Jeremiah 50:22

A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 50:22-24. A sound of battle is in the land — That is, in the land of Chaldea. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken! — That oppressive empire that smote the nations with a continual stroke, as is said Isaiah 14:6, and brought them under subjection to it. I have laid a snare for thee; and thou art also taken, O Babylon — Cyrus took the city by surprise and in an unexpected manner, entering it, by draining the river Euphrates, at a time when the walls were entire, the city full of provisions, and the people in high spirits, and in a state of the utmost security, dreading no such event. According to Herodotus, part of the city was taken before those who dwelt in the midst of it knew any thing about it; so that with propriety they might be said to be caught as in a snare. Because thou hast striven against the Lord — The reason of this unexpected ruin coming on this great people was their sinning against the Lord: see Jeremiah 50:14; here called a striving against him, as indeed all sin is.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

50:21-32 The forces are mustered and empowered to destroy Babylon. Let them do what God demands, and they shall bring to pass what he threatens. The pride of men's hearts sets God against them, and ripens them apace for ruin. Babylon's pride must be her ruin; she has been proud against the Holy One of Israel; who can keep those up whom God will throw down?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The land of Merathaim - of double rebellion. Like Mitsraim, i. e., the two Egypts, Aram-Naharaim, i. e., Syria of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia, it is a dual. It may have been a real name; or - the dual ending being intensive - it may mean the land of very great rebelliousness.

Pekod - Possibly a Babylonian town.

Waste - Rather, slay, Jeremiah 50:27.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Merathaim—a symbolical name for Babylon, the doubly rebellious, namely, against God. Compare Jer 50:24, "thou hast striven against the Lord"; and Jer 50:29, "proud against the Lord." The "doubly" refers to: first, the Assyrian's oppression of Israel; next, the kindred Chaldean's oppression of Judah (compare Jer 50:17-20, 33; especially Jer 50:18).

Pekod—(Eze 23:23); a chief province of Assyria, in which Nineveh, now overthrown, once lay. But, as in Merathaim, the allusion is to the meaning of Pekod, namely, "visitation"; the inhabitants whose time of deserved visitation in punishment is come; not, however, without reference to the now Babylonian province, Pekod. The visitation on Babylon was a following up of that on Assyria.

after them—even their posterity, and all that is still left of Babylon, until the very name is extinct [Grotius]. Devastate the city, after its inhabitants have deserted it.

all … I … commanded—by Isaiah (Isa 13:1, &c.).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

A sound of battle is in the land,.... In the land of the Chaldeans, as it is expressed in the Septuagint and Arabic versions; the noise of warriors, the clashing of arms, and sound of trumpets, both of the enemy entered into the land, and of the Chaldeans arming themselves in their own defence:

and of great destruction; in the same land; or in Babylon, as Abarbinel supplies it; this is the consequent of the former.

Geneva Study Bible

A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Jeremiah 50:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After the command there immediately follows its execution. A sound of war is heard in the land. The words are given as an exclamation, without a verb. As to שׁבר, which is an expression much used by Jeremiah, see on Jeremiah 4:6.