50:2 Declare ye among the nations, and proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim, [and] conceal not: say, {a} Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, {b} Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
(a) After God had used the Babylonian's service to punish other nations, this shows that their turn will come to be punished.
(b) These were two of their chief idols.
50:2 Bel - Bel and Merodach were the two principal idols of the Babylonians.
50:1-7 The king of Babylon was kind to Jeremiah, yet the prophet must foretell the ruin of that kingdom. If our friends are God's enemies, we dare not speak peace to them. The destruction of Babylon is spoken of as done thoroughly. Here is a word for the comfort of the Jews. They shall return to their God first, then to their own land; the promise of their conversion and reformation makes way for the other promises. Their tears flow not from the sorrow of the world, as when they went into captivity, but from godly sorrow. They shall seek after the Lord as their God, and have no more to do with idols. They shall think of returning to their own country. This represents the return of poor souls to God. In true converts there are sincere desires to attain the end, and constant cares to keep in the way. Their present case is lamented as very sad. The sins of professing Christians never will excuse those who rejoice in destroying them.
