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Go up against the land of Merathaim - and against the inhabitants of Pekod - No such places as these are to be found any where else; and it is not likely that places are at all meant. The ancient Versions agree in rendering the first as an appellative, and the last as a verb, except the Chaldee, which has Pekod as a proper name. Dr. Blayney translates: -
"Against the land of bitternesses, go up:
Upon it, and upon its inhabitants, visit, O sword!"
Dr. Dahler renders thus: -
"March against the country doubly rebellious,
And against its inhabitants worthy of punishment."
The latter of these two versions I take to be the most literal. The words are addressed to the Medes and Persians; and the country is Chaldea, doubly rebellious by its idolatry and its insufferable pride. In these two, it was exceeded by no other land.
The land of Merathaim - of double rebellion. Like Mitsraim, i. e., the two Egypts, Aram-Naharaim, i. e., Syria of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia, it is a dual. It may have been a real name; or - the dual ending being intensive - it may mean the land of very great rebelliousness.
Pekod - Possibly a Babylonian town.
Waste - Rather, slay, Jeremiah 50:27.