Jeremiah 19:10-11

19:10 The Lord continued, ¹  “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ²  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ³  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ⁴  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁵ 

Revelation 18:21

18:21 Then ⁶  one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said,

“With this kind of sudden violent force ⁷ 

Babylon the great city will be thrown down ⁸ 

and it will never be found again!

¹ tn The words “And the Lord continued” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to take us clearly back to the flow of the narrative begun in vv. 1-2 and interrupted by the long speech in vv. 3-9.

² tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

³ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

⁴ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

⁵ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

⁷ tn On ὅρμημα ({ormhma) BDAG 724 s.v. states, “violent rush, onset ὁρμήματι βληθήσεται Βαβυλών Babylon will be thrown down with violence Rv 18:21.” L&N 68.82 refers to the suddenness of the force or violence.

⁸ sn Thrown down is a play on both the words and the action. The angel’s action with the stone illustrates the kind of sudden violent force with which the city will be overthrown.