A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
A sword ... A sword ... A sword. The repetition of "A sword" in the beginning of each verse, by the figure anaphora, heightens the effect; the reiterated judgment is universal; the same sad stroke of the sword is upon each and all connected with guilty Babylon.
Her wise men - (Isaiah 47:13). Babylon boasted that it was the special seat of wisdom and wise men, especially in astronomy and astrology.
Verse 36. The liars - those whom he before termed "wise men," he here calls "liars" (imposters) - namely, the astrologers (cf. Isaiah 44:25; Romans 1:21-25; 1 Corinthians 1:20). Verse 37. They shall become as women - divested of all manliness (Nahum 3:13).
A drought - altering the pointing, this verse will begin as the three previous verses х chereb (H2719). "A sword." However, all the pointed manuscript read choreb (H2721)] "A drought," as the English version. Cyrus turned off the waters of the Euphrates into a new channel, and so marched through the dried-up bed into the city (Jeremiah 51:32). Babylonia once was famed for its grain, which often yielded from 100-fold to 200-fold (Herodotus). This was due to its network of water-courses from the Euphrates for irrigation, traces of which (Layard) are seen still on all sides, but dry and barren (Isaiah 44:27).
They are mad upon their idols - literally, terrors. They are crazy after idols that are more calculated to frighten than to attract (Jeremiah 51:44; Jeremiah 51:47; Jeremiah 51:52; Daniel 3:1). Mere bugbears to frighten children with.