Jeremiah 51:63,64 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates The prophets, as we have seen, frequently gave sensible representations of the judgments they foretold: see Jeremiah 19:10. This now given was a significant emblem of Babylon's sinking irrecoverably under the judgments here denounced against her: compare Revelation 18:21. This threatening was in a literal sense fulfilled by Cyrus's breaking down the head or dam of the great lake, which was on the west side of the city, in order to turn the course of the river that way; for no care being afterward taken to repair the breach, the whole country round it was overflowed. And the prophecy of Isaiah 14:23, foretelling that the country of Babylon should become a possession for the bittern and pools of water, was literally fulfilled. Prideaux and Lowth. And they shall be weary This clause, expressed by one word in the Hebrew, namely, ויעפו, is not to be met with in the translation of the LXX., “nor does it appear to me,” says Blaney, “to be authentic, notwithstanding the concurrence of the later versions and MSS. The sense is entire and complete without it; and the addition serves only to cause perplexity and confusion. The word seems to have been added by some transcriber, whose eye was caught by it at the close of the preceding paragraph, Jeremiah 51:58,” where the same word occurs. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah Here the prophecies of Jeremiah end: the following chapter being added by some other hand, either in the lifetime of Jeremiah, and by his consent, or after his death.