How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
Here, in the first place, Jeremiah asks in astonishment how it happened that the hammer of the whole earth was broken, when it had before broken all nations. God afterwards gives an answer, even because “I am he who have taken Babylon.” The question availed to rouse the people to a greater attention.
Here, 1. The forces are mustered and commissioned to destroy Babylon, and every thing is got ready for a descent upon that potent kingdom: Go up against that land by Merathaim, the country of the Mardi, that lay part in Assyria and part in Armenia; and go among the inhabitants of Pekod, another country (mentioned Eze 23:23) which Cyrus took in his way to Babylon.
Commenting on Jeremiah 50:21-32
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!.... The Targum is, "how is the king cut down and broken that moved the whole earth!'' The king of Babylon, or the kingdom of Babylon, which was like a hammer for its hardness and strength; and being an instrument, in the hand of God, of beating to pieces and destroying the kingdoms and...