Their children also shall be dashed to pieces - This is a description of the horrors of the capture of Babylon; and there can be none more frightful and appalling than that which is here presented. That this is done in barbarous nations in the time of war, there can be no doubt. Nothing was more common among American savages, than to dash out the brains of infants against a rock or a tree, and it was often done before the eyes of the afflicted and heartbroken parents. That these horrors were not unknown in Oriental nations of antiquity, is evident. Thus, the Psalmist implies that it would be done in Babylon, in exact accordance with this prediction of Isaiah; Psalms 137:8-9 :
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed:
Happy shall he be who rewardeth these as thou hast served us;
Happy shall he be who taketh and dasheth thy little ones
Against the stones.
Thus, also, it is said of Hazael, that when he came to be king of Syria, he would be guilty of this barbarity in regard to the Jews (2 Kings 8:13; compare Nahum 3:10). It was an evidence of the barbarous feelings of the times; and a proof that they were far, very far, from the humanity which is now deemed indispensable even in war.
Their houses shall be spoiled - Plundered. It is implied here, says Kimchi, that this was to be done also ‘before their eyes,’ and thus the horrors of the capture would be greatly increased.