Jeremiah 51:37

51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. 1 

It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,

a place where no one lives. 2 

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, 3 

“I will make Jerusalem 4  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. 5 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Jeremiah 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. 6 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching 7  from a land in the north. 8 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

Jeremiah 49:33

49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,

a place where only jackals live. 9 

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it.” 10 

Jeremiah 25:30

25:30 “Then, Jeremiah, 11  make the following prophecy 12  against them:

‘Like a lion about to attack, 13  the Lord will roar from the heights of heaven;

from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly.

He will roar mightily against his land. 14 

He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes 15 

against all those who live on the earth.

1 tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Compare 9:11.

2 tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”

3 tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

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

5 tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

5 tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

6 tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

7 sn Compare Jer 6:22.

7 sn Compare Jer 9:11.

8 sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.

9 tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to make clear who is being addressed.

10 tn Heb “Prophesy against them all these words.”

11 tn The words “like a lion about to attack” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. The explicit comparison of the Lord to a lion is made at the end of the passage in v. 38. The words are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

12 sn The word used here (Heb “his habitation”) refers to the land of Canaan which the Lord chose to make his earthly dwelling (Exod 15:13) and which was the dwelling place of his chosen people (Jer 10:25; Isa 32:18). Judgment would begin at the “house of God” (v. 29; 1 Pet 4:17) but would extend to the rest of the earth (v. 29).

13 sn The metaphor shifts from God as a lion to God as a mighty warrior (Jer 20:11; Isa 42:13; Zeph 3:17) shouting in triumph over his foes. Within the metaphor is a simile where the warrior is compared to a person stomping on grapes to remove the juice from them in the making of wine. The figure will be invoked later in a battle scene where the sounds of joy in the grape harvest are replaced by the sounds of joy of the enemy soldiers (Jer 48:33). The picture is drawn in more gory detail in Isa 63:1-6.