Isaiah 46:11
11. ravenous bird—Cyrus so called on account of the rapidity of his marches from the distant regions of Persia to pounce on his prey (see on Isa 41:2; Isa 41:25; Jer 49:22; Eze 17:3). The standard of Cyrus, too, was a golden eagle on a spear (see the heathen historian, XENOPHON, 7, where almost the same word is used, aetos, as here, ayit).
executeth my counsel— (Isa 44:28; 45:13). Babylon represents, mystically, the apostate faction: the destruction of its idols symbolizes the future general extirpation of all idolatry and unbelief. purposed . . . also do it— (Isa 43:13).Jeremiah 4:13
13. clouds—continuing the metaphor in Jer 4:11:12. Clouds of sand and dust accompany the simoom, and after rapid gyrations ascend like a pillar.
eagles— (De 28:49; Hab 1:8). Woe unto us—The people are graphically presented before us, without it being formally so stated, bursting out in these exclamations.Lamentations 4:19
19. The last times just before the taking of the city. There was no place of escape; the foe intercepted those wishing to escape from the famine-stricken city, "on the mountains and in the wilderness."
swifter . . . than . . . eagles—the Chaldean cavalry (Jer 4:13). pursued—literally, "to be hot"; then, "to pursue hotly" (Ge 31:36). Thus they pursued and overtook Zedekiah (Jer 52:8, 9).Resh.
Habakkuk 1:6
6. I raise up—not referring to God's having brought the Chaldeans from their original seats to Babylonia (see on Isa 23:13), for they had already been upwards of twenty years (since Nabopolassar's era) in political power there; but to His being about now to raise them up as the instruments of God's "work" of judgment on the Jews (2Ch 36:6). The Hebrew is future, "I will raise up."
bitter—that is, cruel (Jer 50:42; compare Jud 18:25, Margin; 2Sa 17:8). hasty—not passionate, but "impetuous."