Isa 13:14, Jer 51:6, 9, Nah 3:16-17 | JFB | STEP | 14. it —Babylon. roe —gazelle; the most timid and easily startled. no man taketh up —sheep defenseless, without a shepherd ( ). every man . . . to his own people —The "mingled peoples" of foreign lands shall flee out of her ( ).

Isaiah 13:14

14. it—Babylon.

roe—gazelle; the most timid and easily startled.

no man taketh up—sheep defenseless, without a shepherd (Zec 13:7).

every man . . . to his own people—The "mingled peoples" of foreign lands shall flee out of her (Jer 50:16, 28, 37; 51:9).

Jeremiah 51:6

6. Warning to the Israelite captives to flee from Babylon, lest they should be involved in the punishment of her "iniquity." So as to spiritual Babylon and her captives (Re 18:4).

Jeremiah 51:9

9. We would have healed—We attempted to heal.

her judgment—her crimes provoking God's "judgments" [GROTIUS].

reacheth unto heaven— (Ge 18:21; Jon 1:2; Re 18:5). Even the heathen nations perceive that her awful fall must be God's judgment for her crying sins (Ps 9:16; 64:9).

Nahum 3:16-17

16. multiplied thy merchants— (Eze 27:23, 24). Nineveh, by large canals, had easy access to Babylon; and it was one of the great routes for the people of the west and northwest to that city; lying on the Tigris it had access to the sea. The Ph nicians carried its wares everywhere. Hence its merchandise is so much spoken of.

the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away—that is, spoiled thy merchants. The "cankerworm," or licking locust, answers to the Medo-Babylonian invaders of Nineveh [G. V. SMITH]. CALVIN explains less probably, "Thy merchants spoiled many regions; but the same shall befall them as befalls locusts, they in a moment shall be scattered and flee away." MAURER, somewhat similarly, "The licking locust puts off (the envelope in which his wings had been folded), and teeth away" (Na 2:9; compare Joe 1:4). The Hebrew has ten different names for the locust, so destructive was it.

17. Thy crowned—Thy princes (Re 9:7). The king's nobles and officers wore the tiara, as well as the king; hence they are called here "thy crowned ones."

as the locusts—as many as the swarming locusts.

thy captains—Tiphsar, an Assyrian word; found also in Jer 51:27, meaning satraps [MICHAELIS]; or rather, "military leaders" [MAURER]. The last syllable, sar means a "prince," and is found in Belshaz-zar, Nabopolas-sar, Nebuchadnez-zar.

as the great grasshoppers—literally, "as the locust of locusts," that is, the largest locust. MAURER translates, "as many as locusts upon locusts," that is, swarms of locusts. Hebrew idiom favors English Version.

in the hedges in the cold—Cold deprives the locust of the power of flight; so they alight in cold weather and at night, but when warmed by the sun soon "flee away." So shall the Assyrian multitudes suddenly disappear, not leaving a trace behind (compare PLINY, Natural History, 11.29).