Jeremiah 51:1 - Exposition

Against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me . The Hebrew has lēb-kāmai , which is Kasdim , or Chaldea, written in the cypher called Athbash (see on Jeremiah 25:26 ); just as Sheshach in Jeremiah 51:41 is equivalent to Babel. The question arises whether the prophet himself is responsible for this covert way of writing, or a scribe in later times (so Ewald). In favour of the former view it may be urged that Babylon and Chaldea receive symbolic names (though not in Athbash) in the connected chapter ( Jeremiah 50:21 , Jeremiah 50:31 , Jeremiah 50:32 ); in favour of the latter, that the Septuagint has χαλδαίους in Jeremiah 51:1 , and does not express Sheshach in Jeremiah 51:41 , also that the clause to which Sheshach belongs in Jeremiah 25:26 is of very dubious genuineness. A destroying wind; rather, the spirit ( ruakh ) of a destroyer (or perhaps, of destruction ) . The verb rendered in this verse "raise up," when used in connection with ruakh, always means "to excite the spirit of any one" ( Jeremiah 25:11 ; Haggai 1:14 ; 1 Chronicles 5:26 ).