And roll thee down from the rocks] I will tumble thee from the rocky base on which thou restest. The combustible matter in thy bowels being exhausted, thou shalt appear as an extinguished crater; and the stony mutter which thou castest out shall not be of sufficient substance to make a foundation stone for solidity, or a corner stone for beauty, ver. 26.

Under this beautiful and most expressive metaphor, the prophet shows the nature of the Babylonish government; setting the nations on fire, deluging and destroying them by its troops, till at last, exhausted, it tumbles down, is extinguished, and leaves nothing as a basis to erect a new form of government on; but is altogether useless, like the cooled lava, which is, properly speaking, fit for no human purpose.

Jer. 51:1-58 The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed an interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shal secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Whereve we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears an hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Rev 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, an superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction a ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought bac to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exac fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

Jer. 51:59-64 This prophecy is sent to Babylon, to the captives there by Seraiah, who is to read it to his countrymen in captivity. Let the with faith see the end of these threatening powers, and comfor themselves herewith. When we see what this world is, how glittering it shows, and how flattering its proposals, let us read in the book of the Lord that it shall shortly be desolate. The book must be thrown int the river Euphrates. The fall of the New Testament Babylon is thu represented, Rev. 18:21. Those that sink under the weight of God' wrath and curse, sink for ever. Babylon, and every antichrist, wil soon sink and rise no more for ever. Let us hope in God's word, an quietly wait for his salvation; then we shall see, but shall not share the destruction of the wicked __________________________________________________________________

Original Hebrew