Verse 26
Come against her from the utmost border ,.... Or, "from the end" F1 מקץ "a fine", Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt; "a fine terrae", Piscator; "ab extremis finibus", Tigurine version, Grotius. ; 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" F2 מאבסיה "horrea ejus", Montanus, Cocceius; "granaria ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt. , 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" F3 כמו ערמים "sicut acervos, sub. tritici", Vatablus; "frumenti", Piscator. 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 .
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