Jeremiah 51:2

And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Fanners, that shall fan her.—The Hebrew word as it stands means “strangers,” but a change of the vowel-points would give etymologically “winnowers” or “fanners,” though the word is not found elsewhere. On the whole it would seem best to accept the meaning of “strangers,” the prophet connecting it with the verb for “fan,” which contains the same consonants, for the sake of a rhythmical assonance. The imagery in either case is that of the familiar picture of the “threshing-floor,” where the “strong wind” scatters the chaff in all directions (Psalm 1:4; Psalm 35:5; Isaiah 17:13; Isaiah 29:5). The word for “empty” is the same as that used with an emphatic significance in Jeremiah 19:7.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Fanners - Or, winnowers.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. fanners—(See on [998]Jer 15:7). The fanners separate the wheat from the chaff; so God's judgments shall sweep away guilty Babylon as chaff (Ps 1:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Wicked men are compared to chaff, Psalm 1:4. Such as execute judgment on them are called fanners, Jeremiah 15:7; so Matthew 3:12; because as the fanner keepeth what is in the fan unquiet in a continual motion and agitation, by which (advantaged by the wind) he emptieth it of the chaff; so the executioners of God’s vengeance, by a succession of judgments, keeps a people from quiet, till all their chaff be winnowed out, and the fan be emptied of all but the more solid grain. For (he saith) as the fanner first riddleth what he hath in his fan one way, then another, first throweth it up, then lets it fall into the fan; so the enemies should be round about Babylon, and God would be on every side and every way destroying them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will send unto Babylon farmers, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land,.... Or, "strangers that shall fan her" (c); meaning the Medes and Persians, who should be like a strong wind upon the mountains, where corn, having been threshed, was fanned, and the chaff carried away by the wind; and such would the Chaldeans be in the hand of the Persians, scattered and dispersed among the nations as chaff with the wind, and their cities be emptied of inhabitants, and of their wealth and riches. The Targum is,

"I will send against Babylon spoilers, that shall spoil and exhaust the land:''

for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about; in the time of the siege they shall surround her on all sides, so that none might escape; as Babylon had been a fanner of the Lord's people, now she should be fanned herself, and stripped of all she had; see Jeremiah 15:7.

(c) "alienos", Cocceius; some in Vatablus; so Kimchi, Ben Melech, Abendana.

Geneva Study Bible

And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. strangers] mg. (with A.V.) fanners, which (differing only in vocalisation from the other reading) suits the subsequent verb. So Syr. and Targ. The figure is that of men winnowing corn.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Farmers. This is supported by the Septuagint, Peshito, Targum, Vulgate, according to the Massoretic pointing, however, we should render "enemies." Possibly the prophet intended to suggest both meanings, a and o being so nearly related. Shall empty her land. The original has a much mere striking word, shall pour out (for the figures, comp. Jeremiah 48:12), which occurs again in similar contexts in Isaiah 24:1; Nahum 2:3 (Hebrew, 2). Jeremiah 51:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In Jeremiah 51:1-4, the terrible character of the hostile nation is further described. Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldea, God stirs up the "spirit of a destroyer," viz., a savage nation that will massacre the Chaldeans without pity. לב , lit., "the heart of mine adversaries," is the word כּשׂדּים, changed, according to the canon Atbash (see on Jeremiah 25:26), for the purpose of obtaining the important meaning that Chaldea is the centre of God's enemies. This explanation of the name involves the thought that all enmity against God the Lord culminates in Babylon; on the basis of this representation Babylon is called, Revelation 17:5, "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." רוּח משׁחית does not mean καύσωνα διαφθείροντα (lxx), ventum pestilentem (Vulgate), "a sharp wind" (Luther), nor, as it is usually translated, "a destroying wind;" for העיר רוּח is nowhere used of the rousing of a wind, but everywhere means "to rouse the spirit of any one," to stir him up to an undertaking; cf. Haggai 1:14; 1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Chronicles 21:16, and 2 Chronicles 36:22. Jeremiah also employs it thus in Jeremiah 51:11, and this meaning is quite suitable here also. משׁחית is a substantive, as in Jeremiah 4:7 : "the spirit of a destroyer." The figure of winnowing, which follows in Jeremiah 51:2, does not by any means necessarily require the meaning "wind," because the figure contained in the word זרוּה was first called forth by the employment of זרים, "strangers" equals barbarians. The sending of the זרים to Babylon has no connection with the figure of the wind, and it even remains a question whether זרוּה really means here to winnow, because the word is often used of the scattering of a nation, without any reference to the figure of winnowing; cf. Leviticus 26:33; Ezekiel 5:10; Ezekiel 12:15, etc., also Jeremiah 49:32, Jeremiah 49:36. However, this thought is suggested by what follows, "they empty her hand," although the clause which assigns the reason, "because they are against her round about" (cf. Jeremiah 4:17), does not correspond with this figure, but merely declares that the enemies which attack Babylon on every side disperse its inhabitants and empty the land.