(32) And the most proud shall stumble . . .--As before, Pride. The gender of the pronoun in "none shall raise him up" is determined by that of the Hebrew noun. The words furnish a striking illustration of the teaching of Proverbs 16:18.

Verse 32. - The most proud; rather, Pride. Raise him up. For the sake of uniformity, "her" would be better; for it is Babylon who is spoken cf. There is an inconsistency in the use of the persons in the original. Elsewhere in this description Babylon is feminine; here it is masculine, to agree with "Pride."

50:21-32 The forces are mustered and empowered to destroy Babylon. Let them do what God demands, and they shall bring to pass what he threatens. The pride of men's hearts sets God against them, and ripens them apace for ruin. Babylon's pride must be her ruin; she has been proud against the Holy One of Israel; who can keep those up whom God will throw down?And the most proud shall stumble and fall,.... Or "pride", as before; "the man of pride", who is so proud that he may be called pride itself. The Targum, as before, interprets it a wicked king; and Abarbinel understands it of Belshazzar particularly, who was slain the night that Babylon was taken. It may be understood of the whole kingdom and monarchy of Babylon, which was a superb state; but all its grandeur and glory were brought down and laid in the dust at once, as mystical Babylon will; when it will be said, "Babylon the great", the proud and the haughty, is fallen, Revelation 18:2;

and none shall raise him up; the kingdom of Babylon shall not be restored train, nor the king of it have any successor, nor the city be rebuilt; compare with this Revelation 18:21;

and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him; in Babylon, the metropolis of the kingdom, and in all others round about it: it denotes the utter destruction of the whole monarchy. It may be applied to the burning of Rome with fire, and the ruin of its whole jurisdiction; for, when that is destroyed, the cities of the nations all around shall fall, which belong unto it; see Revelation 18:8.