Table of Contents

Jeremiah 51

Jeremiah 51

1 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.

4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.

11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both devised and done that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.

20 Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider;

22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the Lord.

25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the Lord.

27 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.

28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.

29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.

31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.

46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, saith the Lord.

49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house.

52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.

54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite.

57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.

60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;

62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.

63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:

64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Notes

Cross Reference

Commentary

Rashi

Verse 1

<html><b>Leb-kamai</b> Casdim (Chaldeans) according to cypher of ‘At-bash’ (א“תב”ש). <b>the desire of a destroyer</b> The desire of the king of Persia and Media, who is a destroyer. Heb. רוּחַ (talent in O.F.).</html>

Verse 2

<html><b>and they shall scatter her</b> Heb. וְזֵרוּהָ. <b>and empty her land</b> Heb. וִיבֹקְקוּ.</html>

Verse 3

<html><b>To…the archer shall bend</b> This is an elliptical verse. [The meaning is:] To wherever I say, there the archer shall bend his bow. <b>and he shall not be healed with his coat of mail</b> Heb. וְאַל יִתְעַל.</html>

Verse 5

<html><b>For Israel is not widowed</b> He has not forgotten him to avenge him. <b>for their land</b> of the Chaldeans.</html>

Verse 6

<html><b>Flee</b> Israel, from within Babylon.</html>

Verse 7

<html><b>a golden cup</b> Until now, Babylon was [a golden cup] in the Lord’s hand with which to intoxicate the whole earth with the wine of wrath. <b>therefore, nations are mad</b> They have become drunk and have become mad.</html>

Verse 9

<html><b>her judgment has touched the sky</b> Their retribution has reached high up to the sky.</html>

Verse 10

<html><b>“The Lord has brought forth our merits”</b> We have been remembered by Him favorably, and the merits of our forefathers have come before Him.</html>

Verse 11

<html><b>Polish</b> Heb. הברו, an expression of cleaning. <b>the quivers</b> Heb. השלטים, the quivers into which the arrows are placed.</html>

Verse 12

<html><b>for the Lord both planned</b> already many days. <b>and did</b> His plan. It is customary for Scripture to speak with the word גַם twice, one after the other, and following the latter, comes the former.</html>

Verse 13

<html><b>your end has come</b> Heb. קצך, your end. <b>the measure of your violence</b> Heb. אַמַתבִּצְעֵךְ, the measure of your violence. Another explanation: אַמַתבִּצְעֵךְ means: the measure of your end. Cf. “When… completes (יִבַצַע)” (Isa. 10:12).</html>

Verse 14

<html><b>by Himself</b> (en soi meme in French.) <b>indeed</b> Heb. כי אם, an expression of ‘in truth.’ <b>I have…filled you with men</b> I will fill you with camps of peoples, as many as locusts. <b>and they shall raise a battle- cry against you</b> And they shall raise their voice against you.</html>

Verse 17

<html><b>Every man is brutish</b> [i.e.,] whoever makes a graven image for a god. <b>molten images</b> [As translated], an expression [denoting] molten images.</html>

Verse 18

<html><b>at the time of their visitation</b> When the Holy One, blessed be He, visits retribution upon them and upon their worshippers.</html>

Verse 19

<html><b>and the tribe of His inheritance</b> Jacob mentioned above at the beginning of the verse.</html>

Verse 20

<html><b>for Me a shatterer</b> Heb. מפץ. Until now, I have appointed you as a destroyer and a shatterer of the nations upon whom I decreed exile.</html>

Verse 24

<html><b>And I will recompense Babylon</b> After all this, when I complete My vengeance upon the nations through him.</html>

Verse 27

<html><b>prepare</b> Heb. קַדְשוֹ. <b>a marshal</b> Heb. טפסר, an expression of an army [or an expression of a lord]. <b>bristling</b> Heb. סמר. (Herisse in French), covered with spikes. Cf. “It made the hair of my flesh stand up like spikes (תְּסַּמֵר)” (Job 4:15).</html>

Verse 29

<html><b>and was in pain</b> Heb. ותחל, an expression of חַלְחָלָה pain.</html>

Verse 30

<html><b>failed</b> Heb. נשתה, [lit.] jumped. Compare “the hip sinew (הנשה)” (Gen. 33:32), so called because it jumped [was dislocated] from its place.</html>

Verse 33

<html><b>is like a granary at the time it is threshed</b> Behold, now it is full, like a granary at the time they have threshed its grain, when it is full of wheat. <b>A little more time</b> and she shall he emptied and shall resemble a granary at the time of the beginning of the harvest, when it is empty.</html>

Verse 35

<html><b>the plundering done me and my food</b> The cry of violence done me and my food, for they have eaten my food.</html>

Verse 38

<html><b>they growl</b> Heb. נערו, an expression of a braying (נוֹעֵר) donkey.</html>

Verse 39

<html><b>in their heat, I will place their wine feasts</b> I will intend that their wine feasts shall be in the hot season so that they become drunk. <b>in order that they become joyful and sleep</b> Heb. וישנו, and sleep soundly. <b>a perpetual sleep</b> Heb. שנתעולם, a perpetual sleep, and so it happened to them; out of their wine feast and drunkenness they were destroyed and slain, and the city was captured, as it is written in Daniel (5:2): “Belshazzar said while he tasted the wine, etc.”; (5:4), “They drank wine, etc.”; (5: 30), “On that night, Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, was slain”; (6:1), “And Darius the Mede received the kingship.”</html>

Verse 40

<html><b>like lambs</b> Heb. כברים, lambs (and Jonathan renders:) like bulls.</html>

Verse 41

<html><b>Sheshach</b> Babylon in the ‘At-bash’ (א“תב”ש), cipher.</html>

Verse 42

<html><b>The sea has ascended upon Babylon</b> A huge army, like the waters of [the sea].</html>

Verse 44

<html><b>on Bel</b> On the deity of Babylon. <b>what he has swallowed</b> That all the inhabitants of the land were humbled under him. <b>shall no longer stream</b> Heb. יהרו, and shall not gather. Cf. “And all the nations shall stream (ונהרוּ) to it” (Isa. 2:2). Like the waters of the river, all of which go to the sea.</html>

Verse 46

<html><b>because of the rumor that is heard in the land</b> This rumor concerning Belshazzar that he was slain. <b>for a rumor shall come one year</b> In that very year there will come a rumor that Babylon has been destroyed by itself from heaven as it is stated: “And Babylon, the beauty of the kingdoms the glory of the pride of the Chaldee, shall be like God’s overturning of Sodom and Gemorrah” (Isa. 13: 19). <b>and after it in a year</b> [In] the second [year]. <b>a rumor</b> that is good for you [viz.] “So said Cyrus, the king of Persia…, Whoever among you of all His people…” (Ezra 1:2f). <b>and one ruler upon another ruler</b> Darius the Mede reigned one year, and in the second year Cyrus the Persian.</html>

Verse 49

<html><b>As Babylon</b> was [a cause] for the slain of Israel to fall therein. <b>so in Babylon</b> shall fall the slain of all her land.</html>

Verse 50

<html><b>Fugitives from the sword</b> Israel, who was exiled into her midst, who escaped the sword of Nebuzaradan.</html>

Verse 51

<html><b>for we have heard reproach</b> For the Chaldeans were saying and reproaching us, saying, “The hand of our god is exalted for we have destroyed His house.”</html>

Verse 52

<html><b>the mortally wounded shall groan</b> Heb. יאנק. The mortally wounded shall cry. When they kill a person with an arrow or with a spear, and he groans when they remove the spear, that is אנקה.</html>

Verse 53

<html><b>and should she fortify</b> Heb. תבצר, an expression of a strong fortress. <b>from Me shall spoilers come upon her</b> From Me, from the heavens that are higher than she, shall the spoilers come upon her.</html>

Verse 55

<html><b>the stirring of their voice was uttered</b> The sound of their cry is heard.</html>

Verse 58

<html><b>shall be overthrown</b> Heb. תתערער, an expression of digging. An expression like “Dig under it, dig under it (עָרוּ), until its foundation” (Psalms 137:7). <b>for much futility</b> For much futility which it will bring upon them.</html>