Jérémie 50:16

16 Exterminez de Babylone celui qui sème, Et celui qui manie la faucille au temps de la moisson! Devant le glaive destructeur, Que chacun se tourne vers son peuple, Que chacun fuie vers son pays.

Jérémie 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.
FOOTNOTES:

F19 Hist. l. 5. c. 1.

Jérémie 50:16 In-Context

14 Rangez-vous en bataille autour de Babylone, vous tous, archers! Tirez contre elle, n'épargnez pas les flèches! Car elle a péché contre l'Eternel.
15 Poussez de tous côtés contre elle un cri de guerre! Elle tend les mains; Ses fondements s'écroulent; Ses murs sont renversés. Car c'est la vengeance de l'Eternel. Vengez-vous sur elle! Faites-lui comme elle a fait!
16 Exterminez de Babylone celui qui sème, Et celui qui manie la faucille au temps de la moisson! Devant le glaive destructeur, Que chacun se tourne vers son peuple, Que chacun fuie vers son pays.
17 Israël est une brebis égarée, que les lions ont chassée; Le roi d'Assyrie l'a dévorée le premier; Et ce dernier lui a brisé les os, Nebucadnetsar, roi de Babylone.
18 C'est pourquoi ainsi parle l'Eternel des armées, le Dieu d'Israël: Voici, je châtierai le roi de Babylone et son pays, Comme j'ai châtié le roi d'Assyrie.
The Louis Segond 1910 is in the public domain.