Jeremiah 51:44 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I will punish Bel in Babylon The heathen ascribed the honour of all their successes to their idols; and, upon any great victory, offered the best part of the spoils to their gods, and deposited them in their temples, as a grateful acknowledgment that the success was owing to their assistance. So Nebuchadnezzar, upon every victory over the Jews, carried away part of the furniture of the sanctuary and put it in the temple of his idol: see 2 Chronicles 36:7; Daniel 1:2. The restoring of the holy vessels to their right owner, and to their former use, is what is here foretold by bringing forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed, which was done by Cyrus, upon his proclamation for rebuilding the temple, Ezra 1:7. But the full accomplishment of this prediction Dr. Prideaux places in Xerxes' demolishing the temple of Belus, and plundering it of its vast wealth, which, from Diodorus Siculus's account of it, he computes to amount to twenty-one millions of our money: see his Connect., pp. 100, 101. And the nations shall not flow together any more unto him There shall be no more costly presents brought by foreign nations unto the temple of Bel, as a compliment to that monarchy; just as, under the Roman empire, people that were conquered by it, sent golden crowns to Jupiter Capitolinus: see Lowth.