Pay Babel back according to her work, according to all that she has done do unto her, for she has acted insolently against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel Jer. l 29.

This is the vengeance of Jehovah, take vengeance on Babel; even as she has done, do unto her Jer. l 15.

The daughter of Babylon has been devastated, happy is he who shall pay back to thee thy retribution as thou hast repaid us Ps. cxxxvii 8.

[2] It is in accordance with the sense of the letter that those whom they have led astray and destroyed are going to pay them back, but it is in accordance with the spiritual sense that those will not do this to them but they will do it to themselves, because every evil carries its own penalty with it. This is similar to what is said in various places in the Word, that God will repay and avenge the injustices and injuries done to Himself, and will destroy them in consequence of wrath and growing anger; when yet the evils themselves that they have done against God do this, thus they do it to themselves. For this is the law of retaliation (jus talionis), which takes its very origin out of this Divine Law:-

All things whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, even so do you to then ; this is the Law and the Prophets Matt. vii 12; Luke vi 31.

This law in heaven is the law of mutual love or charity, as a result of which an opposite law is made in hell, which is that to every one should be done just as he had done to another. Not that those who are in heaven do this, but that they do it to themselves, for the retribution of retaliation is the result of opposition to that law of life in heaven, as if inscribed with their evils. [3] By 'double' is signified much in accordance with the quantity and quality, in these passages also:-

Let my persecutors be ashamed, bring upon them a day of evil, and break them with a double breaking Jer. xvii 18.

Also much in accordance with the quantity and quality of their turning from evils, in these:-

Comfort my people, for her military service has been fulfilled and her iniquity expiated, inasmuch as she has received of Jehovah's hand double [Isa. xl 1, 2].

Return to the stronghold, O prisoners of hope, this day I am announcing the double that I will pay back to thee Zech. ix 2.

For your shame you shall have double; and in their land they shall possess double, they shall have the joy of eternity Isa. lxi 7. * The Original Edition has 642, clearly an error. Previous editors have amended this to 649 as above, but perhaps it should be 652 or 653 or it should be omitted altogether.