Come against her from the utmost border,.... Or, "from the end" (a); from the end of the earth; from the Persian gulf, and the Caspian sea, on which the Persians and Medes bordered; from the most distant countries; for the Medes and Persians, who are here called unto, brought others along with them in their army from places still more remote; for this is not to be understood, with the Targum, of entering into Babylon on one "side"; or, with Jarchi, of beginning at one "end" of the city, that it might not be known, and be taken suddenly:
open her storehouses; where her gold, silver, jewels, and other precious things, lay: or, her barns or "granaries" (b), as the Targum and Kimchi; where the fruits and increase of the earth were laid up; and may figuratively design her cities and fortified places, full of inhabitants, as well as of riches and stores of all kinds:
cast her up as heaps; as heaps of rubbish to make a causeway of, and then tread upon them to make it smooth: or, "as heaps", or "sheaves" (c) of corn; tread upon them as oxen do, and thereby thresh them out; so Jarchi interprets it,
"thresh her as grains of wheat;''
and to this sense the Targum refers,
"consume her substance as they consume heaps of wheat;''
see Revelation 18:12;
and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left; of the city of Babylon, its inhabitants, wealth, and riches; so complete should the destruction be, Revelation 18:8.
(a) מקץ "a fine", Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt; "a fine terrae", Piscator; "ab extremis finibus", Tigurine version, Grotius. (b) מאבסיה "horrea ejus", Montanus, Cocceius; "granaria ejus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. (c) כמו ערמים "sicut acervos, sub. tritici", Vatablus "frumenti", Piscator.
Come against her from the utmost border,.... Or, "from the end" (a); from the end of the earth; from the Persian gulf, and the Caspian sea, on which the Persians and Medes bordered; from the most distant countries; for the Medes and Persians, who are here called unto, brought others along with them in their army from places still more remote; for this is not to be understood, with the Targum, of entering into Babylon on one "side"; or, with Jarchi, of beginning at one "end" of the city, that it might not be known, and be taken suddenly:
open her storehouses; where her gold, silver, jewels, and other precious things, lay: or, her barns or "granaries" (b), as the Targum and Kimchi; where the fruits and increase of the earth were laid up; and may figuratively design her cities and fortified places, full of inhabitants, as well as of riches and stores of all kinds:
cast her up as heaps; as heaps of rubbish to make a causeway of, and then tread upon them to make it smooth: or, "as heaps", or "sheaves" (c) of corn; tread upon them as oxen do, and thereby thresh them out; so Jarchi interprets it,
"thresh her as grains of wheat;''
and to this sense the Targum refers,
"consume her substance as they consume heaps of wheat;''
see Revelation 18:12;
and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left; of the city of Babylon, its inhabitants, wealth, and riches; so complete should the destruction be, Revelation 18:8.
(a) מקץ "a fine", Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt; "a fine terrae", Piscator; "ab extremis finibus", Tigurine version, Grotius. (b) מאבסיה "horrea ejus", Montanus, Cocceius; "granaria ejus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. (c) כמו ערמים "sicut acervos, sub. tritici", Vatablus "frumenti", Piscator.