Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
(Jeremiah 1:15; Jeremiah 6:22.)
I will bring a nation upon you from far ... whose language thou knowest not. Alluding to Deuteronomy 28:49. The prophets base their predictions on the Pentateuch, recognizing it as the inspired Word of God, and as the ultimate standard of appeal which all acknowledged.
Israel - i:e., Judah.
Mighty - from an Arabic root, enduring. The fourfold repetition of "nation" heightens the force: "a nation ... a mighty nation ... an ancient nation, a nation whose language," etc.
Ancient - the Chaldeans came originally from the Carduchian and Armenian mountains north of Mesopotamia, whence they immigrated into Babylonia; like all mountaineers, they were brave and hardy (note, Isaiah 23:13). G. Rawlinson shows from the Babylonian language and inscriptions that Babylon was originally of Hamitic, not (as was supposed by Bunsen and others, in opposition to Scripture) Shemitic, origin. Genesis 10:8 represents the case rightly, that Nimrod was the son of Cush (Ethiopia), the son of Ham. Home 'Odyssey,' 1: 23, 24, similarly assigns a double position to the Ethiopians-namely, east and west of the Arabian Gulf, separating Asia and Airlea. Nimrod came over in ships to Lower Mesopotamia, and built Ur, on the right bank of the Euphrates, near the mouth. A dynasty of eleven monarchs is mentioned in the inscriptions, of whom one Urkhur, or Orchamar, was the builder of gigantic works. This earlier Babylonian empire fell before invading barbarian hordes, after a change of dynasty answering to the Bible account of Chedorlaomer's short-lived wide empire, reaching through Syria to Palestine. The inhabitants of Ur were called 'Chaldi' - i:e., moon-worshippers. Hur means the moon-god.
Language thou knowest not - (Isaiah 36:11, "Speak ... in the Syrian (Assyrian, Aramaic) language; for so we understand it: and not in the Jews' language," shows that Aramaic was not understood by the multitude, but only by the educated classes (Maurer). Henderson refers it to the original language of the Babylonians, which, he thinks, they brought with them from their native hills, akin to the Persic, not to the Aramaic, or any other Semitic tongue, the parent of the modern Kurd. G. Rawlinson says there are traces in the Babylonian language of all the four great dialects of the world, Hamitic, Semitic, Arian, and Turanian, from which he infers its close connection with the original language, whatever that was, prior to the branching off of the four great classes of language, Hamitic, Semitic, Arian, and Turanian. The Babylonian vocabulary, according to Sir H. Rawlinson, is Cushite or Ethiopian in the inscriptions found in the opened mounds of Chaldea Proper. An Eastern Ethiopia is not the invention of Bi bliolaters, but a reality, proved by Babylonian monuments, the unexpected coincidence of Scripture with which strongly attests Moses' veracity, and therefore inspiration. The primitive Babylonian monarchy was on the borders of the Persian Gulf, as distinguished from the late Babylonian empire, which was further north. For the last 3,000 years the world has been mainly indebted for its progress to the Semitic and Indo-European races. But originally the sons of Ham, now so despised and enslaved, led the way in the arts and sciences, and in political empire-namely, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians. The first steps in astronomy, alphabetical writing, history, sculpture, navigation, agriculture, and weaving, were furnished by them: though these were comparatively rude, yet the first inventors of any art are to be considered as the greatest benefactors of mankind as to that art; for 'c'est le premier pas qui coute.'