Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/83

Rh from the bondage of sin, have a foundation laid for true rest from sorrow and fear.

4. That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! 5. The hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. 6. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. 7. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. 8. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10. All they shall speak, and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13. For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 16. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17. That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18. All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house: 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. 20. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. 21. Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. 22. For I will rise up against them, saith the of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the. 23. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the of hosts.

The kings of Babylon, successively, were the great enemies and oppressors of God's people, and therefore the destruction of Babylon, the fall of the king, and the ruin of his family, are here particularly taken notice of and triumphed in; in the day that God has given Israel rest, they shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. We must not rejoice when our enemy falls, as ours; but when Babylon, the common enemy of God and his Israel, sinks, then rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, Rev. xviii. 20. The Babylonian monarchy bade fair to be an absolute, universal, and perpetual one, and, in these pretensions, vied with the Almighty; it is therefore very justly, not only brought down, but insulted over when it is down; and it is not only the last monarch, Belshazzar, who was slain on that night that Babylon was taken, (Dan. v. 30.) who is here triumphed over, but the whole monarchy, which sunk in him; not without special reference to Nebuchadnezzar, in whom that monarchy was at its height. Now here,

I. The fall of the king of Babylon is rejoiced in; and a most curious, elegant composition is here prepared, not to adorn his hearse or monument, but to expose his memory, and fix a lasting brand of infamy upon it. It gives us an account of the life and death of this mighty monarch, how he went down slain to the pit, though he had been the terror of the mighty in the land of the living, Ezek. xxxii. 27.

In this parable we may observe,

1. The prodigious height of wealth and power at which this monarch and monarchy arrived. Babylon was a golden city, (v. 4.) It is a Chaldee word in the original, which intimates that she used to call herself so; she abounded in riches, and excelled all other cities, as gold does all other metals. She is gold-thirsty, or an exactress of gold; so some read it; for how do men get wealth to themselves, but by squeezing it out of others? The New Jerusalem is the only truly golden city, Rev. xxi. 18, 21. The king of Babylon, having so much wealth in his dominions, and the absolute command of it, by the help of that ruled the nations, (v. 6.) gave them law, read them their doom, and, at his pleasure, weakened the nations, (v. 12.) that they might not be able to make head against him. Such vast victorious armies did he bring into the field, that, which way soever he looked, he made the earth to tremble, and shook kingdoms; (v. 16.) all his neighbours were afraid of him, and were forced to submit to him. No one man could do this by his own personal strength, but by the numbers he has at his beck. Great tyrants, by making some do what they will, make others suffer what they will. How piteous is the case of mankind, which thus seems to be in a combination against itself, and its own rights and liberties, which could not be ruined but by its own strength.

2. The wretched abuse of all this wealth and power, which the king of Babylon was guilty of, in two instances:

(1.) Great oppression and cruelty; he is known by the name of the oppressor, (v. 4.) he has the sceptre of the rulers, (v. 5.) has the command of all the princes about him; but it is the staff of the wicked, a staff with which he supports himself in his wickedness, and wickedly strikes all about him; He smote the people, not in justice, for their correction and reformation, but in wrath, (v. 6.) to gratify his own peevish resentments, and that with a continual stroke, pursued them with his forces,