Jeremiah 50:12

Jer 50:12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations [shall be] a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Ver. 12. Your mother shall be sore confounded,] i.e., Babylon, your mother city, or Babylonia, your country; or your monarchical greatness, which being in the last place laid waste after other nations, {as Jer 25:25-26 was foretold} shall with shame cry out, Heu tam cito me quae primas obtinebam, &c. How is it that I, who was the head of nations, am now the tail, &c.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 50:12-16. Your mother shall be sore confounded — Namely, Babylon the metropolis, or mother-city of the empire. Or, your country shall be ashamed of you, her children, who are not able to defend her. Behold, the hindermost of the nations, &c. — The translation of this clause in the Vulgate seems much preferable to ours, Ecce novissima erit in gentibus, et deserta, invia, et arens, behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, desolate and dry. Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited — See this illustrated in the notes on Isa 13:19-22. Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished — See note on chap. Jer 18:16. For she hath sinned against the Lord — She hath been in a remarkable manner an enemy to God’s truth and people. This may be especially applied to mystical Babylon: see Jer 50:29-31. Shout against her round about — As conquerors do when a city is taken. She hath given her hand — That is, she hath surrendered herself: she hath submitted and promised obedience to the conqueror. The phrase occurs in the same sense Lam 5:6 and also 1Ch 29:24, where see the margin. Thus, dare manus, to give the hands, in Latin, signifies to yield; and most probably alludes to the act of the vanquished, who, throwing down his arms, and stretching forth his defenceless hands, acknowledges himself to be in the victor’s power; her foundations are fallen — Namely, the foundations of her walls, laid in a marshy soil, and surrounded with a deep ditch full of water, to the undermining power of which they were continually exposed: see Herodot. lib. 1. cap. 178. Cut off the sower from Babylon — “Babylon resembled a country walled in rather than a city; the walls, according to Herodotus, being sixty miles in compass. Within this large circuit a great deal of ground was cultivated with corn. So that enough grew within the walls to support the inhabitants during a long siege.” — See Prideaux’s Connections, page 187. Or, by Babylon here, may be understood, not the city only, but the whole province. They shall turn every one to his people — This is spoken of the allies of the Babylonians.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

50:12 The divine Judge rendered his verdict, describing the disgrace of a defeated Babylon.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Your mother--Babylon, the metropolis of the empire.

hindermost--marvellous change, that Babylon, once the queen of the world, should be now the hindermost of nations, and at last, becoming "a desert," cease to be a nation!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Your mother] Speaking to the Chaldeans: BABYLON, the metropolis, or mother city, shall be a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, neither fit for man nor beast.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

WE explained yesterday why the Prophet denounced shame and reproach on the Babylonians, even because they had arrogantly exulted over the children of God. And he says that Babylon would be the extremity of the Nations.

The Chaldeans had flourished in power and wealth, and possessed the empire of the East. It was then an extraordinary revolution to be reduced to the lowest condition, to be, as it were, the dregs of all the nations. And to the same purpose he adds, a barren land, a desert, and a solitude It now follows, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) Your mother shall be sore confounded . . .—The prophet speaks to the people of Babylon, and the city is therefore described as their mother.

The hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness . . .—The interpolated words mar the force of the sentence. Better, behold the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a waste, and a desert. This was to be the state to which Babylon should be reduced.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. your mother] Babylon, as mother of the individual citizens. Cp. Hos_2:2; Hos_2:5.

a wilderness … a desert] Cp. Jer_2:6, Jer_51:43.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Your mother shall be sore confounded,.... The monarchy of the Chaldeans; so the Targum and jarchi, your congregation; or rather their metropolis, their mother city, the city of Babylon; which would be confounded when taken, none of her sons being able to defend her: the same will be true of mystical Babylon, the mother of harlots, Rev 17:5;

she that bare you shall be ashamed; which is the same as before, in different words:

behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert; or, as the Vulgate Latin version, "she shall be the last among the nations"; she that was the head of them, signified by the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar's image, shall now be the tail of them, and become like a dry land and desert, without inhabitants, having neither men nor cattle in it; see Jer 50:3; or, as Jarchi and Kimchi, their end, "the latter end" (m) of the kingdom of Babylon; or what should befall that people in their last days would be, that their land should become a wilderness, the habitants being slain, and none to till it; or Babylon is called the last of the nations, because her punishment, in order of time, was last, as Gussetius (n) thinks; Jer 25:26.

(m) "finis seu extremitas gentium", Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt. (n) Comment. Ebr. p. 30.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Your mother - i. e., Babylon. Confounded ... ashamed. Or, ashamed ... blush.

Behold ... - Translate, “Behold she is the hindermost of the nations, a desert, a thirsty land, and a waste:” - the reason why Babylon is to blush. Once the head of gold Dan 2:32, she is now the lowest of earthly powers.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dust, like a suppliant, Isaias xlvii. 1. (Calmet) --- Dry. The country shall be equally unfruitful. The waters of the Euphrates being let off, gave a passage to the enemy, ver. 9. (Haydock) --- Babylon soon lost its splendour. (Calmet) --- Vologeses completed its ruin. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vi. 26.) --- It ceased to be the metropolis or mother city. (Haydock) --- The whole country was laid waste. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Your chief City Babylon, or your country, which is the common mother of all the Chaldeans, shall be destroyed, or

shall be ashamed of you, who are not able to defend her. The sense here seems a little difficult, because it appears no such strange thing that the hindermost of the nations should be a wilderness. It is therefore probable that the words shall be are to be understood before

the hindermost of the nations; our translation supplieth them after; so the reading will be, it shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, &c.; that is, Babylon, that hath been so famous, and accounted the head of the nations, shall become the meanest of all nations, a mere wilderness, and a dry land, and a desert.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Your mother — Babylon, the nation considered as a unit.

Hindermost of the nations — Balaam calls Amalek “the first of the nations.” Babylon, the “head of gold,” is here called the last “of the nations.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mother - Your country, shall be ashamed of you, who are not able to defend her.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Your mother Your nation.

the end of the nations Although your beginning was great, your end will be a desert.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.