Jeremiah 50:16

16 Don't let the people from Babylon plant their crops or gather the harvest. The soldiers treated their captives cruelly. Now, let everyone go back home. Let everyone run to his own country.

Jeremiah 50:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:16

Cut off the sower from in Babylon, and him that handleth the
sickle in the time of harvest
Both sower and reaper: the walls of Babylon took in a large compass of land, where there were corn fields; and which, as Curtius ^F19 observes, would yield a sufficiency to hold out a siege against an enemy; but being taken, the husbandman would not be spared, as used to be, but should be cut off, and so none to till the ground, or to reap what was upon it; and thus, in course, would be, desolate, as before threatened. The Targum understands this in a figurative sense,

``destroy the king out of Babylon, and take hold of the sword in the time of slaughter;''

and Cocceius interprets the sower of any doctor or bishop in mystical Babylon, and the reaper of such that gather the fruits, and exact obedience; see ( Revelation 18:14 Revelation 18:22 ) ; for fear of the oppressing sword;
of the Medes and Persians: they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone
to his own land;
not those of other nations, as the Jews, who were detained captives there, as Kimchi thinks; for these were not in such fear of the Persians, nor did they flee because of them; but were let go by them, and sent into their own land honourably: but either such who, of other nations, were come to traffic at Babylon; or rather the auxiliaries of other nations, who were either hired or forced into the service of Babylon; these, finding the city taken, would make the best of their way into their own country.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Hist. l. 5. c. 1.

Jeremiah 50:16 In-Context

14 "Take your positions for war against Babylon, all you soldiers with bows. Shoot your arrows at Babylon! Do not save any of them, because Babylon has sinned against the Lord.

15 Soldiers around Babylon, shout the war cry! Babylon has surrendered, her towers have fallen, and her walls have been torn down. The Lord is giving her people the punishment they deserve. You nations should give her what she deserves; do to her what she has done to others.

16 Don't let the people from Babylon plant their crops or gather the harvest. The soldiers treated their captives cruelly. Now, let everyone go back home. Let everyone run to his own country.

17 "The people of Israel are like a flock of sheep that are scattered from being chased by lions. The first lion to eat them up was the king of Assyria. The last lion to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon."

18 So this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: "I will punish the king of Babylon and his country as I punished the king of Assyria.