Jeremias 51:7

7 And now thus has the Lord Almighty said, Wherefore do ye commit great evils against your souls? to cut off man and woman of you, infant and suckling from the midst of Juda, to the end that not one of you should be left;

Jeremias 51:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:7

Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the hand of the Lord
Either so called from the liquor in it, being of a yellow colour, or pure as gold, as the Jewish commentators generally; or from the matter of it, being made of gold, denoting the grandeur, splendour, and riches of the Babylonian empire; which, for the same reason, is called the head of gold, ( Daniel 2:38 ) ; this was in the hand of the Lord, under his direction, and at his dispose; an instrument he make use of to dispense the cup of his wrath and vengeance to other nations, or to inflict punishment on them for their sins; see ( Jeremiah 25:15-26 ) ; or else the sense is, that, by the permission of God, Babylon had by various specious pretences drawn the nations of the earth into idolatry, and other sins, which were as poison in a golden cup, by which they had been deceived; and this suits best with the use of the phrase in ( Revelation 17:4 ) ; that made all the earth drunken;
either disturbed them with wars, so that they were like a drunken man that reels to and fro, and falls, as they did, into ruin and destruction; or made them drunk with the wine of her fornication, with idolatry, so that they were intoxicated with it, as the whore of Rome, mystical Babylon, is said to do, ( Revelation 17:2 ) ; the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad:
they drank of the wine of God's wrath by her means, being engaged in wars, which proved their ruin, and deprived theft of their riches, strength, and substance, as mad men are of their reason; or they drank in her errors, and partook of her idolatry, and ran mad upon her idols, as she did, ( Jeremiah 50:38 ) ; see ( Revelation 18:3 ) .

Jeremias 51:7 In-Context

5 But they hearkened not to me, and inclined not their ear to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn incense to strange gods.

6 So mine anger and my wrath dropped , and was kindled in the gates of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they became a desolation and a waste, as at this day.

7 And now thus has the Lord Almighty said, Wherefore do ye commit great evils against your souls? to cut off man and woman of you, infant and suckling from the midst of Juda, to the end that not one of you should be left;

8 by provoking me with the works of your hands, to burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, into which ye entered to dwell there, that ye might be cut off, and that ye might become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have ye forgotten the sins of your fathers, and the sins of the kings of Juda, and the sins of your princes, and the sins of your wives, which they wrought in the land of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?