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. 1
So they have all gone mad. 2
51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. 3
Cry out in mourning over it!
Get medicine for her wounds!
Perhaps she can be healed!
The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. 5
1 tn The words “of her wrath” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to help those readers who are not familiar with the figure of the “cup of the
2 tn Heb “upon the grounds of such conditions the nations have gone mad.”
3 tn 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 present results. However, as the translator’s notes have indicated, the prophets use this tense to view the actions as if they were as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The stance here is ideal, viewed as already accomplished.
4 tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”
5 sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.