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Text -- Jeremiah 51:1-45 (NET)

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51:1 The Lord says, “I will cause a destructive wind to blow against Babylon and the people who inhabit Babylonia. 51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. They will winnow her and strip her land bare. This will happen when they come against her from every direction, when it is time to destroy her. 51:3 Do not give her archers time to string their bows or to put on their coats of armor. Do not spare any of her young men. Completely destroy her whole army. 51:4 Let them fall slain in the land of Babylonia, mortally wounded in the streets of her cities. 51:5 “For Israel and Judah will not be forsaken by their God, the Lord who rules over all. For the land of Babylonia is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. 51:6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done. 51:7 Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad. 51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed! 51:9 Foreigners living there will say, ‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let’s leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ 51:10 The exiles from Judah will say, ‘The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us! Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zion what the Lord our God has done!’ 51:11 “Sharpen your arrows! Fill your quivers! The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media. For he intends to destroy Babylonia. For that is how the Lord will get his revenge– how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians’ destruction of his temple. 51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! Bring more guards! Post them all around the city! Put men in ambush! For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. 51:13 “You who live along the rivers of Babylon, the time of your end has come. You who are rich in plundered treasure, it is time for your lives to be cut off. 51:14 The Lord who rules over all has solemnly sworn, ‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers. They will swarm over it like locusts. They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’ 51:15 He is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place, by his understanding he spread out the heavens. 51:16 When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. 51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols. 51:18 They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed. 51:19 The Lord, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them. For he is the one who created everything, including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own. He is known as the Lord who rules over all. 51:20 “Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms. 51:21 I used you to smash horses and their riders. I used you to smash chariots and their drivers. 51:22 I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women. 51:23 I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.” 51:24 “But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” says the Lord. 51:25 The Lord says, “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. 51:26 No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” says the Lord. 51:27 “Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Send horses against her like a swarm of locusts. 51:28 Prepare the nations to do battle against her. Prepare the kings of the Medes. Prepare their governors and all their leaders. Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her. 51:29 The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. For the Lord will carry out his plan. He plans to make the land of Babylonia a wasteland where no one lives. 51:30 The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. They will be as frightened as women. The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down. 51:31 One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon. One messenger after another will come bringing news. They will bring news to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured. 51:32 They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified. 51:33 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.’ 51:34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon devoured me and drove my people out. Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me. He filled his belly with my riches. He made me an empty dish. He completely cleaned me out.” 51:35 The person who lives in Zion says, “May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.” Jerusalem says, “May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” 51:36 Therefore the Lord says, “I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry. 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. 51:38 The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey. They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat. 51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up,” says the Lord. 51:40 “I will lead them off to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.” 51:41 “See how Babylon has been captured! See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations! 51:42 The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves. 51:43 The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. 51:44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not come streaming to him any longer. Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.” 51:45 “Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the Lord!
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Names, People and Places:
 · Ararat a mountain, the surrounding land, & a kingdom in the area
 · Ashkenaz son of Gomer son of Japheth son of Noah,a people of the northern shore of the Black Sea
 · Babylon a country of Babylon in lower Mesopotamia
 · Bel a pagan god of the Babylonians
 · Chaldea a region in lower Mesopotamia where the Chaldaeans lived
 · Israel a citizen of Israel.,a member of the nation of Israel
 · Jacob the second so of a pair of twins born to Isaac and Rebeccaa; ancestor of the 12 tribes of Israel,the nation of Israel,a person, male,son of Isaac; Israel the man and nation
 · Jerusalem the capital city of Israel,a town; the capital of Israel near the southern border of Benjamin
 · Judah the son of Jacob and Leah; founder of the tribe of Judah,a tribe, the land/country,a son of Joseph; the father of Simeon; an ancestor of Jesus,son of Jacob/Israel and Leah; founder of the tribe of Judah,the tribe of Judah,citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah,citizens of the Persian Province of Judah; the Jews who had returned from Babylonian exile,"house of Judah", a phrase which highlights the political leadership of the tribe of Judah,"king of Judah", a phrase which relates to the southern kingdom of Judah,"kings of Judah", a phrase relating to the southern kingdom of Judah,"princes of Judah", a phrase relating to the kingdom of Judah,the territory allocated to the tribe of Judah, and also the extended territory of the southern kingdom of Judah,the Province of Judah under Persian rule,"hill country of Judah", the relatively cool and green central highlands of the territory of Judah,"the cities of Judah",the language of the Jews; Hebrew,head of a family of Levites who returned from Exile,a Levite who put away his heathen wife,a man who was second in command of Jerusalem; son of Hassenuah of Benjamin,a Levite in charge of the songs of thanksgiving in Nehemiah's time,a leader who helped dedicate Nehemiah's wall,a Levite musician who helped Zechariah of Asaph dedicate Nehemiah's wall
 · Medes the inhabitants of Media, a region south and southwest of the Caspian Sea in the Zagros mountains,a people and a nation
 · Minni a region of Armenia, around Lake Van
 · Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon who took Judah into exile
 · Zion one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built; the temple area; the city of Jerusalem; God's people,a town and citidel; an ancient part of Jerusalem


Dictionary Themes and Topics: Babylon | Sin | Persia | War | God | GOVERNOR | Caterpillar | Dragon | Sheshach | Duties of Men | Armenia | Balm | Jackal | MINNI | Drunkeess | Prophecy | Post | Ashkenaz | Ambush | Ararat | more
Table of Contents

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 51:1 Heb “the people who live in Leb-qamai.” “Leb-qamai” is a code name for “Chaldeans” formed on the principle of subs...

NET Notes: Jer 51:2 Heb “in the day of disaster.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:3 For the concept underlying this word see the study note on “utterly destroy” in Jer 25:9 and compare the usage in 50:21, 26.

NET Notes: Jer 51:4 The words “cities” is not in the text. The text merely says “in her streets” but the antecedent is “land” and must...

NET Notes: Jer 51:5 See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 50:29.

NET Notes: Jer 51:6 Heb “paying to her a recompense [i.e., a payment in kind].”

NET Notes: Jer 51:7 Heb “upon the grounds of such conditions the nations have gone mad.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:8 The verbs in this verse and the following are all in the Hebrew perfect tense, a tense that often refers to a past action or a past action with presen...

NET Notes: Jer 51:9 This is an admittedly very paraphrastic translation that tries to make the figurative nuance of the Hebrew original understandable for the average rea...

NET Notes: Jer 51:10 There is some difference of opinion as to the best way to render the Hebrew expression here. Literally it means “brought forth our righteousness...

NET Notes: Jer 51:11 Verse 11c-f appears to be a parenthetical or editorial comment by Jeremiah to give some background for the attack which is summoned in vv. 11-12.

NET Notes: Jer 51:12 Heb “For the Lord has both planned and done what he said concerning the people living in Babylon,” i.e., “he has carried out what he...

NET Notes: Jer 51:13 Heb “You who live upon [or beside] many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the cubit of your cutting off.” The sentence has bee...

NET Notes: Jer 51:14 Heb “I will fill you with men like locusts.” The “you” refers to Babylon (Babylon is both the city and the land it ruled, Baby...

NET Notes: Jer 51:15 The participle here is intended to be connected with “Lord who rules over all” in the preceding verse. The passage is functioning to under...

NET Notes: Jer 51:19 With the major exception discussed in the translator’s note on the preceding line vv. 15-19 are a verbatim repetition of 10:12-16 with a few min...

NET Notes: Jer 51:20 Heb “I smash nations with you.” This same structure is repeated throughout the series in vv. 20c-23.

NET Notes: Jer 51:21 Heb “horse and its rider.” However, the terms are meant as generic or collective singulars (cf. GKC 395 §123.b) and are thus translat...

NET Notes: Jer 51:23 These two words are Akkadian loan words into Hebrew which often occur in this pairing (cf. Ezek 23:6, 12, 23; Jer 51:23, 28, 57). BDB 688 s.v. ס...

NET Notes: Jer 51:24 Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:25 The figure here involves comparing Babylon to a destructive volcano which the Lord makes burned-out, i.e., he will destroy her power to destroy. The f...

NET Notes: Jer 51:26 Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:27 Heb “Bring up horses like bristly locusts.” The meaning of the Hebrew word “bristly” (סָמָר, sam...

NET Notes: Jer 51:28 The Hebrew text has a confusing switch of possessive pronouns in this verse: “Consecrate the nations against her, the kings of the Medes, her go...

NET Notes: Jer 51:29 The verbs in this verse and v. 30 are all in the past tense in Hebrew, in the tense that views the action as already as good as done (the Hebrew proph...

NET Notes: Jer 51:30 Heb “Her dwelling places have been set on fire. Her bars [i.e., the bars on the gates of her cities] have been broken.” The present transl...

NET Notes: Jer 51:31 Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and messenger to meet messenger to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken in [its] entir...

NET Notes: Jer 51:32 Babylon was a city covering over a thousand acres. The city itself was surrounded by two walls, the inner one 21 feet (6.3 m) thick and the outer 11 f...

NET Notes: Jer 51:33 There are two figures involved here: one of the threshing floor being leveled and stamped down hard and smooth and the other of the harvest. At harves...

NET Notes: Jer 51:34 The speaker in this verse and the next is the personified city of Jerusalem. She laments her fate at the hands of the king of Babylon and calls down a...

NET Notes: Jer 51:35 Heb “‘The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,’ says the one living in Zion. ‘My blood be upon those living in...

NET Notes: Jer 51:36 The reference to their sea is not clear. Most interpreters understand it to be a figurative reference to the rivers and canals surrounding Babylon. Bu...

NET Notes: Jer 51:37 Heb “without an inhabitant.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:38 Heb “They [the Babylonians] all roar like lions. They growl like the cubs of lions.” For the usage of יַחְד&...

NET Notes: Jer 51:39 Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:40 This statement is highly ironic in light of the fact that the Babylonians were compared to lions and lion cubs (v. 38). Here they are like lambs, rams...

NET Notes: Jer 51:41 This is part of a taunt song (see Isa 14:4) and assumes prophetically that the city has already been captured. The verbs in vv. 41-43a are all in the ...

NET Notes: Jer 51:42 This is a poetic and figurative reference to the enemies of Babylon, the foe from the north (see 50:3, 9, 51:27-28), which has attacked Babylon in wav...

NET Notes: Jer 51:43 Heb “Its towns have become a desolation, [it has become] a dry land and a desert, a land which no man passes through them [referring to “h...

NET Notes: Jer 51:44 In the ancient Near East the victory of a nation over another nation was attributed to its gods. The reference is a poetic way of referring to the fac...

NET Notes: Jer 51:45 Compare Jer 50:8-10; 51:6 where the significance of saving oneself from the fierce anger of the Lord is clarified.

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