Jeremiah 50:1
The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
The word that the Lord spake against Babylon,.... Or "to", of "of Babylon" {c}; the city of Babylon, the metropolis of the Chaldean empire; sometimes it signifies the whole country, here the city only, as appears by what follows:
and against the land of the Chaldeans; whither the Jews were carried captive, for whose comfort this prophecy is delivered out; and which had subdued other nations, and was become an universal monarchy; these people are mentioned last, because the rest of the nations were to drink the cup of God's wrath at their hands, and then they were to drink it after them; see Jeremiah 25:9; this is to be understood not only of Babylon and its empire, literally taken, but of mystical Babylon and its dependencies; of Rome, and its jurisdiction; of antichrist, and the antichristian states, the last enemies of the church and people of God, who will be destroyed by the pouring out of the seven vials; see Revelation 15:1. This prophecy, which is called "the word that the Lord spake", for it was from him, the thing was decreed and declared by him, came
by Jeremiah the prophet, to whom the king of Babylon had been very kind; but yet he must be, and was, faithful as a prophet, to deliver what he had from the Lord concerning the ruin of his empire.
{c} lbb la "ad Babel", Montanus; "de Babylone", V. L. "de Babel", Cocceius.