these three verses is the same; that God had made use, and was still making use of the Babylonians to destroy many nations, to spoil much people, wasting their goods, routing their armies, killing all sorts of their inhabitants.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v20 Verse 20. Thou art my battle axe] I believe…
Verse 20. Thou art my battle axe] I believe Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is called, Jer 50:23, the hammer of the whole earth. Others think the words are spoken of Cyrus. All the verbs are in the past tense: "With thee have I broken in pieces," &c., &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v20 Jer 51:20-24. Thou art my battle-axe, &c. — Cyrus,…
Jer 51:20-24. Thou art my battle-axe, &c. — Cyrus, or rather the army of the Medes and Persians, seems to be intended here; compare Jer 51:11-12; as elsewhere the instrument of God’s vengeance is called a sword, a rod, a scourge. This army, with Cyrus, their general, God here says he will make use of for destroying the whole power of the Babylonish empire, and all orders and degrees of men in it, as he had formerly made that empire the executioner of his judgments upon other countries, Jer 50:23. “Or else,” says Lowth, “the words may be understood of the church, and imply, that God will destroy all those earthly powers and kingdoms which are adversaries to his truth and people, in order to establish and advance his church. This will be fulfilled at the fall of mystical Babylon, when God’s kingdom shall break in pieces all the kingdoms of the earth, in the destruction of that remnant of the fourth monarchy, according to Daniel’s prophecy, Dan 2:44.” And I will render unto Babylon all their evil (see Jer 51:11, and Jer 50:28) that they have done in Zion, in your sight — This may either refer to the evil done at Jerusalem and in Judea, by the Chaldeans, in the sight of God’s people, or to the open and public manner in which judgment would be executed on Babylon.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 Or, Thou art my maul, weapons of war etc.…
Or, Thou art my maul, weapons of war etc. The maul or mace Pro 25:18 only differs from the hammer Jer 50:23 in being used for warlike purposes.
Omit the “will” in “will I break.” The crushing of the nations was going on at the time when the prophet wrote. Most commentators consider that Babylon was the mace of God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v20 Thou, Cyrus, (Grotius) or more commonly the Chaldeans are…
Thou, Cyrus, (Grotius) or more commonly the Chaldeans are understood.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v20 20 A hammer13 art thou to me, weapons of…
14. HOW THE LORD PUNISHES HIS OWN HAMMER
Jer_51:20-24
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20 A hammer13 art thou to me, weapons of war,
And with thee I break nations in pieces,
And with thee I overthrow kingdoms.
21 And with thee I break in pieces the horse and his rider,
And with thee I break in pieces the chariot and its driver.
22 And with thee I break in pieces man and woman,
And with thee I break in pieces old man and boy,
And with thee I break in pieces young man and maiden,
23 And with thee I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock,
And with thee I break in pieces the husbandman and his team,
And with thee I break in pieces magistrates and rulers.14
24 And I recompense to Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea all the evil,
Which they have done to Zion before your eyes, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
A picture very clearly complete in itself. The prophet sees in spirit a large number of persons before him who are to serve the Lord for a hammer, in order therewith to dash to pieces nations and kingdoms, especially, however. Babylon in all its parts, and thus to recompense to it what it has inflicted, on Zion.
Jer_51:20-24. A hammer … saith Jehovah. In Jer_50:23 Babylon was called “the hammer of the whole earth,” and it might certainly be addressed again in the same way here. Many expositors, the LXX., Jerome, Theodoret at their head, are of opinion that it is so. But I, it should be observed that another word and, indeed, one formed ad hoc is chosen. Comp. Textual Note 1. May not the prophet have intended to indicate by using another word, specially formed for the occasion, that he meant another hammer than that spoken of before in Jer 50:23? 2. The perfects with the Vau consecutive may, indeed, be taken in a past sense (comp. Jer_18:4; Jer_19:4-5; Jer_37:11), but this construction is not normal. The imperfect would be more correct. 3. וְשִׁלַּמְתֵּי, Jer_51:24, must at any rate be taken in a future sense. Since, however, this word is a perfectly similar form to the previous perfects and similarly construed, there is a presumption that the perfects are also to be rendered as futures. 4. In Jer_50:21 we found an ideal person addressed, of which the Lord would make use as His instrument in the chastisement of Babylon. It is to the same that the prophet here tarns. That he referred in thought to 50.21, 22, is evident from מַכִּץ, which he opposes to כַּטִיש there used. He here, however, extends the task appointed to the hammer, for it is not to visit Babylon only, as in Jer_50:21, but many nations and kingdoms. Who this chosen instrument was to be the prophet was ignorant.—To take כִּלֵיweapon, as singular for כְּלִי, with Hitzig and Graf, appears to me unnecessary. The former is not a single weapon, but comprehends all weapons of war. The objects enumerated as to be broken form in a certain measure a circle, proceeding from the great and strong to the small and weak, and then rising from the young man and maiden again to the great and strong.—Chaldea. Kasdim as the name of the country, as in Jer_50:10 coll. Jer_51:35.—Before your eyes, is to be referred to I recompense, since it would be superfluous referred to have done, and expresses the thought that those who now hear of the destruction of Babylon will also see it, and thus be convinced by ocular demonstration of the truth of Jeremiah’s prediction.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. “Daniel’s Babylonian empire resumes, as it were, the thread which was broken off with the tower-erection and kingdom of Nimrod. In the Babylonian tower-building the whole of the then existing humanity was united against God; with the Babylonian kingdom began the period of the universal monarchies, which again aspired after an atheistical union of entire humanity. Babylon has since and even to the Revelation (Jeremiah 18) remained the standing type of this world.” Auberlen, Der proph. Daniel, S. 230.
2. For what reason does Babylon appear as a type of the world? Why not Nineveh, or Persepolis, or Tyre, or Memphis, or Rome? Certainly not because Babylon was greater, more glorious, more powerful or prouder and more ungodly than those cities and kingdoms. Nineveh especially was still greater than Babylon (comp. Duncker, Gesch. d. Alterth. I. S. 474, 5), and Assyria was not less hostile to the theocracy, having carried away into captivity the northern and larger half of the people of Israel. Babylon is qualified for this representation in two ways: 1. because it is the home of worldly princedom and titanic arrogance (Gen_10:8; Gen_11:1-4); 2. because Babylon destroyed the centre of the theocracy, Jerusalem, the temple and the theocratic kingdom, and first assumed to be the single supreme power of the globe.
3. “When God has used a superstitious, wicked and tyrannical nation long enough as His rod, He breaks it in pieces and finally throws it into the fire. For even those whom He formerly used as His chosen anointed instruments He then regards as but the dust in the streets or as chaff before the wind.” Cramer.
4. “No monarch is too rich, too wicked, too strong for God the Lord. And He can soon enlist and engage soldiers whom He can use against His declared enemies.” Cramer.
5. “Israel was founded on everlasting foundations, even God’s word and promise. The sins of the people brought about that it was laid low in the dust, but not without hope of a better resurrection. Babylon, on the other hand, must perish forever, for in it is the empire of evil come to its highest bloom. Jeremiah owns the nothingness of all worldly kingdoms, since they are all under this national order to serve only for a time. We are to be subject to them and seek their welfare for the sake of the souls of men, whom God is educating therein; a Christian however cannot be enthusiastic for them after the manner of the ancient heathen nor of ancient Israel, for here we have no abiding city, our citizenship is in heaven. The kingdoms of this world are no sanctuaries for us and we supplicate their continuance only with the daily bread of the fourth petition. Jeremiah applies many words and figures to Babylon which he has already used in the judgments on other nations, thus to intimate that in Babylon all the heathenism of the world culminates, and that here also must be the greatest anguish. What, however, is here declared of Babylon must be fulfilled again on all earthly powers in so far as, treading in its footprints, they take flesh for their arm and regard the material of this world as power, whether they be called states or churches.” Diedrich.
6. On Jer_50:2. In putting into the mouth of Israel, returning from Babylon, the call to an everlasting covenant with Jehovah, the prophet causes them 1. to confess that they have forgotten the first covenant; 2. he shows us that the time of the new covenant begins with the redemption from the Babylonish captivity. He was far, however, from supposing that this redemption would be only a weak beginning, that the appearance of the Saviour would be deferred for centuries, that Israel would sink still deeper as an external πολιτεία, and that finally the Israel of the new covenant would itself appear as a μυστήριον, εἰς ὃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι (1Pe_1:9-12).
7. From what Jeremiah has already said in Jer_31:31-34 of the new covenant we see that its nature and its difference from the old is not unknown to him. Yet he knows the new covenant only in general. He knows that it will be deeply spiritual and eternal, but how and why it will be so is still to him part of the μυστήριον.
8. On Jer_50:6. Jeremiah here points back to Jeremiah 23. Priests, kings and prophets, who should discharge the office of shepherds, prove to be wolves. Yea, they are the worst of wolves, who go about in official clothing. There is therefore no more dangerous doctrine than that of an infallible office. Jer_14:14; Mat_7:15; Mat_23:2-12.
9. On Jer_50:7. It is the worst condition into which a church of God can come, when the enemies who desolate it can maintain that they are in the right in doing so. It is, however, a just nemesis when those who will not hear the regular messengers of God must be told by the extraordinary messengers of God what they should have done. Comp. Jer_40:2-3.
10. On Jer_50:8. “Babylon is opened, and it must be abandoned not clung to, for the captivity is a temporary chastisement, not the divine arrangement for the children of God. God’s people must in the general redemption go like rams before the herd of the nations, that these may also attach themselves to Israel, as this was fulfilled at the time of Christ in the first churches and the apostles, who now draw the whole heathen world after them to eternal life. Here the prophet recognizes the new humanity, which proceeds from the ruins of the old, in which also ancient Israel leads the way; thus all, who follow it, become Israel.” Diedrich.—“The heathen felt somewhat of the divine punishment when they overcame so easily the usually so strongly protected nation. But Jeremiah shows them still how they deceived themselves in thinking that God had wholly rejected His people, for of the eternal covenant of grace they certainly understood nothing.” Heim and Hoffmann on the Major Prophets.
11. On Jer_50:18. “The great powers of the world form indeed the history of the world, but they have no future. Israel, however, always returns home to the dear and glorious land. The Jews might as a token of this return under Cyrus; the case is however this, that the true Holy One in Israel, Christ, guides us back to Paradise, when we flee to His hand from the Babylon of this world and let it be crucified for us.” Diedrich.
12. On Jer_50:23. “Although the Chaldeans were called of God for the purpose of making war on the Jewish nation on account of their multitudinous sins, yet they are punished because they did it not as God with a pure intention, namely, to punish the wrong in them and keep them for reformation; for they were themselves greater sinners than the Jews and continued with impenitence in their sins. Therefore they could not go scot-free and remain unpunished. Moreover, they acted too roughly and dealt with the Jews more harshly than God had commanded, for which He therefore fairly punished them. As God the Lord Himself says (Isa_47:6): When I was angry with My people I gave them into thine hands; but thou shewedst them no mercy. Therefore it is not enough that God’s will be accomplished, but there must be the good intention in it, which God had, otherwise such a work may be a sin and call down the divine punishment upon it.” Würtemb. Summ.
13. On Jer_50:31-34. “God calls Babylon Thou Pride, for pride was their inward force and impulse in all their actions. But worldly pride makes a Babylon and brings on a Babylon’s fate .… Pride must fall, for it is in itself a lie against God, and all its might must perish in the fire; thus will the humble and meek remain in possession of the earth: this has a wide application through all times, even to eternity.” Diedrich.
14. On Jer_51:33. “Israel is indeed weak and must suffer in a time of tyranny; it cannot help itself, nor needs it to do so, for its Redeemer is strong, His name The Lord Zebaoth—and He is, now, having assumed our flesh, among us and conducts our cause so that the world trembles.” Diedrich.
15. On Jer_50:45. “An emblem of the destruction of anti-christian Babylon, which was also the true hammer of the whole world. This has God also broken and must and will do it still more. And this will the shepherd-boys do, as is said here in Jer_51:45 (according to Luther’s translation), that is, all true teachers and preachers.” Cramer.
16. On Jeremiah 51. “The doctrines accord in all points with the previous chapter. And the prophet Jeremiah both in this and the previous chapter does nothing else but make out for the Babylonians their final discharge and passport, because they behaved so valiantly and well against the people of Judah, that they might know they would not go unrecompensed. For payment is according to service. And had they done better it would have gone better with them. It is well that when tyrants succeed in their evil undertakings they should not suppose they are God’s dearest children and lean on His bosom, since they will yet receive the recompense on their crown, whatever they have earned.” Cramer.
17. [“Though in the hand of Babylon is a golden cup; she chooses such a cup, in order that men’s eyes may be dazzled with the glitter of the gold, and may not inquire what it contains. But mark well, in the golden cup of Babylon is the poison of idolatry, the poison of false doctrines, which destroy the souls of men. I have often seen such a golden cup, in fair speeches of seductive eloquence: and when I have examined the venomous ingredients of the golden chalice, I have recognized the cup of Babylon.” Origen in Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
“The seat and throne of Anti-christ is expressly named Babylon, namely, the city of Rome, built on the seven hills (Rev_17:9). Just as Babylon brought so many lands and kingdoms under its sway and ruled them with great pomp and pride (the golden cup, which made all the world drunk, was Babylon in the hand of the Lord (Jer_51:7), and all the heathen drank of the wine and became mad)—so has the spiritual Babylon a cup in its hand, full of the abomination and uncleanness of its whoredom, of which the kings of the earth and all who dwell on the earth have been made drunk. As it is said of Babylon that she dwells by great waters and has great treasures, so writes John of the Romish Babylon, that it is clothed in silk and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls (Rev_18:12). Of Babylon it is said that the slain in Israel were smitten by her; so also the spiritual Babylon is become drunk with the blood of the saints (Rev_17:6). Just, however, as the Chaldean Babylon is a type of the spiritual in its pride and despotism, so also is it a type of the destruction which will come upon it. Many wished to heal Babylon but she would not be healed; so many endeavor to support the ruinous anti-christian Babylon, but all in vain. For as Babylon was at last so destroyed as to be a heap of stones and abode of dragons, so will it be with anti-christian Babylon. Of this it is written in Rev_14:8 : She is fallen, fallen, that great city, for she has made all nations drink of the wine of her fornication. And again, Babylon the great is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils and a hold of all foul and hateful birds (Rev_18:2). As the inhabitants of Babylon were admonished to flee from her, that every man might deliver his soul (Jer_51:6)—and again, My people, go ye out from the midst of her and deliver every man his soul, etc. (Jer_51:45)—so the Holy Spirit admonishes Christians almost in the same words to go out from the spiritual Babylon, that they be not polluted by her sins and at the same time share in her punishment. For thus it is written in Rev_18:4, I heard, says John, a voice from heaven saying, Go ye out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins reach unto heaven and God remembers her iniquities.” Wurtemb. Summarien.
18. On Jer_51:5. “A monarch can sooner make an end of half a continent than draw a nail from a hut which the Lord protects.—And if it is true that Kaiser Rudolph, when he revoked the toleration of the Picards and the same day lost one of his principal forts, said, ‘I thought it would be so, for I grasped at God’s sceptre’ (Weismanni, Hist. Eccl. Tom. II. p. 320)—this was a sage remark, a supplement to the words of the wise.” Zinzendorf.
19. On Jer_51:9. We heal Babylon, but she will not be healed. Babylon is an outwardly beautiful but inwardly worm-eaten apple. Hence sooner or later the foulness must become noticeable. So is it with all whose heart and centre is not God. All is inwardly hollow and vain. When this internal vacuity begins to render itself externally palpable, when here and there a rent or foul spot becomes visible, then certainly come the friends and admirers of the unholy form and would improve, cover up, sew up, heal. But it does not avail. When once there is death in the body no physician can effect a cure.
20. On Jer_51:17; Jer_51:19-20. “The children of God have three causes why they may venture on Him. 1. All men are fools, their treasure is it not; 2. The Lord is their hammer; He breaks through everything, and 3, they are an instrument in His hand, a heritage; in this there is happiness.” Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer_51:41-44. “How was Sheshach thus won, the city renowned in all the world thus taken? No one would have thought it possible, but God does it. He rules with wonders and with wonders He makes His church free. Babylon is a wonder no longer for its power, but for its weakness. We are to know the world’s weakness even where it still appears strong. A sea of hostile nations has covered Babylon. Her land is now a desolation. God takes Bel, the principal idol of Babylon, symbolizing its whole civil powers in hand, and snatches his prey from his teeth. Our God is stronger than all worldly forces, and never leaves us to them.” Diedrich.
22. On Jer_51:58. “Yea, so it is with all walls and towers, in which God’s word is not the vital force, even though they be entitled churches and cathedrals … God’s church alone possesses permanence through His pure word.” Diedrich.
23. On Jer_51:60-64. When we wish to preserve an archive safely, we deposit it in a record-office where it is kept in a dry place that no moisture may get to it. Seraiah throws his book-roll into the waters of the Euphrates, which must wash it away, dissolve and destroy it. But this was of no account. The main point was that he, Seraiah, as representative of the holy nation had taken solemn stock of the word of God against Babylon, and as it were taken God at His word, and reminded Him of it. In this manner the matter was laid up in the most enduring and safest archive that could be imagined; it was made a case of honor with the omniscient and omnipotent God. Such matters can, however, neither be forgotten, nor remain in dead silence, nor be neglected. They must be brought to such an end as the honor of God requires.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_50:2. This text may be used on the feast of the Reformation, or any other occasion with reference to a rem bene gestam. The Triumph of the Good Cause, 1. over what enemies it is gained; 2. to what it should impel us; (a) to the avoidance of that over which we new triumph; (b) to the grateful proclamation of what the Lord has done for us, by word and by deed.
2. On Jer_50:4-8. The deliverance of Israel from the Babylonian captivity a type of the deliverance of the Church. 1. The Church must humbly acknowledge the captivity suffered as a judgment of God. 2. She must turn like Israel inwardly with an upright heart unto the Lord; 3. She must become like Israel to all men a pattern and leader to freedom.
3. On Jer_50:5. A confirmation sermon. “What is the hour of confirmation? 1. An hour which calls to separation; 2. an hour which leads to new connections; 3. an hour which fixes forever the old covenant with the soul’s friend.” Florey, 1853.
4. On Jer_50:18-20. Assyria and Babylon the types of all the spiritual enemies of the church as of individual Christians. Every one has his Assyria and his Babylon. Sin is the destruction of men. Forgiveness of sins is the condition of life, for only where forgiveness of sins is, is there life and blessedness. In Christ we find the forgiveness of sins. He destroys the handwriting. He washes us clean. He is also the good shepherd who leads our souls into green pastures, to the spiritual Carmel.
5. On Jer_50:31-32. Warning against pride. Babylon was very strong and powerful, rich and splendid. It seemed invincible by nature and by art. Had it not then a certain justification in being proud, at least towards men? No; for no one has to contend only with men. Every one who contends has the Lord either for his friend or his enemy. It is the Lord from whom cometh victory (Pro_21:31). He it is who teacheth our hands to fight (Psa_18:35; Psa_144:1). His strength is made perfect in weakness (2Co_12:9). He can make the lame (Isa_33:23; Mic_4:7) and mortally wounded (Jer_37:10) so strong that they overmaster the sound (comp. Jer_51:45). He can make one man put to flight a thousand (Deu_32:30; Isa_30:17). With him can one dash in pieces a troop and leap over a wall (Psa_18:29). No one accordingly should be proud. The word of the Lord, “I am against thee, thou proud one!” is a terrible word which no one should conjure up against himself.
6. On Jer_50:33-34. The consolation of the Church in persecution. 1. It suffers violence and injustice. 2. Its redeemer is strong.
7. On Jer_51:5. God the Lord manifests such favor to Israel as to declare Himself her husband (Jer_2:2; Jer_3:1). But now that Israel and Judah are in exile, it seems as if they were rejected or widowed women. This, however, is only appearance. Israel’s husband does not die. He may well bring a period of chastisement, of purification and trial on His people, but when this period is over, the Lord turns the handle, and smites those through whom He chastised Israel, when they had forgotten that they were not to satisfy their own desire, but only to accomplish the Lord’s will on Israel.
8. On Jer_51:6. A time may come when it is well to separate one’s self. For although it is said in Pro_18:1; he who separateth himself, seeketh that which pleaseth him and opposeth all that is good—and therefore separation, as the antipodes of churchliness, i.e., of churchly communion and humble subjection to the law of the co-operation of members (1Co_12:25 sqq.) is to be repudiated, yet there may come moments in the life of the church, when it will be a duty to leave the community and separate one’s self. Such a moment is come when the community has become a Babylon. It should, however, be noted that one should not be too ready with such a decision. For even the life of the church is subject to many vacillations. There are periods of decay, obscurations, as it were, comparable to eclipses of the stars, but to these, so long as the foundations only subsist, must always follow a restoration and return to the original brightness. No one is to consider the church a Babylon on account of such a passing state of disease. It is this only when it has withheld the objective divine foundations, the means of grace, the word and sacrament, altogether and permanently in their saving efficacy. Then, when the soul can no longer find in the church the pure and divine bread of life; it is well “to deliver the soul that it perish not in the iniquity of the church.” From this separation from the church is, however, to be carefully distinguished the separation within the church, from all that which is opposed to the healthy life of the church, and is therefore to be regarded as a diseased part of the ecclesiastical body. Such separation is the daily duty of the Christian. He has to perform it with respect to his private life in all the manifold relations, indicated to us in Mat_18:17; Rom_16:17; 1Co_5:9 sqq.; 2Th_3:6; Tit_3:10; 2Jn_1:10-11.—Comp. the article on Sects, by Palmer in Herzog, R.-Enc., XXI., S. 21, 22.
9. On Jer_51:10. The righteousness which avails before God. 1. Its origin (not our work or merit, but God’s grace in Christ); 2. Its fruit, praise of that which the Lord has wrought in us (a) by words, (b) by works.
10. On Jer_51:50. This text may be used at the sending out of missionaries or the departure of emigrants. Occasion may be taken to speak 1, of the gracious help and deliverance, which the Lord has hitherto shown to the departing; 2, they may be admonished to remain united in their distant land with their brethren at home by (a) remembering the Lord, i.e., ever remaining sincerely devoted to the Lord as the common shield of salvation; (b) faithfuly serving Jerusalem, i.e., the common mother of us all (Gal_4:26), the church, with all our powers in the proper place and measure, and ever keeping her in our hearts.
Footnotes:
[13]Jer_51:20.—מַכֵּץ (a participial form derived from the Hiphil. Comp. e.g., מַסְגֵר, and as a related synonym מֵכִּיץ, Pro_25:18) does not occur elsewhere.
[14]Jer_51:23.—כּחות. Comp. Jer_51:28; Jer_51:57; Eze_23:6; Eze_23:23; 1Ki_10:15; Neh_2:7; Ezr_8:36 Est_8:9. According to Benfey (Monatsnamen, S. 195), the word comes from the Sanscrit (Pakscha, socius, amicus), and is certainly related to the Arabic Pascha. Comp. Gesen., Thes., pag. 1100.—סגנים, which occurs only in the plural (Isa_41:25; Ezr_9:2; Neh_2:16, etc.), are likewise præfecti provinciarum. On the different derivations comp. Gesen. Thes., pag. 937.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 (See on Jer 50:23). "Break in pieces" refers to…
(See on Jer 50:23). "Break in pieces" refers to the "hammer" there (compare Nah 2:1, Margin). The club also was often used by ancient warriors.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v20 20-24. Thou art — By “thou,” Ewald understands the…
20-24. Thou art — By “thou,” Ewald understands the king of Israel; Grotius, Cyrus and the Medes; Nagelsbach, an ideal person; Calmet and most expositors, Babylon. The last is to be preferred, and is supported by Jer_50:23. The enumeration of the things which this battle-hammer should break in pieces is an orderly one. 1) The nations and kingdoms. 2) The military forces — the horse and his rider, the chariot and his rider. 3) The people — man and woman… old and young…young man and… maid. 4) Occupations — shepherd… husbandman… captains and rulers.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 20. battle axe] mg. maul, a war-club, mace. “The…
20. battle axe] mg. maul, a war-club, mace. “The Assyrian mace was a short thin weapon, and must either have been made of a very tough wood, or—and this is more probable—of metal. It had an ornamented head, which was sometimes very beautifully modelled, and generally a strap or string at the lower end, by which it could be grasped with greater firmness.” (Rawlinson’s Anc. Mon. I. p. 458.) For this figure, as applied to Babylon, cp. Jer_50:23.
20–24. Is it (a) Cyrus, as conqueror of Babylon, or (b) Babylon herself, that is addressed? Jer_51:24 seems to support (a), but on the whole (b) is perhaps preferable. The future tenses can as well be rendered as presents, denoting what Babylon has hitherto been accustomed to do as the instrument of Jehovah. This view also harmonizes with Jer_51:14 (while we omit 15–19; see note there), as well as with Jer_51:25 ff., where Babylon is certainly the subject.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 (20) Thou art my battle ax . . .—Better,…
(20) Thou art my battle ax . . .—Better, my mace. The axe is not found on Assyrian monuments as a weapon of war till a comparatively late period. It is a question who is thus addressed—Babylon, or Cyrus as the destroyer of Babylon, or Israel. On the whole, the second seems the more probable answer. The “hammer of the whole earth” is broken by a mightier weapon than itself. (See Note on Jer_50:23.)
With thee will I break in pieces . . .—The tense, in this and in the following, should be the present. The force of the verb is multiplied by the emphatic iteration. All obstacles are to be crushed in the victorious march of the conqueror.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 Vers. 20-26. Israel is now to be Jehovah"s hammer,…
Vers. 20-26. Israel is now to be Jehovah"s hammer, striking down everything, even the Chaldean colossus. But though Babylon may be as great and as destructive as a volcanic mountain, it shall soon be quite burnt out.
My battle axe; or, my mace. The mace (for a picture of which, see Rawlinson, "Ancient Monarchies," 1:459) was a weapon constantly employed by the Assyrians and presumably by the Babylonian kings. The battle axe was much less frequently used. But who is addressed by this terrible title? The commentators are divided, some inclining to Babylon,
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(1) because Babylon was the last person addressed (see ver. 14), and
(2) because a similar title was given to Babylon in Jer_50:23: others to Israel, on the ground that the tenses are the same throughout the passage (vers. 20-24).
The latter view is probably the best. How could Babylon be said to shatter her own "governors" and "viceroys" (for the prophet deliberately chooses the Babylonian official names)? The argument from the context is not very weighty; for it is clear that the connection of the parts of this prophecy is very loose. We may assume, then, that ver. 20 begins a fresh paragraph, standing quite apart from that which precedes. The objection of Graf and Keil, is that Israel could not himself be styled a "mace," it being Israel"s destiny to be delivered by others. But is not a very similar statement made of Israel in Isa_41:15 Psa_149:7-9? (Kuenen offers a third explanation Cyrus.) The nations... kingdoms. First the great social organisms are mentioned; next comes the military power; next the population, according to sex, age, and class.
God"s battle axe.
I GOD SOMETIMES WORKS DESTRUCTION. He does not. delight in destruction. It is not his chief work. But he has performed it and he may again. When a thing is absolutely evil it is best that it should cease to be. For the prevention of further evil it must be destroyed. The Creator then becomes the destroyer.
II GOD USES HUMAN INSTRUMENTS. He might have sent death, as he created life, with a word. But he chose to use a weapon, "a battle axe," i.e. a human instrument. Thus
(1) he honours good men by making them his servants, and
(2) he counteracts the evil influence of bad men by overruling it for ends of Divine judgment.
III THEY WHO CANNOT SERVE GOD IN THE HIGHER WORK MAY YET SERVE HIM IN SOME NEEDFUL MISSION. The man who cannot become a prophet may act as "God"s battle axe." In God"s great kingdom there is work for all classes and kinds of men. Rough and rude natures may find some mission. Still the highest mission is not that. of destruction. The most worthy servant of God is he who follows Jesus Christ and "goes about doing good.
The Church God"s battle axe.
God ever employs instruments to accomplish his purposes. He is a God that "hideth" himself. Hence many see nothing but instruments, and forget, or deny, the hand that uses them. "That does not seem much of a sword;" said one, as he looked upon the treasured weapon of a great national hero and valiant soldier. Ah, but you do not see the hand that wielded it, was the just reply. So as we look on the agencies God employs, how feeble they seem to be! But think of the force behind them, and then the works they accomplished are explained. Now, this is true of all God"s works. Especially is it true in all the great spiritual achievements which we have heard of or seen. This verse refers to Israel, in reference to the idolatrous nations around them, and to Babylon especially. Israel was the unseen cause that led to the overthrow and destruction of one nation after another. For the Church"s sake God governs the world. "All things are yours." Now, note
I THE WITNESS OF HISTORY to the truth that God"s people are his "battle axe and weapons of war." "I came not to send peace upon earth, but a sword," said Jesus, and in the same sense as this verse declares that word is true. "Magna est veritas, et prevalebit," is another rendering of the same fact.
1. Before the birth of Christ the pure monotheistic faith of Israel had, after their captivity, begun its iconoclastic work. Over large portions of the then civilized world that faith began to permeate and cleave its way. So that the old idolatries were in many places stricken with a mortal blow before even he was proclaimed who was to draw all men unto him.
2. The downfall of paganism. Notwithstanding the many accretions of error and superstition with which the pure faith of Christ so soon became encumbered, there yet remained inherent in it and inseparable from it such vital and mighty energy that it smote as with a "battle axe" one falsehood after another, until they were well nigh all slain. The forces against her in that ancient world were simply tremendous, but the Church went forth conquering and to conquer. In vain the scorn of the great, the fires of awful persecution, the power of venerable superstition; in vain the hindrances which she herself put in her own way; the Church was still God"s destroying power against the false religions of that age, until at length the last emperor of Rome who endeavoured to revive paganism, Julian whom a corrupt hierarchy malignantly branded as "the apostate," though, in fact, he was less apostate than themselves confessed with his dying breath, "O Galilaean, thou hast conquered!" In all that long and heart-stirring conflict this declaration of the prophet was illustrated again and again.
3. In the Reformation. Not alone in those nations in which the Reformation principles took root, but in the Church of Rome herself, was the error and evil destroying power of the truth that dwelt in the hearts of God"s people made manifest. See in such a book as Ranke"s "History of the Popes" what vast difference and improvements were brought about in the Catholic Church itself by the awful discipline through which she had then to pass. Whatever stern censures may have to be passed on that Church since the days of the Reformation and they are neither few nor light yet candour must admit that they are far fewer and far lighter than those which the outraged conscience of Christendom heaped upon her in the generations before.
4. In all missionary and evangelistic triumphs over heathendom.
II THE WITNESS OF INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. We are wont to speak of the truth of God as "mighty to the pulling down of the strongholds of sin and Satan." This is a Christian commonplace. And is it not true? What but this battle axe slew the giant sins that ruled and oppressed in each soul?
III THE SECRET OF THIS FORCE. What makes the Church God"s battle axe? We answer:
1. The truth that sustains her. The truth concerning God and our relations to him he our Father and we all his children.
2. The spirit that animates her; not one of hate or disregard to man, as was common before Christ came, but love love even towards the vilest for Christ"s sake.
3. The rule that regulates her. The heathen looked on with amazement at the blamelessness of life and the sanctity of character which the faith of the Church produced, and they felt and owned its power.
4. The love that constrains her. She ever "bore about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus," and, mindful of that, she shrank from no suffering and refused no service.
5. The hope that cheers her. She wrought, not for a corruptible crown, but an incorruptible; and the hope, "that blessed hope," of her Lord"s appearing to receive and reward his people, cheered them on amid the awful sufferings which they were called on to bear. And still it is in proportion as these mighty motives animate the Church in the individual soul that faithful and effectual service is done for Christ against the many and mighty adversaries of God with which the world abounds. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 22 You are
You are
"You, the Babylonian army, are"
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With you I will smash
Yahweh speaks of punishing people as if he were smashing them with a hammer. AT: "With you I will punish" (See: Metaphor)
With you I will
"I will use you to"
translationWords
nation
kingdom
horse
chariot
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v20 51:20 You: The Lord had chosen and empowered King…
51:20 You: The Lord had chosen and empowered King Cyrus of Persia to turn the Babylonian Empire to dust.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.