Jeremiah 51:8 - Exposition

Destroyed . The Hebrew, more forcibly, has "is broken." The Authorized Version wished, perhaps, to avoid the objection that a golden cup could not, properly speaking, be broken. But if we once begin to harmonize the language of Hebrew poetry, we shall have no end. It is not the cup which falls, but the state, considered as a house (the "breach" of God's people is constantly referred to; e.g. Psalms 60:2 ; Isaiah 30:26 ). Howl for her . Sympathetic bystanders are dramatically appealed to. From the next verse it would seem that they are the various foreigners who, whether by choice or force, have been resident in Babylon, and who have acquired an interest in her fate. Hitzig thinks the foreign mercenaries ( Jeremiah 50:37 ) or allies are specially referred to. Take balm for her pain (comp. Jeremiah 8:22 ; Jeremiah 46:11 ). The images of fracture and wound are combined, as in Isaiah 30:26 .