Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryJeremiah 51:57
"I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men, That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up," Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. Jump to: Clarke Commentary • Gill's Exposition • Geneva Study Bible • Commentary Critical and Explanatory • Wesley's Notes • Calvin's Commentary • Trapp's Commentary • Coke's Commentary • Poole's Annotations • Constable's Expository Notes • Haydock's Catholic Commentary • Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge Other Authors
Adam Clarke CommentaryI will make drunk her princes - See on Jeremiah 51:39; (note). Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleAnd I will make drunk her princes,.... With the wine of divine wrath; that is, slay them; though there may be an allusion to their being drunk with wine at the feast Belshazzar made for his thousand lords; who are the princes here intended, together with the king and his royal family, Daniel 5:1; and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: the counsellors of state, priests, magicians, and astrologers; officers in the army, superior and inferior ones; and the soldiers and warriors, whom Cyrus and his men slew; when they entered the city; compare with this Revelation 19:18; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake; be all asleep in their drunken fits, and be slain therein; and so never wake, or live more. The Targum is, "and they shall die the second death, and not come into the world to come;' See Gill on Jeremiah 51:39; saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts; the King of kings and Lord of lords; the Lord of armies in heaven and earth; and can do, and does, what he pleases in both worlds. Copyright Statement Bibliography Geneva Study BibleAnd I will h make drunk her princes, and her wise [men], her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts.(h) I will so astonish them by affliction that they will not know which way to turn themselves. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible(Jeremiah 51:39; Daniel 5:1, etc.). Copyright Statement Bibliography Wesley's Explanatory NotesAnd I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. Drunk — A plain allusion to the posture the king of Babylon, and the thousand of his lords were in, when their city was taken while they were drinking wine in the bowls that were brought from the temple at Jerusalem. Copyright Statement Bibliography Calvin's Commentary on the BibleJeremiah pursues the same subject, he said yesterday that desolators would come to destroy Babylon. He now confirms this by a similitude; and God himself speaks, I will inebriate the princes and captains as well as the soldiers and all the counselors. He seems here to allude to that feast of which Daniel speaks, and of which heathen authors have written. (Daniel 5:1) For while the feast was celebrated by the Babylonians, the city was that night taken, not only through the contrivance and valor of Cyrus, but also through the treachery of those who had revolted from Belshazzar. As, then, they were taken while at the feast, and as the king was that night slain together with his satraps, God seems to refer to this event when he declares, that when he had inebriated them, they would be overtaken with perpetual sleep; for death immediately followed that feasting. They had prolonged their feast to the middle of the night; and while they were sitting at table, a tumult arose suddenly in the city, and the king heard that he was in the hand of his enemies. As, then, feasting and death followed in close succession, it is a striking allusion given by the Prophet, when God threatens the Babylonians with perpetual sleep, after having inebriated them. But he mentions here the rulers and the captains, as well as the counsellors and the wise men. We, indeed, know that the Babylonians were inflated by a twofold confidence, — they thought themselves endued with consummate wisdom, and also that they possessed warlike valor. This is the reason why the Prophet expresses so distinctly, that all the captains and rulers in Babylon, however superior in acuteness and prudence, would yet be overtaken with perpetual sleep before they rose from their table. And we must observe that Jeremiah had many years thus prophesied of Babylon; and hence we conclude that his mind as well as his tongue was guided by the Spirit of God, for he could not have possibly conjectured what would be after eighty years: yet so long a time intervened between the prediction and its accomplishment, as we shall presently see. Moreover, the Prophet uses here a mode of speaking which often occurs in Scripture, even that insensibility is a kind of drunkenness by which God dementates men through his hidden judgment. It ought, then, to be noticed, that whatever prudence and skill there is in the world, they are in such a way the gifts of God, that whenever he pleases the wisest are blinded, and, like the drunken, they either go astray or fall. But we must bear in mind what I have already said, that the Prophet alludes to that very history, for there was then an immediate transition from feasting to death. It now follows, Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryJeremiah 51:57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise [men], her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name [is] the LORD of hosts. Ver. 57. And I will make drunk.] See Jeremiah 51:39. Copyright Statement Bibliography Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy BibleJeremiah 51:57. I will make drunk, &c.— See Jeremiah 51:39. This refers to the same remarkable circumstance in the capture of Babylon. Copyright Statement Bibliography Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy BibleDrunken men use to fall asleep. The prophet speaks here metaphorically. His meaning is, that the Lord would fill them with the wine of his fury, mentioned Jeremiah 30:15,16, and upon the drinking of it they should sleep their last sleep, the effects of it should be their utter ruin and destruction. Yet there seemeth to be an allusion to the posture the king of Babylon, and the thousand of his lords, mentioned Daniel 5:1, were in, when their city was taken (which, as was before said, was in the time of the festival of their idol Shach,) when they were drinking wine in the bowls that were brought from the temple at Jerusalem, Jeremiah 51:3 Jeremiah 51:30, it is said, In that very night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. Copyright Statement Bibliography Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable
The leaders of Babylon will become as ineffective as people who get so drunk they pass out. But they will never wake up because they will die. This is what the King of all nations, Yahweh Almighty, promised. Copyright Statement Bibliography George Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentaryDrunk, with the wine of fury, ver. 39., and chap. xxv. 26. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - UnabridgedAnd I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. I will make drunk her ... captains - (Jeremiah 51:39; Daniel 5:1, etc.) Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(57) I will make drunk her princes.—The imagery is repeated from Jeremiah 51:39, and carries out the thought of Jeremiah 25:15-16; Jeremiah 25:27. On the list of officers see Note on Jeremiah 51:23. Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeAnd I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
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