Geneva Bible Notes (1560)Jeremiah 51

^{1 /} Or, of the land that riseth vp.

^{1 a} The Medes and Persians, that shal destroye them as the winde doeth the chaffe.

^{3 !} Why Babylon is destroyed.

^{5 b} Thogh they were forsaken for a time, yet they were not vtterly cast of as thogh their housband were dead.

^{6 c} He sheweth that there remaineth nothing for them that abide in Babylon, but destruction, {Chap. 17, 6} & {48, 6}.

^{7 d} By whome the Lord powred out the drinke of his vengeance, to whom it pleased him.

^{7 e} For the great afflictions that thei haue felt by the Babylonians.

^{9 f} Thus the people of God exhort one another to go to Zion and praise God.

^{10 g} In approuing our cause and punishing our enemies.

^{10 /} Or, fil, or multiple.

^{11 h} For the wrong done to his people and to his Temple {Chap. 50, 28}

^{13 i} For the land of Caldea was ful of riuers which ran into Euphrates.

^{13 /} Or, measure.

^{14 /} Ebr. his foule.

^{17 k} Read {Chap. 10, 14}.

^{18 l} When God shal execute his vengeance.

^{19 m} That is, the true God of Israel is not like to these idoles: for he can helpe when all things are desperate.

^{20 n} He meaneth the Medes and Persians, as he did before call the Babylonians his hammer, {Chap. 50, 23}.

^{25 p} From thy strong holdes and forteresses.

^{25 o} Not that Babyon stode on a mountaine, but because it was strong and semed inuincible.

^{27 q} By these thre nations he meaneth Armenia the hier, and Armenia the lower, and Sythia: for Cyrus had gathered an armie of diuers nacions.

^{31 r} By turning the course of the riuer one side was made open, and the redes that did growe in the water, were destroied which Cyrus did by the counsel of Gobria & Gabatha Belshazzars captaines.

^{33 s} When she shalbe cut vp and threshed.

^{34 t} This is spoken in the persone of the Jewes, bewayling their state and the crueltie of the Babylonians.

^{36 u} Thus the Lord estemeth the injurie done to him self, because their cause is his.

^{38 x} When thei are inflamed with surfeting and drinking, I wil feast with them alluding to Belshazzars banket, {Dan. 5, 2}.

^{41 !} The vaine confidence of the Babylonians.

^{41 y} Meaning Babel, as {Chap. 25, 26}.

^{42 z} The great armie of the Medes and Persians.

^{43 !} The vanitie of idolaters.

^{44 a} That is, his giftes & presents which he had receiued as part of the spoile of other nacions, and which the idolaters broght vnto him from all countreys.

^{46 b} Meaning, that Babylon shuld not be destroied all at once, but by litle & litle shulde be broght to nothing: for the first yere came the tydings, the next yere the siege, and in the thirde yere it was taken: yet this is not that horrible destruction which the Prophetes threatned in manie palces: for that was after this when they rebelled and Darius ouercame them by the policie of Zopirus and hanged thre thousand gentlemen besides the commune people.

^{48 c} All creatures in heauen & earth shal rejoice and praise God for the destruction of Babylon the great enemie of his Churche.

^{49 d} Babylon did not onely destroy Israel, but many other nacions.

^{50 e} Ye that are now captiues in Babylon.

^{51 f} He sheweth how they shulde remember Jerusalem by lamenting the miserable affliction thereof.

^{53 g} For the walles were two hundreth foote hie.

^{57 h} I wil so astonish them by afflictions that thei shal not know which waye to turne them.

^{58 i} The thicknes of the walle was fiftie foote thicke.

^{59 !} Jeremiah giueth his boke to Seraiah.

^{59 k} This was not in the time of his captiuitie, but seuen yeres, before, when he went ether to gratulat Nebuchad-nezzar or to intreat of some matters.

^{63 l} S. John in his reuelation alludeth to this place when he saith that the Angel tok a milestone and cast into the sea: signifying thereby the destruction of Babylon, {Reuel, 18, 21}.

^{64 m} Thei shal not be able to resist, but shal labour invaine.