Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 50:12
Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindmost of the nations [shall be] a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
12. your mother ] Babylon, as mother of the individual citizens. Cp. Hos 2:2; Hos 2:5.
a wilderness a desert ] Cp. Jer 2:6, Jer 51:43.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Your mother – i. e., Babylon. Confounded … ashamed. Or, ashamed … blush.
Behold … – Translate, Behold she is the hindermost of the nations, a desert, a thirsty land, and a waste: – the reason why Babylon is to blush. Once the head of gold Dan 2:32, she is now the lowest of earthly powers.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. Your mother] Speaking to the Chaldeans: BABYLON, the metropolis, or mother city, shall be a wilderness, a dry land, a desert, neither fit for man nor beast.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Your chief City Babylon, or your country, which is the common mother of all the Chaldeans, shall be destroyed, or
shall be ashamed of you, who are not able to defend her. The sense here seems a little difficult, because it appears no such strange thing that the hindermost of the nations should be a wilderness. It is therefore probable that the words shall be are to be understood before
the hindermost of the nations; our translation supplieth them after; so the reading will be, it shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, &c.; that is, Babylon, that hath been so famous, and accounted the head of the nations, shall become the meanest of all nations, a mere wilderness, and a dry land, and a desert.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Your motherBabylon, themetropolis of the empire.
hindermostmarvellouschange, that Babylon, once the queen of the world, should be now thehindermost of nations, and at last, becoming “a desert,”cease to be a nation!
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Your mother shall be sore confounded,…. The monarchy of the Chaldeans; so the Targum and jarchi, your congregation; or rather their metropolis, their mother city, the city of Babylon; which would be confounded when taken, none of her sons being able to defend her: the same will be true of mystical Babylon, the mother of harlots, Re 17:5;
she that bare you shall be ashamed; which is the same as before, in different words:
behold, the hindermost of the nations [shall be] a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert; or, as the Vulgate Latin version, “she shall be the last among the nations”; she that was the head of them, signified by the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, shall now be the tail of them, and become like a dry land and desert, without inhabitants, having neither men nor cattle in it; see Jer 50:3; or, as Jarchi and Kimchi, their end, “the latter end” m of the kingdom of Babylon; or what should befall that people in their last days would be, that their land should become a wilderness, the habitants being slain, and none to till it; or Babylon is called the last of the nations, because her punishment, in order of time, was last, as Gussetius n thinks;
Jer 25:26.
m “finis seu extremitas gentium”, Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt. n Comment. Ebr. p. 30.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
WE explained yesterday why the Prophet denounced shame and reproach on the Babylonians, even because they had arrogantly exulted over the children of God. And he says that Babylon would be the extremity of the Nations.
The Chaldeans had flourished in power and wealth, and possessed the empire of the East. It was then an extraordinary revolution to be reduced to the lowest condition, to be, as it were, the dregs of all the nations. And to the same purpose he adds, a barren land, a desert, and a solitude It now follows, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Your mother shall be sore confounded . . .The prophet speaks to the people of Babylon, and the city is therefore described as their mother.
The hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness . . .The interpolated words mar the force of the sentence. Better, behold the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a waste, and a desert. This was to be the state to which Babylon should be reduced.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Your mother Babylon, the nation considered as a unit.
Hindermost of the nations Balaam calls Amalek “the first of the nations.” Babylon, the “head of gold,” is here called the last “of the nations.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 50:12. Behold, &c. Behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, &c. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 50:12 Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations [shall be] a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
Ver. 12. Your mother shall be sore confounded, ] i.e., Babylon, your mother city, or Babylonia, your country; or your monarchical greatness, which being in the last place laid waste after other nations, as Jer 25:25-26 was foretold shall with shame cry out, Heu tam cito me quae primas obtinebam, &c. How is it that I, who was the head of nations, am now the tail, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the hindermost = the last. Compare Jer 50:17; Jer 25:26.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
mother: Jer 49:2, Gal 4:26, Rev 17:5
the hindermost: Jer 25:26, Isa 23:13
a wilderness: Jer 50:35-40, Jer 25:12, Jer 51:25, Jer 51:26, Jer 51:43, Jer 51:62-64, Isa 13:20-22, Isa 14:22, Rev 18:21-23
Reciprocal: Jer 50:38 – A drought Jer 50:39 – General Jer 51:37 – become Jer 51:47 – her whole Hos 4:5 – thy
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 50:12. A mother’s disappointment over an unworthy child is used to compare the humiliation that, was destined to come upon Babylon. Shall be is in italics but is justified by the context, so that the clause should read she shall be the hindmost of the nations: it means that Babylon was to become the deserted nation.
Wilderness and desert was a prediction that the city of Babylon would become such a spot as per the historical quotation referred to in verse 3.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 50:12-16. Your mother shall be sore confounded Namely, Babylon the metropolis, or mother-city of the empire. Or, your country shall be ashamed of you, her children, who are not able to defend her. Behold, the hindermost of the nations, &c. The translation of this clause in the Vulgate seems much preferable to ours, Ecce novissima erit in gentibus, et deserta, invia, et arens, behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, desolate and dry. Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited See this illustrated in the notes on Isa 13:19-22. Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished See note on chap. Jer 18:16. For she hath sinned against the Lord She hath been in a remarkable manner an enemy to Gods truth and people. This may be especially applied to mystical Babylon: see Jer 50:29-31. Shout against her round about As conquerors do when a city is taken. She hath given her hand That is, she hath surrendered herself: she hath submitted and promised obedience to the conqueror. The phrase occurs in the same sense Lam 5:6 and also 1Ch 29:24, where see the margin. Thus, dare manus, to give the hands, in Latin, signifies to yield; and most probably alludes to the act of the vanquished, who, throwing down his arms, and stretching forth his defenceless hands, acknowledges himself to be in the victors power; her foundations are fallen Namely, the foundations of her walls, laid in a marshy soil, and surrounded with a deep ditch full of water, to the undermining power of which they were continually exposed: see Herodot. lib. 1. cap. 178. Cut off the sower from Babylon Babylon resembled a country walled in rather than a city; the walls, according to Herodotus, being sixty miles in compass. Within this large circuit a great deal of ground was cultivated with corn. So that enough grew within the walls to support the inhabitants during a long siege. See Prideauxs Connections, page 187. Or, by Babylon here, may be understood, not the city only, but the whole province. They shall turn every one to his people This is spoken of the allies of the Babylonians.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Mother Babylon would be humbled when God made her the least of the nations. She would be like a desert compared to a fertile field. The Lord would remove her inhabitants and make her completely desolate. Observers would marvel and whistle at the horrible condition of the once proud Babylon.
"Cyrus did not destroy [the city of] Babylon when he captured it. Later in the Persian period the city revolted, and Darius Hystaspes captured it and destroyed its walls (514 B.C.), thus beginning its decay. The city continued to decline until well into the Christian era, when it ceased to exist. The desolate ruins remained for archaeologists to uncover in the nineteenth century." [Note: Graybill, p. 691.]