Jeremiah 51:44

51:44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.

I will make him spit out what he has swallowed.

The nations will not come streaming to him any longer.

Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.” ¹ 

Jeremiah 51:12

51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ² 

Bring more guards! ³ 

Post them all around the city! ⁴ 

Put men in ambush! ⁵ 

For the Lord will do what he has planned.

He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁶ 

[51:44]  ¹ tn Heb “And I will punish Bel in Babylon…And the nations will not come streaming to him anymore. Yea, the walls of Babylon have fallen.” The verbs in the first two lines are vav consecutive perfects and the verb in the third line is an imperfect all looking at the future. That indicates that the perfect that follows and the perfects that precede are all prophetic perfects. The translation adopted seemed to be the best way to make the transition from the pasts which were adopted in conjunction with the taunting use of אֵיךְ (’ekh) in v. 41 to the futures in v. 44. For the usage of גַּם (gam) to indicate a climax, “yea” or “indeed” see BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 3. It seemed to be impossible to render the meaning of v. 44 in any comprehensible way, even in a paraphrase.

[51:12]  ² tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”

[51:12]  ³ tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”

[51:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “Station the guards.”

[51:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”

[51:12]  ⁶ 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.