Jeremiah 51:4

51:4 Let them fall ¹  slain in the land of Babylonia, ² 

mortally wounded in the streets of her cities. ³ 

Jeremiah 50:10

50:10 Babylonia ⁴  will be plundered.

Those who plunder it will take all they want,”

says the Lord. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 51:54

51:54 Cries of anguish will come from Babylon,

the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

Jeremiah 50:1

Judgment Against Babylon

50:1 The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia ⁶  through the prophet Jeremiah. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 50:8

50:8 “People of Judah, ⁸  get out of Babylon quickly!

Leave the land of Babylonia! ⁹ 

Be the first to depart! ¹⁰ 

Be like the male goats that lead the herd.

Jeremiah 50:35

50:35 “Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians,” ¹¹  says the Lord. ¹² 

“They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia,

against her leaders and her men of wisdom.

Jeremiah 50:25

50:25 I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. ¹³ 

I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. ¹⁴ 

For I, the Lord God who rules over all, ¹⁵ 

have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 51:24

51:24 “But I will repay Babylon

and all who live in Babylonia

for all the wicked things they did in Zion

right before the eyes of you Judeans,” ¹⁷ 

says the Lord. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 51:35

51:35 The person who lives in Zion says,

“May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.”

Jerusalem says,

“May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 52:8

52:8 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, ²⁰  and his entire army deserted him.

Jeremiah 52:14

52:14 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 24:5

24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon ²¹  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

Jeremiah 25:12

25:12 “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ²²  for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon ²³  an everlasting ruin. ²⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 37:10

37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ²⁶  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 39:5

39:5 But the Babylonian ²⁸  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ²⁹  and captured him. ³⁰  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ³¹  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.

Jeremiah 50:45

50:45 So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon,

what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. ³² 

Their little ones will be dragged off.

I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.

Jeremiah 52:17

52:17 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ³³  They took all the bronze to Babylon.

[51:4]  ¹ tn The majority of English versions and the commentaries understand the vav (ו) consecutive + perfect as a future here “They will fall.” However, it makes better sense in the light of the commands in the previous verse to understand this as an indirect third person command (= a jussive; see GKC 333 §112.q, r) as REB and NJPS do.

[51:4]  ² tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[51:4]  ³ tn The words “cities” is not in the text. The text merely says “in her streets” but the antecedent is “land” and must then refer to the streets of the cities in the land.

[50:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “The land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.”

[50:8]  ¹⁰ tn The words “People of Judah” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the subject of the address.

[50:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:8]  ¹² tn The words “Be the first to leave” are not in the text but spell out the significance of the simile that follows. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:35]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” For explanation of the rendering see the study note on 21:4. There is no verb in this clause. Therefore it is difficult to determine whether this should be understood as a command or as a prediction. The presence of vav (ו) consecutive perfects after a similar construction in vv. 36b, d, 37c, 38a and the imperfects after “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) all suggest the predictive or future nuance. However, the vav consecutive perfect could be used to carry on the nuance of command (cf. GKC 333 §112.q) but not in the sense of purpose as NRSV, NJPS render them.

[50:35]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:25]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I have opened up my armory.”

[50:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “The Lord has opened up his armory and has brought out the weapons of his wrath.” The problem of the Lord referring to himself in the third person (or of the prophet speaking on his behalf) is again raised here and is again resolved by using the first person throughout. The construction “weapons of my wrath” would not convey any meaning to many readers so the significance has been spelled out in the translation.

[50:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering and the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

[50:25]  ¹⁹ tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[51:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Media, you are my war club…I will use you to smash…leaders. So before your very eyes I will repay…for all the wicked things they did in Zion.” For explanation see the translator’s note on v. 20. The position of the phrase “before your eyes” at the end of the verse after “which they did in Zion” and the change in person from second masculine singular in vv. 20b-23 (“I used you to smite”) to second masculine plural in “before your eyes” argue that a change in referent/addressee occurs in this verse. To maintain that the referent in vv. 20-23 is Media/Cyrus requires that this position and change in person be ignored; “before your eyes” then is attached to “I will repay.” The present translation follows J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 757) and F. B. Huey (Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 423) in seeing the referent as the Judeans who had witnessed the destruction of Zion/Jerusalem. The word “Judean” has been supplied for the sake of identifying the referent for the modern reader.

[51:24]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:35]  ²² tn Heb “‘The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,’ says the one living in Zion. ‘My blood be upon those living in Chaldea,’ says Jerusalem.” For the usage of the genitive here in the phrase “violence done to me and my relatives” see GKC 414 §128.a (a construct governing two objects) and IBHS 303 §16.4d (an objective genitive). For the nuance of “pay” in the sense of retribution see BDB 756 s.v. עַל 7.a(b) and compare the usage in Judg 9:24. For the use of שְׁאֵר (shÿ’er) in the sense of “relatives” see BDB 985 s.v. שְׁאֵר 2 and compare NJPS. For the use of “blood” in this idiom see BDB 197 s.v. דָּם 2.k and compare the usage in 2 Sam 4:11; Ezek 3:18, 20. The lines have been reversed for better English style.

[52:8]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[24:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

[25:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “that nation.”

[25:12]  ³² tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”

[25:12]  ³³ tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity even upon the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.

[25:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[37:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.

[37:10]  ³⁵ tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.

[39:5]  ³⁷ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ³⁸ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ³⁹ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ⁴⁰ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[50:45]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[52:17]  ⁴³ sn For discussion of the items listed here, see the study notes at Jer 27:19.