And I will punish Bel in Babylon. — See Note on Jeremiah 50:2. The god whom Babylon worshipped is, as before, thought of as sharing her downfall. He is made to disgorge his spoil, the vessels of the Temple of Jehovah that had been placed in his temple (Daniel 5:2; Ezra 1:7).
The wall of Babylon shall fall. — The words, though they repeat the statement of Jeremiah 50:15, have here a special significance. The two great walls of the city bore, as has been stated above, the names of Imgur-Bel (= Bel protects) and Nimetti-Bel (= the dwelling of Bel), and were thus specially consecrated to him as their tutelary deity (Oppert, Expédit. en Mésop., i. p. 227; Records of the Past, v. 124). The name of the last king of Babylon, Belshazzar, is a further indication of the reverence felt for him as the supreme object of worship.