Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee? Is it not just, or what thou deservest, that others should suddenly rise against thee, and bite and tear thee? It is a metaphor taken from the hunting of wild beasts. And awake that shall vex thee As thou hast been a vexation to others by thy tyranny and cruelty. And thou shalt be for booties unto them Unto the Medes and Persians. The expression, rise up suddenly, very fitly describes the suddenness with which the Babylonian empire was afterward overthrown. For though Cyrus could not be said to come upon them suddenly, or unexpectedly, yet the blow, whereby the Babylonian empire was overturned, was struck extremely suddenly; for, after all Cyrus's victories, they thought themselves very secure within the walls of Babylon; and that Cyrus must be wearied out, and his army mouldered away, before he could make himself master of it: but by an unexpected stratagem, in draining the Euphrates, he got possession of the city, and destroyed the king and all his principal men in a few hours time: see notes on Isaiah 13:20; Jeremiah 50:38; and Daniel 5:30. Because, &c. The prophet proceeds to give an account of the reasons on which divine vengeance proceeded in this affair. Thou hast spoiled many nations
Hast slain or led captive their people, destroyed their cities, robbed their treasuries, deposed their kings; and hast done this to many nations, whose cry for vengeance is come up to heaven. All the remnant of the people shall spoil thee Now shalt thou be paid in thine own coin: the remnant of the nations, unspoiled by thee, shall combine against thee, and execute the Lord's just sentence upon thee. This was evidently verified in the destruction of the Babylonian empire; for Cyrus's army was made up of a great many different nations. Because of men's blood As a just return for thy cruelty, in the slaughter thou hast made of mankind. And for the violence of Or rather, against, the land And particularly for the violence offered to the land of Judea, and the city of Jerusalem, and its temple and inhabitants.