Text -- Jeremiah 51:43-64 (NET)

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! 51:46 Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler.” 51:47 “So the time will certainly come when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst. 51:48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon. For destroyers from the north will attack it,” says the Lord. 51:49 “Babylon must fall because of the Israelites she has killed, just as the earth’s mortally wounded fell because of Babylon. 51:50 You who have escaped the sword, go, do not delay. Remember the Lord in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem. 51:51 ‘We are ashamed because we have been insulted. Our faces show our disgrace. For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms in the Lord’s temple.’ 51:52 Yes, but the time will certainly come,” says the Lord, “when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan. 51:53 Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky and fortifies her elevated stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” says the Lord. 51:54 Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. 51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon, and put an end to her loud noise. Their waves will roar like turbulent waters. They will make a deafening noise. 51:56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God who punishes; he pays back in full. 51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. 51:58 This is what the Lord who rules over all says, “Babylon’s thick wall will be completely demolished. Her high gates will be set on fire. fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. satisfy. The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” 51:59 This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.) 51:60 Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon– all these prophecies written about Babylon. 51:61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies. 51:62 Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’ 51:63 When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. 51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’” The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 51:43

¹ tn 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 “her towns”] and no son of man [= human being] passes through them.” Here the present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and a number of the modern commentaries in deleting the second occurrence of the word “land,” in which case the words that follow are not a relative clause but independent statements. A number of modern English versions appear to ignore the third feminine plural suffixes which refer back to the cities and refer the statements that follow to the land.

NET Notes: Jer 51:44

¹ tn Heb “And I will punish Bel in Babylon…And the nations will not come streaming to him anymore. Yea, the walls of Babylon have fallen.” The verbs in the first two lines are vav consecutive perfects and the verb in the third line is an imperfect all looking at the future. That indicates that the perfect that follows and the perfects that precede are all prophetic perfects. The translation adopted seemed to be the best way to make the transition from the pasts which were adopted in conjunction with the taunting use of אֵיךְ (’ekh) in v. 41 to the futures in v. 44. For the usage of גַּם (gam) to indicate a climax, “yea” or “indeed” see BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 3. It seemed to be impossible to render the meaning of v. 44 in any comprehensible way, even in a paraphrase.

sn 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 fact that God will be victorious over Babylon and its chief god, Bel/Marduk (see the study note on 50:2 for explanation). The reference to the disgorging of what Bel had swallowed is to captured people and plundered loot that had been taken to Babylon under the auspices of the victory of Bel over the foreign god (cf. Dan 5:2-4). The plundered treasures and captive people will be set free and nations will no longer need to pay homage to him because Babylon will be destroyed.

NET Notes: Jer 51:45

¹ tn Heb “Go out from her [Babylon’s] midst, my people. Save each man his life from the fierce anger of the Lord.” The verb has been paraphrased to prevent gender specific terms.

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

NET Notes: Jer 51:47

¹ tn Heb “That being so, look, days are approaching.” לָכֵן (lakhen) often introduces the effect of an action. That may be the case here, the turmoil outlined in v. 46 serving as the catalyst for the culminating divine judgment described in v. 47. Another possibility is that לָכֵן here has an asseverative force (“certainly”), as in Isa 26:14 and perhaps Jer 5:2 (see the note there). In this case the word almost has the force of “for, since,” because it presents a cause for an accompanying effect. See Judg 8:7 and the discussion of Isa 26:14 in BDB 486-87 s.v. כֵּן 3.d.

² tn Or “all her slain will fall in her midst.” In other words, her people will be overtaken by judgment and be unable to escape. The dead will lie in heaps in the very heart of the city and land.

NET Notes: Jer 51:48

¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:49

¹ tn The infinitive construct is used here to indicate what is about to take place. See IBHS 610 §36.2.3g.

² tn Heb “the slain of Israel.” The words “because of” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The preceding context makes it clear that Babylon would be judged for its atrocities against Israel (see especially 50:33-34; 51:10, 24, 35).

³ tn The juxtaposition of גַם…גַם (gam...gam), often “both…and,” here indicates correspondence. See BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 4. Appropriately Babylon will fall slain just as her victims, including God’s covenant people, did.

NET Notes: Jer 51:50

¹ sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).

² tn Heb “don’t stand.”

³ tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.

map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

NET Notes: Jer 51:51

¹ sn The exiles lament the way they have been humiliated.

² tn Heb “we have heard an insult.”

³ tn Heb “disgrace covers our face.”

⁴ tn Or “holy places, sanctuaries.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:52

¹ tn Heb “that being so, look, days are approaching.” Here לָכֵן (lakhen) introduces the Lord’s response to the people’s lament (v. 51). It has the force of “yes, but” or “that may be true.” See Judg 11:8 and BDB 486-87 s.v. כֵּן 3.d.

² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:53

¹ tn Or “ascends [into] heaven.” Note the use of the phrase in Deut 30:12; 2 Kgs 2:11; and Amos 9:2.

² tn Heb “and even if she fortifies her strong elevated place.”

³ tn Heb “from me destroyers will go against her.”

⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:55

¹ tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.

² tn Or “mighty waters.”

³ tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”

NET Notes: Jer 51:56

¹ tn Heb “for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.”

² tn The Piel form (which would be intransitive here, see GKC 142 §52.k) should probably be emended to Qal.

³ tn Or “God of retribution.”

⁴ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:57

¹ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

² sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

³ tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.

NET Notes: Jer 51:58

¹ sn See the note at Jer 2:19.

² tn The text has the plural “walls,” but many Hebrew mss read the singular “wall,” which is also supported by the ancient Greek version. The modifying adjective “thick” is singular as well.

³ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “will certainly be demolished.”

⁴ tn Heb “for what is empty.”

⁵ tn Heb “and the nations for fire, and they grow weary.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:59

¹ sn This would be 582 b.c.

² tn Heb “an officer of rest.”

NET Notes: Jer 51:60

¹ tn Or “wrote.”

² tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

³ tn Heb “words” (or “things”).

NET Notes: Jer 51:61

¹ tn Heb “see [that].”

² tn Heb “words” (or “things”).

NET Notes: Jer 51:63

¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.

NET Notes: Jer 51:64

¹ tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

² sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.