Wesley Corpus

Lions - Enemies cruel as lions had carried them into captivity. Not found - God will no longer punish the sins of the Jews, they should be sought for as to punishment and not found. Reserve - Whom I save from the captivity of Babylon. Merathaim - The names of some places which Cyrus took in his way to Babylon. The land - Of Chaldea. Open her store - houses - The granaries, or treasures of the Babylonians. Bullocks - The great and rich men of Babylon. The vengeance - The revenge which God had taken for his holy temple, which the Chaldeans had destroyed. Together - Together in this place signifies no more than that they were both oppressed, or alike oppressed. Plead - He will actually and readily effect it. Dote - Their soothsayers and wizards shall dote, not foreseeing what will be. Dismayed - Their hearts shall fail them when this day comes. Horses - Through they be full of chariots and horses, the enemy shall destroy them. Mingled people - People that were not native Chaldeans, but under their dominion. Dried - This phrase has a plain reference to Cyrus's stratagem used in the surprize of Babylon; one part of it was fortified by the great river Euphrates, which Cyrus diverted by cutting several channels, 'till he had drained it so low, that it became passable for his army; others think that a want of rain is here threatened. No man - Cyrus only made them tributaries, and took away their government. But Seleucus Nicanor, a Grecian prince, utterly destroyed Babylon, so that in the time of Adrian the Roman emperor, there was nothing left standing of that great city.