Jeremiah 51:8

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Babylon is suddenly fallen . . .—The form of announcement seems taken in part from Isaiah 21:9.

Take balm for her pain . . .—The words are significant. The captive people are not invited simply to raise a shout of triumph at the fall of their oppressor: they are to “take balm” (comp. the use of the same image in Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11), and try to heal her. They are still to “seek the peace of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7), to render kindly service, to pour balm into the bleeding wounds.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 51:8-9. Babylon is suddenly fallen — It was one of the aggravations of the punishment of Babylon, that her destruction came upon her suddenly and unexpectedly. Howl for her, &c. — So the kings, the merchants, and other factors, are described as lamenting the destruction of mystical Babylon, Revelation 18:9; Revelation 18:11; Revelation 18:17-19. Take balm for her pain — Use your utmost endeavours, and try every thing you can to save her from destruction. This is spoken ironically, implying her ruin to be irrecoverable. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed — Some think “this is spoken in the name of God’s prophets, and the other witnesses of his truth, importing that they had sufficiently testified against her errors and idolatries, but that she was irreclaimable; and therefore that it was time for all the lovers of truth to depart out of her, lest they should be involved in her punishments.” But it is more probable that the nations which had been subject to Babylon, and were her allies, are the speakers here, declaring that they had assisted her to the utmost of their power, and had endeavoured to support her sinking cause, but all in vain, nothing which they had done or could do availing to save her from destruction. And therefore, as her case was desperate, it was time for them to shift for themselves, and to leave Babylon to its fate, since it seemed to be the decree of Heaven that it should fall. Those who have written of the downfall of Babylon relate, that when its affairs seemed to grow desperate, it was deserted by most of its allies, few or none of them persevering to lend it any assistance. Her judgment reacheth unto heaven — That is, her sin, bringing down God’s judgments; and is lifted up even to the skies — It comes to the ears of even God himself, and engages him to take account of it and punish her.

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

Destroyed - literally, broken, as was the hammer Jeremiah 50:23. The cup, though of metal, is thrown down so violently as to be shattered by the fall.

Howl for her - The persons addressed are the many inhabitants of Babylon who were dragged from their homes to people its void places, and especially the Israelites. They have dwelt there long enough to feel pity for her, when they contrast her past magnificence with her terrible fall. Compare Jeremiah 29:7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8, 9. Her friends and confederates, who behold her fall, are invited to her aid. They reply, her case is incurable, and that they must leave her to her fate. (Isa 21:9; Re 14:8; 18:2, 9).

balm—(Jer 8:22; 46:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That is, she shall suddenly fall and be destroyed; you may try all the probable ways for her cure, but they will all be used to no purpose.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed,.... Or "broken" (g); even into shivers, as a cup is; for when it had been used to answer the purposes designed by the Lord, he let it fall cut of his hands at once, and it was broken; or rather he dashed it in pieces, as a potter's vessel. The destruction of Babylon was brought about in a very short time, considering the strength of it; and was unexpected by the inhabitants of it, and by the nations round about; but, when it was come, it was irreparable: so the destruction of mystical Babylon will be in one hour, and it will be an utter and entire destruction, Revelation 18:8;

howl for her; as the inhabitants of Babylon, and her friends and allies that loved her, did no doubt; and as the kings and merchants of the earth, and others, will howl for spiritual Babylon, Revelation 18:9;

take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed: or balsam; see Jeremiah 46:11; which is said by way of derision and mockery, as Kimchi and Abarbinel observe; or in an ironical and sarcastic manner; suggesting, that, let what means soever be made use of, her wound was incurable, her ruin inevitable, and her case irrecoverable.

(g) "confracta est", Schmidt; "fracta est", Cocceius; "contrita est", Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. take balm] See on Jeremiah 46:11.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Destroyed. The Hebrew, more forcibly, has "is broken." The Authorized Version wished, perhaps, to avoid the objection that a golden cup could not, properly speaking, be broken. But if we once begin to harmonize the language of Hebrew poetry, we shall have no end. It is not the cup which falls, but the state, considered as a house (the "breach" of God's people is constantly referred to; e.g. Psalm 60:2; Isaiah 30:26). Howl for her. Sympathetic bystanders are dramatically appealed to. From the next verse it would seem that they are the various foreigners who, whether by choice or force, have been resident in Babylon, and who have acquired an interest in her fate. Hitzig thinks the foreign mercenaries (Jeremiah 50:37) or allies are specially referred to. Take balm for her pain (comp. Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 46:11). The images of fracture and wound are combined, as in Isaiah 30:26. Jeremiah 51:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Babylon, certainly, in its former power and greatness, was a golden goblet, by means of which Jahveh presented to the nations the wine of His wrath, and intoxicated them; but now it is fallen, and broken without remedy. Isaiah 21:9 finds an echo in the expression, "Babylon is fallen." The figure of the cup refers us back to Jeremiah 25:15., where, however, it is applied in a different way. The cup is said to be of gold, in order to point out the splendour and glory of Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. "In the hand of Jahveh," i.e., used by Him as His instrument for pouring out His wrath to the nations. But Babylon has suddenly fallen and been broken in pieces. At this point Jeremiah drops the figure of the cup, for a golden cup does not break when it falls. The fall is so terrible, that the nations in Babylon are summoned to participate in the lamentation, and to lend their aid in repairing her injuries. But they answer that their attempts to heal her are fruitless. (On צרי, cf. Jeremiah 46:11 and Jeremiah 8:22.) The terrible and irreparable character of the fall is thus expressed in a dramatic manner. We must neither think of the allies and mercenaries as those who are addressed (Schnurrer, Rosenmller, Maurer, Hitzig), nor merely the Israelites who had been delivered from Babylon (Umbreit). The latter view is opposed by the words which follow, "Let every one go to his own country;" this points to men out of different lands. And the former assumption is opposed by the consideration that not merely the mercenaries, but also the allies are to be viewed as fallen and ruined together with Babylon, and that Babylon, which had subdued all the nations, has no allies, according to the general way in which the prophet views these things. Those addressed are rather the nations that had been vanquished by Babylon and detained in the city, of which Israel was one. Inasmuch as these were the servants of Babylon, and as such bound to pay her service, they are to heal Babylon; and because the attempts to heal her prove fruitless, they are to leave the ruined city. They answer this summons by the resolve, "We will go every one to his own land;" cf. Jeremiah 50:8, Jeremiah 50:16. The motive for this resolution, "for her guilt reaches up to heaven," certainly shows that it is Israelites who are speaking, because it is only they who form their opinions in such a way; but they speak in the name of all the strangers who are in Babylon. משׁפּט is the matter upon which judgment is passed, i.e., the transgression, the guilt, analogous to משׁפּט דּמים, Ezekiel 7:23, and משׁפּט מות , Deuteronomy 19:6; Deuteronomy 21:22; it does not mean the punishment adjudged, of which we cannot say that it reaches up to heaven. On this expression, cf. Psalm 57:11; Psalm 108:5. Through the fall of Babylon, the Lord has made manifest the righteousness of Israel; the redeemed ones are to proclaim this in Zion. צדקות does not mean "righteous acts" (Judges 5:11), but proofs of the righteousness of Israel as opposed to Babylon, which righteousness Babylon, through tyrannical oppression of the people that had been delivered up to it merely for chastisement, has failed to perceive, and which, so long as the Lord did not take His people to Himself again in a visible manner, was hidden from the world; cf. Psalm 37:6.