Discovery BoxJeremiah 51:38-43
Context51:38 The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey.
They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat. 1
51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, 2
I will set out a banquet for them.
I will make them drunk
so that they will pass out, 3
they will fall asleep forever,
they will never wake up,” 4
says the Lord. 5
51:40 “I will lead them off to be slaughtered
like lambs, rams, and male goats.” 6
51:41 “See how Babylon 7 has been captured!
See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken!
See what an object of horror
Babylon has become among the nations! 8
51:42 The sea has swept over Babylon.
She has been covered by a multitude 9 of its waves. 10
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. 11
[51:38] 1 tn Heb “They [the Babylonians] all roar like lions. They growl like the cubs of lions.” For the usage of יַחְדָו (yakhdav) meaning “all” see Isa 10:8; 18:6; 41:20. The translation strives to convey in clear terms what is the generally accepted meaning of the simile (cf., e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 358, and J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 762).
[51:39] 2 tn Heb “When they are hot.”
[51:39] 3 tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.
[51:39] 4 sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the
[51:39] 5 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[51:40] 3 tn Heb “I will bring them down like lambs to be slaughtered, like rams and he goats.”
[51:41] 4 sn Heb “Sheshach.” For an explanation of the usage of this name for Babylon see the study note on Jer 25:26 and that on 51:1 for a similar phenomenon. Babylon is here called “the pride of the whole earth” because it was renowned for its size, its fortifications, and its beautiful buildings.
[51:41] 5 tn Heb “How Sheshach has been captured, the pride of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!” For the usage of “How” here see the translator’s note on 50:23.
[51:42] 5 tn For the meaning “multitude” here rather than “tumult” see BDB 242 s.v. הָמוֹן 3.c, where reference is made that this refers to a great throng of people under the figure of an overwhelming mass of waves. The word is used of a multitude of soldiers, or a vast army in 1 Sam 14:16; 1 Kgs 20:13, 18 (cf. BDB 242 s.v. הָמוֹן 3.a for further references).
[51:42] 6 tn Heb “The sea has risen up over Babylon. She has been covered by the multitude of its waves.”
[51:43] 6 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.
