Jeremiah 51:6

51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Flee out of the midst of Babylon,.... This is said either to such as were there of other nations upon trade and business, as Kimchi, to get out of it as fast as they could, that they might not be consumed; or to the Israelites, as Jarchi, the Jews that were captives there. This is applied to the people of God in mystical Babylon, Revelation 18:4 ; and deliver every man his soul; or "life"; from the destruction coming on the city, and the inhabitants of it; be not cut off in her iniquity; or, "that he be not cut off" (f); with her, in the punishment inflicted upon her for her iniquities; which is the same as partaking of her plagues, Revelation 18:4; for this is the time, of the Lord's vengeance; the time fixed by him to take vengeance on Babylon for her sins against him, and the wrongs done to his people: he will render unto her a recompence; the just demerit of their sins; a recompence or reward by way of punishment for them; see Revelation 18:6. (f) "ne exscindamini", Junius & Tremellius, Schmidt; "ne committitote ut exscindamini", Piscator.

Jeremiah 51:6-7 . Flee out of the midst of Babylon, &c. — God’s people are here exhorted to flee out of Babylon with all haste, as Lot did out of Sodom, lest they should be consumed in the iniquity of that place: see Jeremiah 50:8 . Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand — In what sense Babylon is called a cup may be seen by comparing Jeremiah 25:15 . Her greatness and glory enticed and drew in many nations to be confederate with her, in hopes of enriching or aggrandizing themselves; but thereby they drew down destruction upon themselves. They thought to drink, or be in alliance with the Babylonians, was drinking out of a golden cup, but it proved to them a deadly draught. For she was a splendid instrument of vengeance, ordained by God against them; and as they all had suffered by her, so they are all here represented as glorying over her, and rejoicing when her turn of suffering came. By making all the earth drunken, is meant either making all the neighbouring nations act foolishly, and contrary to true wisdom and prudence, or the causing them, as it were, to stagger and fall through the terror and astonishment, the confusion and dismay, which God’s judgments should produce among them: see note on Jeremiah 25:15 .

We may observe further here, that this golden cup is said to be in the Lord’s hand, to signify that these things had been brought about by the divine providence, and that God had used Babylon as an instrument to bring the nations to that condign punishment which they had deserved.

{c} Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompence. (c) He shows that there remains nothing for them that abide in Babylon but destruction, Jer 17:6,48:6.

(6) Flee out of the midst of Babylon. —The words reproduce the call of Jeremiah 50:8 with a fresh motive. The city was doomed. It was ill done for those who had not been guilty of her sins to involve themselves in her destruction. The call is reproduced, as referring to the mystical Babylon, in Revelation 18:4 .

It is a matter of no great moment whether we understand these words as spoken to the Jews in the captivity of Babylon, as Jeremiah 1:8 , or to those whom the Chaldeans had hired to help them, or to such strangers as for their secular advantages lived in Babylon. By soul here seemeth to be meant life , and by iniquity the punishment of the Babylonians’ iniquity (as the Hebrew word oft signifies); though in the New Testament these words be used as a monition to people to separate from the idolatries of mystical Babylon, yet they seem here to be only a warning to others to remove out of the reach of Babylon’s fall. For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence; for the time is come when God hath determined to take vengeance on Babylon, and to recompense to her all her sin, and that cruelty which she showed to the Jews in particular.

In order to escape the punishment that is to fall on the guilt-laden city, the Israelites living in Babylon must flee to save their lives; cf. Jeremiah 50:8 , and on the mode of expression, Jeremiah 48:6 . "Be not destroyed בּעונהּ, for her iniquity," (בּ of price), not "in her guilt" equals punishment for sin (Graf), or "through her guilt" (Ngelsbach). Both of these last two views are against the context; for the idea is, that Israel must flee to save his life, and that he too may not atone for the guilt of Babylon. On the expression, "It is a time of vengeance," etc., cf. Jeremiah 50:15 , Isaiah 34:8 . גּמוּל , as in Isaiah 59:18 ; Isaiah 66:6 . גּמוּל, prop. accomplishment, actual proof, is used both of human and divine doing and working, of human misdeeds and divine recompense. הוּא is used emphatically.

The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness - They had sinned to profane His "Holy Name" (see the note at Amos 2:7 ). God swears by that holiness which they had profaned in themselves on whom it was called, and which they had caused to be profaned by others. He pledges His own holiness, that He will avenge their unholiness. : "In swearing "by His holiness," God sware by Himself. For He is the supreme uncreated justice and Holiness. This justice each, in his degree, should imitate and maintain on earth, and these had sacrilegiously violated and overthrown." Days shall come (literally, are among) upon you - God's Day and eternity are ever coming. He reminds them of their continual approach. He says not only that they will certainly come, but they are ever coming. They are holding on their steady course. Each day which passes, they advance a day closer upon the sinner. People put out of their minds what "will come;" they "put far the evil day." Therefore, God so often in His notices of woe to come, (1 Samuel 2:31; Isaiah 39:6; Jeremiah 7:32; Jeremiah 9:25; Jeremiah 17:14; Jeremiah 19:6; Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 23:7; Jeremiah 30:3; Jeremiah 31:27-31, Jeremiah 31:38; Jeremiah 33:14; Jeremiah 48:12; Jeremiah 49:2; Jeremiah 51:47, Jeremiah 51:52. (Ges.); Amos 8:11), brings to mind, that those "days are" ever "coming" ; they are not a thing which shall be only; in God's purpose, they already "are;" and with one uniform steady noiseless tread "are coming upon" the sinner.