Call together the archers against Babylon,.... The Medes and Persians, who were well skilled in archery, especially the Elamites; see Isaiah 22:6; hence Horace d makes mention of "Medi pharetra"; and Cyrus in Xenophon e says, that he had under his command sixty thousand men that wore targets and were archers;
Jeremiah 50:9. Some render it "many", as the Targum; and the sense is, either gather many together against Babylon, a large army; or cause many to hear the vengeance against Babylon; publish this good news; so the word used by the Targum signifies; and this will be done by Gospel preachers, with respect to mystical Babylon, Revelation 14:6;
all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape; surround it on every side; besiege it so closely that none may be able to escape:
recompence her according to her work: according to all that she hath done, do unto her; which is the law of retaliation;
Jeremiah 50:15; and with it compare
for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel; behaved haughtily and contemptuously towards the Lord and his people; burning the city and temple of Jerusalem; profaning the vessels of it, and ill treating the captive Jews; so the Targum,
"because she hath spoken ill against the people of the Lord, saying words which were not right before the Holy One of Israel;''
which may fitly be applied to antichrist the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself as God; opening his mouth in blasphemy against him and his saints, 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
d Carmin. l. 2. Ode 16. e Cyropaedia, l. 2. c. 1.