Jeremiah 51:9

Jer 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up [even] to the skies.

Ver. 9. We would have healed Babylon.] Say the foreign nations that came to help her, or the people of God, {a} say others, that were kept captive by her, as Daniel and the rest.

But she is not healed.] Or, She could not be healed. See Hos 7:1.

For her judgment reacheth unto heaven.] It coelo clamor, proportionable to her sin. {Rev 18:5}

{a} Vox electorum. - Oecolamp.

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.

51:9-10 Nothing could save Babylon; her punishment could not be measured. After Babylon collapsed, it would be time for the exiles to return home, where they could tell others of God’s wonderful acts on their behalf.

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

Thus the people of God exhort one another to go to Zion and praise God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

We would have healed--We attempted to heal.

her judgment--her crimes provoking God's "judgments" [GROTIUS].

reacheth unto heaven-- (Gen 18:21; Jon 1:2; Rev 18:5). Even the heathen nations perceive that her awful fall must be God's judgment for her crying sins (Psa 9:16; Psa 64:9).

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 9. We would have healed Babylon] Had it been in our power, we would have saved her; but we could not turn away the judgment of God.

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

The Prophet assumes different characters; he speaks here in the person of those who of themselves brought help to the Babylonians. And many, no doubt, would have been ready to assist them, had King Belshazzar wished to accept aid; and we know also, that the city had a large army. He compares, then, the nations subject to the Babylonians, and also the hired and foreign soldiers, to physicians, as though he had said, “Babylon has been, with great care, healed.” As when a great prince is taken ill, he sends here and there for the best and most skillful physicians; but when the disease is incurable, they all strive in vain to save his life: so now the Prophet speaks, using a metaphor; but he speaks in the person of those who either had set to hire their services, or had come from a sense of duty to heal Babylon. “See,” they said, “the fault is not with us, for we have faithfully and carefully done our best to heal her, but she has not been healed.”

He then adds, Leave her, and let us depart, every one to his own land. This was the language of foreign soldiers and mercenaries. When they saw that the safety of the city was hopeless, they began to counsel one another, “What do we? Ought we not rather to consult our own safety? for our efforts are wholly useless. It is then time for every one to return to his own country, for the end of Babylon is come.” But the change of person has much more force than if the Prophet had spoken thus, “The time shall come when the auxiliaries shall flee away, for they will see that it would be all in vain to defend her.” But when he compares them to physicians, this similitude more fully illustrates the case; and then when he speaks in their person, this renders what is said still more emphatieal.

He at length adds, For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and has been elevated to the clouds. Jeremiah could not have properly addressed what he said to the unbelieving, if you explain this of God being adverse and hostile to the Babylonians; for it never occurred to the hired soldiers,

that Babylon perished through the just judgment of God. But the Prophet, according to a usual mode of speaking, says, Her judgment (that is, her destruction) reached to the heavens, and has been elevated to the clouds; that is, no aid shall be found under heaven, which can deliver Babylon, — how so? because it will be the same as though destruction came from heaven itself, and from the clouds. For when danger is nigh either from behind or from before us, we can turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, so that we may escape the evils which men may bring on us: but when heaven itself seems to threaten our heads, then an escape is attempted in vain. This then is the reason why the Prophet says that the judgment of Babylon had reached to the heavens and had been elevated to the clouds. It 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.

(9) We would have healed Babylon . . .—This is the dramatic answer of the Israelite exiles to the prophet’s appeal. They have done what they could, but all was in vain. The guilt could not be washed away, the punishment could not be averted. The “judgment” is measureless as is the distance from heaven to earth. This is also reproduced in Rev_18:5. For the phrase, as applied to Nebuchadnezzar, see Dan_4:20. Possibly there may be an allusive reference to the tower of Babel, “reaching unto heaven,” as the type of Babylonian greatness (Gen_11:4).

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

9. We would have healed, etc.] As the v. cannot be taken to express Jewish sentiment, we must suppose it to be put in the mouth of the nations, intoxicated by their share in the splendour of Babylon, and so lamenting its fall and desiring to restore its fortunes. Cp. Rev_18:9-19, and for Israel’s joy (Jer_51:10) at the judgement which befalls its oppressor, Rev_18:20.

her judgement] i.e. her punishment.

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.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed,.... These are either the words of the friends of Babylon of her auxiliaries and allies, who did all they could to defend her against the Persians, but to no purpose; it was not in their power to help her; the time of her destruction was come, and there was no avoiding it; or of the prophets and good people of the Jews that were in Babylon, that took pains to convince, the inhabitants of Babylon of their idolatries and other sins, and reform them, that so they might not be their ruin; but all instructions and admonitions were in vain; in like manner many worthy reformers have laboured much to reclaim mystical Babylon, or the church of Rome, from her errors and idolatries; but still she retains them; wherefore it follows:

forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; so said the auxiliary troops that were in the service of the king of Babylon; since we can do him no good, and are ourselves posed to danger, let us desert him, and provide for our safety by hastening to our own country as fast as we can; this was really the case after the first battle of Cyrus with the Babylonians, in which their king Neriglissar was slain: Croesus and the rest of the allies, seeing their case so distressed and helpless, left them to shift for themselves, and fled by night (h): or so might the Jews say when the city was taken, and they were delivered out of the hands of their oppressors; and so will the people of God say, who shall be called out of mystical Babylon just before its ruin, Rev 18:4;

for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies: that is, her sins were so many, that they reached even to heaven; and were taken notice of by God that dwelleth there; and were the cause of judgment or punishment being from thence inflicted on her, which was unavoidable, being the decree of heaven, and the just demerit of her sin; and therefore no help could be afforded her; nor was there any safety by being in her; see Rev 18:5.

(h) Xenophon, Cyropaedia l. 4. c. 2.

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

Omit would. All was done that it was possible to do to heal her.

To the skies - Or, to the clouds.

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

We. The guardian angels, or Jews reply. Miracles are lost on her. --- Heavens. Her crimes call for punishment, Genesis xviii. 21., and Jonas i. 2.

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).

The prophet here seemeth to personate the mercenary soldiers that should come to help the Chaldeans, as if they should say this, they would have helped Babylon, but there was no healing for her; and therefore they call one to another to leave her to herself, and return each man to his own country, for her punishment was very great, her case too sad for them to help. The reaching of things to the heavens, and lifting them up to the skies, are phrases used to signify high and great measures and degrees of things, so expressed Gen 11:4; 28:12; Deu 1:28; 1Sa 5:12; 2Ch 28:9; Psa 107:26.

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

9. Let us go every one into his own country — This is the language of mercenaries from different lands. Hence they say, We would have healed, etc.

Judgment — Really the sin by which the “judgment” is measured.

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

We would have healed Babylon. Experience shows that it is useless to attempt to correct such inveterate evils. Everyone into his own country. (as Jer_50:16) Her judgment; i.e. her punishment. Perhaps there is an allusion to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, burned by fire from heaven. But we might also render "her crime". (comp. Deu_19:6, where "worthy of death" is more strictly "a capital crime

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

We - The prophet seems to personate the mercenary soldiers, saying, they would have helped Babylon, but there was no healing for her.

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

General Information:

Yahweh used Babylon to punish Judah and the nation. It is either the people of Judah or the people of the nations who are speaking the words in this quotation.

Babylon ... she is not healed ... leave her ... her guilt

The name of the city is a metonym for the people who live there, and the city is spoken of as if it were a woman. AT: "the people of Babylon ... they are not healed ... leave them ... their guilt" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor)

she is not healed

This can be translated in active form. AT: "we have not been able to heal her" (See: Active or Passive)

For her guilt reaches up to the heavens; it is piled up to the clouds

Guilt is spoken of as if it were an object that could be made into a pile. The words "to the heavens" and "to the clouds" are an exaggeration for something that is very high. AT: "For Babylon is so very guilty" (See: Metaphor and Hyperbole and Generalization)

Yahweh has declared our innocence

Yahweh had punished the Israelites for their sins, but now has let them return to him.

translationWords

Babylon

guilt

heaven

Yahweh

innocent

Zion

works

God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

her judgment has touched the sky Their retribution has reached high up to the sky.

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.