Jeremiah 51:12-13

51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ¹ 

Bring more guards! ² 

Post them all around the city! ³ 

Put men in ambush! ⁴ 

For the Lord will do what he has planned.

He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁵ 

51:13 “You who live along the rivers of Babylon, ⁶ 

the time of your end has come.

You who are rich in plundered treasure,

it is time for your lives to be cut off. ⁷ 

[51:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”

[51:12]  ² tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”

[51:12]  ³ tn Heb “Station the guards.”

[51:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”

[51:12]  ⁵ tn 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 planned.” Here is an obvious case where the perfects are to be interpreted as prophetic; the commands imply that the attack is still future.

[51:13]  ⁶ sn Babylon was situated on the Euphrates River and was surrounded by canals (also called “rivers”).

[51:13]  ⁷ tn 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 been restructured and paraphrased to provide clarity for the average reader. The meaning of the last phrase is debated. For a discussion of the two options see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:423. Most modern commentaries and English versions see an allusion to the figure in Isa 38:12 where the reference is to the end of life compared to a tapestry which is suddenly cut off from the loom. Hence, NRSV renders the last line as “the thread of your life is cut” and TEV renders “its thread of life is cut.” That idea is accepted also in HALOT 141 s.v. בצע Qal.1.