Jeremiah 51:27

King James Version (KJV)

Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Set ye up a standard - Another summons to the Medes and Persians to attack Babylon.

Ararat, Minni - The Greater and Lesser Armenia.

And Ashchenaz - A part of Phrygia, near the Hellespont. So Bochart, Phaleg, lib. 1 c. 3, lib. 3 c. 9. Concerning Ashchenaz Homer seems to speak, Il. 2:370, 371: -

Φορκυς αυ Φρυγας ηγε, και Ασκανιος θεοειδης,<-144 Τηλ ' εξ Ασκανιης.

"Ascanius, godlike youth, and Phorcys led

The Phrygians from Ascania's distant land."

Calmet thinks that the Ascantes, who dwelt in the vicinity of the Tanais, are meant.

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Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

Ararat, see the Genesis 8:4 note. Minni, probably the western portion of Armenia, as Ararat was that in the center and to the east. Armenia was at this time subject to Media. Ashchenaz was between the Euxine and the Caspian Seas.

A captain - Some prefer the Septuagint rendering in Nahum 3:17: “a mingled mass of people.” (Others, a “scribe,” an Assyrian term.)

The rough caterpillers - i. e., locusts in their third stage, when their wings are still enveloped in rough horny cases, which stick up upon their backs. It is in this stage that they are so destructive.

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Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary

The particulars of this prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to again. Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her. Destruction comes when they did not think of it. Wherever we are, in the greatest depths, at the greatest distances, we are to remember the Lord our God; and in the times of the greatest fears and hopes, it is most needful to remember the Lord. The feeling excited by Babylon's fall is the same with the New Testament Babylon, Re 18:9,19. The ruin of all who support idolatry, infidelity, and superstition, is needful for the revival of true godliness; and the threatening prophecies of Scripture yield comfort in this view. The great seat of antichristian tyranny, idolatry, and superstition, the persecutor of true Christians, is as certainly doomed to destruction as ancient Babylon. Then will vast multitudes mourn for sin, and seek the Lord. Then will the lost sheep of the house of Israel be brought back to the fold of the good Shepherd, and stray no more. And the exact fulfilment of these ancient prophecies encourages us to faith in all the promises and prophecies of the sacred Scriptures.

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