Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 4.djvu/85

Rh and weary lie at rest. But this king of Babylon is cast out, and has no grave; (v. 19.) his dead body is thrown, like that of a beast, into the next ditch, or upon the next dunghill, like an abominable branch of some noxious, poisonous plant, which nobody will touch; or as the clothes of malefactors put to death, and by the hand of justice thrust through with a sword, on whose dead bodies heaps of stones are raised, or they are thrown into some deep quarry, among the stones of the pit. Nay, the king of Babylon's dead body shall be as the carcases of those who are slain in a battle, who are trodden under feet by the horses and soldiers, and crushed to pieces: thus he shall not be joined with his ancesters in burial, v. 20. To be denied decent burial is a disgrace, which, if it be inflicted for righteousness-sake (as Ps. lxix. 2.) may, as other similar reproaches, be rejoiced in; (Matth. v. 12.) it is the lot of the two witnesses, Rev. xi. 9. But if, as here, it be the just punishment of iniquity, it is an intimation that evil pursues impenitent sinners beyond death, greater evil than that, and that they shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt.

4. The many triumphs that should be in his fall.

(1.) Those whom he had been a great tyrant and terror to, will be glad that they are rid of him; (v. 7, 8.) Now that he is gone, the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet, for he was the great disturber of the peace; now they all break forth into singing, for when the wicked perish, there is shouting; (Prov. xi. 10.) the fir-trees and cedars of Lebanon now think themselves safe, there is no danger now of their being cut down, to make way for his vast armies, or to furnish him with timber. The neighbouring princes, and great men, who are compared to fir-trees and cedars, (Zech. xi. 2.) may now be easy, and out of fear of being dispossessed of their rights, for the hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken, (Jer. l. 23.) the axe that boasted itself against him that hewed with it, ch. x. 15.

(2.) The congregation of the dead will bid him welcome to them, especially those whom he had barbarously hastened thither; (v. 9, 10.) "Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, and to compliment thee upon thy arrival at their dark and dreadful regions." The chief ones of the earth, who, when they were alive, were kept in awe by him, and durst not come near him, but rose from their thrones, to resign them to him, these shall upbraid him with it; when he comes into the state of the dead, they shall go forth to meet him, as they used to do when he made his public entry into cities he was become master of; with such a parade shall he be introduced into those regions of horror, to make his disgrace and torment the more grievous to him. They shall scoffingly rise from their thrones and seats there, and ask him if he will please to sit down in them, as he used to do in their thrones on earth? The confusion that will then cover him they shall make a jest of; "Art thou also become weak as we? Who would have thought it? It is what thou thyself didst not expect it would ever come to, when thou wast in every thing too hard for us. Thou that didst rank thyself among the immortal gods, art thou come to take thy fate among us poor mortal men? Where is thy pomp now, and where thy mirth? How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning," v. 11, 12. The king of Babylon has shone as bright as the morning-star, and fancied that, wherever he came, he brought day along with him; and is such an illustrious prince as this fallen, such a star become a clod of clay? Did ever any man fall from such a height of honour and power into such an abyss of shame and misery? This has been commonly alluded to, (and it is a mere allusion,) to illustrate the fall of the angels, who wereasmorning-stars, Job xxxviii. 7. But ''how are they fallen! How art thou cut down to the ground, and levelled with it, that didst weaken the nations!'' God will reckon with those that invade the rights, and disturb the peace, of mankind, for he is King of nations as well as saints.

Now this reception of the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, which is here described, surely is something more than a flight of fancy, and is designed to speak these solid truths: [1.] That there is an invisible world, a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death, and in which they exist and act in a state of separation from the body. [2.] That separate souls have acquaintance and converse with each other, though. we have none with them; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus intimates this. [3.] That death and hell will be death and hell indeed to those that fall unsanctified from the height of this world's pomps, and the fulness of its pleasures: Son, remember, Luke xvi. 25.

(3.) Spectators will stand amazed at his fall. When he shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit, and to be lodged there, (v. 15.) they that see him shall narrowly look upon him, and consider him, they shall scarcely believe their own eyes; never was death so great a change to any man as it is to him. Is it possible that a man who a few hours ago looked so great, so pleasant, and was so splendidly adorned and attended, should now look so ghastly, so despicable, and lie thus naked and neglected? Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, and shook kingdoms? Who would have thought he should ever have come to this? Psalm lxxxii. 7.

Lastly, Here is an inference drawn from all this; (v. 20.) The seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The princes of the Babylonian monarch were all a seed of evil-doers, oppressors of the people of God, and therefore they had this infamy entailed upon them. They shall not be renowned for ever; so some read it; they may look big for a time, but all their pomp will only render their disgrace at last the more shameful; there is no credit in a sinful way.

II. The utter ruin of the royal family is here foretold, together with the desolation of the royal city.

1. The royal family is to be wholly extirpated. The Medes and Persians that are to be employed in this destroying work, are ordered, when they have slain Belshazzar, to prepare slaughter for his children, (v. 21.) and not to spare them; the little ones of Babylon must be dashed against the stones, Ps. cxxxvii. 9. These orders sound very harsh; but, (1.) They must suffer for the iniquity of their fathers, which is often visited upon the children, to show how much God hates sin, and is displeased at it, and to deter sinners from it, which is the end of punishment. Nebuchadnezzar had slain Zedekiah's sons, (Jer. lii. 10.) and for that iniquity of his, his seed are paid in the same coin. (2.) They must be cut off now, that they may not rise up to possess the land, and do as much mischief in their day as their fathers had done in theirs; that they may not be as vexatious to the world by building cities for the support of their tyranny, (which was Nimrod's policy, Gen. x. 11.) as their ancestors had been by destroying cities. Pharaoh oppressed Israel in Egypt by setting them to build cities, Exod. i. 11. The providence of God consults the welfare of nations more than we are aware of, by cutting off some who, if they had lived, would have done mischief. Justly may the enemies cut off the children; For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, v. 22. And if God reveal it as his mind that he will have it done, as none can hinder it, so none need scruple to further it. Babylon perhaps was proud of the numbers of her royal family, but God