How is Sheshach taken! That Babylon is meant by Sheshach is certain; but why it is so called is yet matter of doubt: see note on Jeremiah 25:26. Some indeed have supposed that it is called so from a goddess of that name, which the Babylonians worshipped, and which is supposed by Calmet to have been the same with the moon; but of these things there does not appear to be satisfactory proof. How is the praise of the whole earth surprised Babylon was esteemed the wonder of the world, for the height, breadth, and compass of its walls, the palaces and hanging gardens belonging to it, for the temple of Belus, for the banks and facing of the river, and the artificial lakes and canals made for the draining of it, and for its riches and greatness. The sea is come up upon Babylon, &c. A numerous army, or a vast multitude of people, carrying all before them like an inundation. Her cities are a desolation All the lesser cities, within the territories of Babylon, are become an uninhabited, uncultivated desert: see note on Isaiah 13:20.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 51:41
Jeremiah 51:41-43
41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.