Jeremiah 50:38
A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up,.... Either on the waters of the land of Chaldea in general, from whence should follow barrenness, and so a want of the necessaries of life; hence Kimchi interprets it of a consumption of riches, and all good things; or on the waters of Babylon, the river Euphrates, which ran through it; the channel of which was diverted by Cyrus, and drained and made so dry, that he marched his army up it into the city. Some say Babylon was taken three times, by this stratagem of turning the river Euphrates another way; first by Semiramis; and after Cyrus by Alexander: this may well be applied to the drying up of the river Euphrates, upon the pouring out of the sixth vial, and to the destruction of the antichristian states, signified by the many waters on which the great whore of Babylon or Rome sitteth, Revelation 16:12;
for it is the land of graven images; much given to idolatry; had idols of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone, Daniel 5:2;
and they are mad upon their idols; greatly affected, and much devoted to them; superstitiously mad upon them: or, "they gloried in them"; as the Targum, Vulgate Latin version, and others {p}; they praised and extolled them as true deities; as Belshazzar and his nobles did the very night Babylon was taken, Daniel 5:4; and this their idolatry was one cause of their ruin. The word {q} for "idols" signifies "terrors", or terrible things; because their worshippers stood in fear of them, as Kimchi observes.
{p} wllhty "gloriantur", Vulg. Lat. Schmidt, Munster, Tigurine version.
{q} Mymyab "horrendis" vel "terriculamentis", Schmidt, Munster, Calvin; "terricula", Junius & Tremellius.