V. 3. and at the time when the Lord will give you rest.
This chapter has the same content as the previous one. For since the prophet foresaw that the Babylonians would make the Jews their servants and would afflict them very severely, and that nothing but despair would be left for his own in the greatest distress, he speaks here of the future desolation of Babylon as if it were present, for the greater strengthening of the faith of his people, and uses all kinds of images to strengthen and comfort his own, so that the highest theology is combined with the highest oratory.
For it is extremely difficult to bring the souls in the highest misfortune from despair back to faith, that they believe in God, who promises them salvation. For the flesh, before feeling the present misfortune, cannot grasp the future help with the heart.
From your misery and sorrow.
3 That is, in the Babylonian captivity, in which you look like a woman in childbirth, so that you may give birth to a new kingdom for Christ.
V. 4: So you will speak such a proverb against the king.
4 Divine salvations are such that when someone has been in the greatest despair, and then is raised up by the word, he despises and scorns nothing so much as the temptations he has been in. Thus there was a very great fear of the pope, but now that we are freed from his tyranny, nothing is more despised than he. Thus, at times, in private contests, a small thing torments our heart, of which, when the contest is over, we realize that it is a very ridiculous thing.
V. 5. 6. the ruth.
5 These are figurative names of a raging and cruel kingdom. As if he wanted to say: The Lord has given you the scepter to preserve your own and to protect them from violence and injustice; but now you abuse this power against your own. Therefore you will be punished. For the kingdoms are established for the sake of preservation. For this reason kings bear the scepter, that they may judge and protect the good and punish the evil. And the jewel of our kings is a golden apple, to indicate that they should go forth with their judgment round, without regard to persons. Furthermore, these reproaches hurt the outcast princes very much, as they also comfort those who have endured their tyranny.
V. 7. 8. The fir trees also rejoice over you.
6 These are figurative speeches. For they imply that through the fall of this great tyrant the world has received peace, but especially Judea, which has an abundance of trees.
V. 9. Hell below.
(7) This is a beautiful and quite poetic decoration, with which the prophet mocks the king with a very sure heart. For he imagines that there is a scene in hell where the Babylonian king is received by other kings, and that there are also persons there who reproach him for his arrogance and cruelty, as in Lucian Diogenes ridicules Alexander. For that he says, "Hell trembles before thee," is to be understood in a mocking way; as if we said, "Eh, how the churchyard is so afraid of thee." Furthermore, in Hebrew "hell" is called the place to which body and soul go after death, but especially the place where the body goes.
She awakens you all the goats of the world (Suscitavit tibi gigantes).
8 In Hebrew it reads: She raises the dead to you, all the goats of the world. Thus he calls the princes and kings.
V. 10. ii. Together with the sound of your harps.
9 [Concidit cadaver tuum in the Vulgate,] which reads in the Hebrew: "Together with the sound of your harps", that is: You will be cast out to hell with your power and with your joy. But one would rightly call the prophet a rebel, because he speaks so shamefully of the supreme monarch. But he does it in order to raise the hearts of his people, so that they do not despair of salvation.
V. 12. How you fell from heaven.
(10) Because people did not understand the oratory, they understood this about the fall of the angel Lucifer, since it is a figurative decoration. Therefore this so important error of the whole papacy, which has taken this text of the fall of the angels, should move us to the study of the learned sciences and the art of oratory, as things which are most necessary to a theologian for the treatment of the holy scriptures. The reason is therefore that the death of the king of Babylon was as if the morning star fell from heaven and the dawn was darkened. In this way the prophet mocks him.
(11) It must be noted here that nothing was more foolish than this prophecy, both among the Babylonians and the Jews, when the Babylonian monarchy was still in full bloom. But this too is to be noted, that great kings do not bring their kingdoms with their counsels where they think, but they fall already in the dawn, when they think they want to rise to noon. We see this in Julius Caesar and others.
V. 13-15. I will ascend into heaven. 1)
12. you have despised the Jewish people in comparison to you, along with their god who is in the
1) Erlanger: usoencinnt instead of: asoendam.
But now the contempt of this God is as much as if you would imagine to go up to heaven, which is impossible. In this way, he describes the king's trustworthy and secure thoughts through a poetic image; as if I said: The pope is so trustworthy and presumptuous that he dares to prescribe laws even to God, while the pope says that he does not want to do so; nevertheless, he does it by ruling over the consciences.
V. 16. 17. Who made the ground a desert.
13 He understands the ground of the Jews, because he speaks of them in particular. But the prophet indicates that the wicked have both shame and an evil conscience after death.
V. 18-20. All the kings of the Gentiles.
14 To make the misfortune even greater, he compares him to other kings. Others are buried in their kingdoms; but you, in your so great kingdom, have not so much room as to be buried, but lie unburied, like one of the rabble. It is a pity that the greater the kingdoms, the sadder the end of those who govern them.
Which descend to the cairns of hell.
15. fundamenta laci, so he calls stony or sandy oerter. g)
V. 21-23. Judge that one slay his children.
People should punish only the one who sins. But God punishes even to the third degree. Thus we read that Belshazzar, the grandson of this king, was slain in bed by the Medes.
V. 24-27. That Assyria would be crushed.
17 Here he comes back to Sanherib, the king of Assyria, who was mentioned above [v. 12. ff] in the 10th chapter. For the scribes did not pay attention to the order.
g) The edition of 1532 adds: Belshazzar was killed in bed by the Means.
since they have gathered the prophecy of the prophet. Because up to now he has digressed to the Babylonian monarchy, which did not exist yet. Now he comes again to the existing monarchy of the Assyrians. Thus, if I wanted to speak about the fact that the kingdom of the pope will fall, I could make a digression that God will destroy all the wicked.
will kill. After that I could come back to the matter puffing and say: God will also destroy this present pope 2c. Furthermore, also the Assyrian and Babylonian monarchy was one and the same monarchy. However, it is distinguished because the seat of the empire was first in Assyria, later in Babylonia.