Jeremiah 51:8

51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. ¹ 

Cry out in mourning over it!

Get medicine for her wounds!

Perhaps she can be healed!

Jeremiah 51:31-39

51:31 One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon.

One messenger after another will come bringing news. ² 

They will bring news to the king of Babylon

that his whole city has been captured. ³ 

51:32 They will report that the fords have been captured,

the reed marshes have been burned,

the soldiers are terrified. ⁴ 

51:33 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says,

‘Fair Babylon ⁵  will be like a threshing floor

which has been trampled flat for harvest.

The time for her to be cut down and harvested

will come very soon.’ ⁶ 

51:34 “King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

devoured me and drove my people out.

Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me.

He filled his belly with my riches.

He made me an empty dish.

He completely cleaned me out.” ⁷ 

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.” ⁸ 

51:36 Therefore the Lord says,

“I will stand up for your cause.

I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. ⁹ 

I will dry up their sea.

I will make their springs run dry. ¹⁰ 

51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹¹ 

It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,

a place where no one lives. ¹² 

51:38 The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey.

They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat. ¹³ 

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ¹⁴ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ¹⁵ 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ¹⁶ 

says the Lord. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 51:57

51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, leaders, ¹⁸  and warriors.

They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ¹⁹ 

says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 21:3-5

21:3 For this reason my stomach churns; ²¹ 

cramps overwhelm me

like the contractions of a woman in labor.

I am disturbed ²²  by what I hear,

horrified by what I see.

21:4 My heart palpitates, ²³ 

I shake in fear; ²⁴ 

the twilight I desired

has brought me terror.

21:5 Arrange the table,

lay out ²⁵  the carpet,

eat and drink! ²⁶ 

Get up, you officers,

smear oil on the shields! ²⁷ 

Daniel 5:30-31

5:30 And in that very night Belshazzar, the Babylonian king, ²⁸  was killed. ²⁹  5:31 (6:1) ³⁰  So Darius the Mede took control of the kingdom when he was about sixty-two years old.

Revelation 18:7-8

18:7 As much as ³¹  she exalted herself and lived in sensual luxury, ³²  to this extent give her torment and grief because she said to herself, ³³  ‘I rule as queen and am no widow; I will never experience grief!’ 18:8 For this reason, she will experience her plagues ³⁴  in a single day: disease, ³⁵  mourning, ³⁶  and famine, and she will be burned down ³⁷  with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is powerful!”

[51:8]  ¹ 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.

[51:31]  ² tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and…” The intent is to portray a relay of runners carrying the news that follows on in vv. 31d-33 to the king of Babylon. The present translation attempts to spell out the significance.

[51:31]  ³ tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and messenger to meet messenger to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken in [its] entirety.” There is general agreement among the commentaries that the first two lines refer to messengers converging on the king of Babylon from every direction bringing news the sum total of which is reported in the lines that follow. For the meaning of the last phrase see BDB 892 s.v. קָצֶה 3 and compare the usage in Gen 19:4 and Isa 56:11. The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[51:32]  ⁴ tn The words “They will report that” have been supplied in the translation to show the linkage between this verse and the previous one. This is still a part of the report of the messengers. The meaning of the word translated “reed marshes” has seemed inappropriate to some commentators because it elsewhere refers to “pools.” However, all the commentaries consulted agree that the word here refers to the reedy marshes that surrounded Babylon. (For a fuller discussion regarding the meaning of this word and attempts to connect it with a word meaning “fortress” see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:427.)

[51:33]  ⁵ sn Heb “Daughter Babylon.” See the study note at 50:42 for explanation.

[51:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “Daughter Babylon will be [or is; there is no verb and the tense has to be supplied from the context] like a threshing floor at the time one tramples it. Yet a little while and the time of the harvest will come for her.” It is generally agreed that there are two figures here: one of leveling the threshing floor and stamping it into a smooth, hard surface and the other of the harvest where the grain is cut, taken to the threshing floor, and threshed by trampling the sheaves of grain to loosen the grain from the straw, and finally winnowed by throwing the mixture into the air (cf., e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 760). The translation has sought to convey those ideas as clearly as possible without digressing too far from the literal.

[51:34]  ⁷ tn This verse is extremely difficult to translate because of the shifting imagery, the confusion over the meaning of one of the verbs, and the apparent inconsistency of the pronominal suffixes here with those in the following verse which everyone agrees is connected with it. The pronominal suffixes are first common plural but the versions all read them as first common singular which the Masoretes also do in the Qere. That reading has been followed here for consistency with the next verse which identifies the speaker as the person living in Zion and the personified city of Jerusalem. The Hebrew text reads: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon devoured me [cf. 50:7, 17] and threw me into confusion. He set me down an empty dish. He swallowed me like a monster from the deep [cf. BDB 1072 s.v. תַּנִּין 3 and compare usage in Isa 27:1; Ezek 29:3; 32:2]. He filled his belly with my dainties. He rinsed me out [cf. BDB s.v. דּוּח Hiph.2 and compare the usage in Isa 4:4].” The verb “throw into confusion” has proved troublesome because its normal meaning does not seem appropriate. Hence various proposals have been made to understand it in a different sense. The present translation has followed W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:428) in understanding the verb to mean “disperse” or “route” (see NAB). The last line has seemed out of place and has often been emended to read “he has spewed me out” (so NIV, NRSV, a reading that presupposes הִדִּיחָנִי [hiddikhani] for הֱדִיחָנִי [hedikhani]). The reading of the MT is not inappropriate if it is combined with the imagery of an empty jar and hence is retained here (see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 425, n. 59; H. Freedman, Jeremiah [SoBB], 344; NJPS). The lines have been combined to keep the imagery together.

[51:35]  ⁸ 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.

[51:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will avenge your vengeance [= I will take vengeance for you; the phrase involves a verb and a cognate accusative].” The meaning of the phrase has been spelled out in more readily understandable terms.

[51:36]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will dry up her [Babylon’s] sea and make her fountain dry.” “Their” has been substituted for “her” because “Babylonians” has been inserted in the previous clause and is easier to understand than the personification of Babylon = “her.”

[51:37]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Compare 9:11.

[51:37]  ¹² tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”

[51:38]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath (cf. 25:15-29, especially v. 26). Here the Babylonians have been made to drink so deeply of it that they fall into a drunken sleep from which they will never wake up (i.e., they die, death being compared to sleep [cf. Ps 13:3 (13:4 HT); 76:5 (76:6 HT); 90:5]). Compare the usage in Jer 51:57 for this same figure.

[51:39]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:57]  ¹⁸ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

[51:57]  ¹⁹ sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

[51:57]  ²⁰ tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.

[21:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “my waist is filled with shaking [or “anguish”].”

[21:3]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “bent over [in pain]”; cf. NRSV “I am bowed down.”

[21:4]  ²³ tn Heb “wanders,” perhaps here, “is confused.”

[21:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “shuddering terrifies me.”

[21:5]  ²⁵ tn The precise meaning of the verb in this line is debated. Some prefer to derive the form from the homonymic צָפֹה (tsafoh, “keep watch”) and translate “post a guard” (cf. KJV “watch in the watchtower”; ASV “set the watch”).

[21:5]  ²⁶ tn The verbal forms in the first three lines are infinitives absolute, which are functioning here as finite verbs. It is uncertain if the forms should have an imperatival or indicative/descriptive force here.

[21:5]  ²⁷ sn Smearing the shields with oil would make them more flexible and effective in battle. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:394.

[5:30]  ²⁸ tn Aram “king of the Chaldeans.”

[5:30]  ²⁹ sn The year was 539 B.C. At this time Daniel would have been approximately eighty-one years old. The relevant extra-biblical records describing the fall of Babylon include portions of Herodotus, Xenophon, Berossus (cited in Josephus), the Cyrus Cylinder, and the Babylonian Chronicle.

[5:31]  ³⁰ sn Beginning with 5:31, the verse numbers through 6:28 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Aramaic text (BHS), with 5:31 ET = 6:1 AT, 6:1 ET = 6:2 AT, 6:2 ET = 6:3 AT, 6:3 ET = 6:4 AT, etc., through 6:28 ET = 6:29 AT. Beginning with 7:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Aramaic text are again the same.

[18:7]  ³¹ tn “As much as” is the translation of ὅσα (Josa).

[18:7]  ³² tn On the term ἐστρηνίασεν (estrhniasen) BDAG 949 s.v. στρηνιάω states, “live in luxury, live sensually Rv 18:7. W. πορνεύειν vs. 9.”

[18:7]  ³³ tn Grk “said in her heart,” an idiom for saying something to oneself.

[18:8]  ³⁴ tn Grk “For this reason, her plagues will come.”

[18:8]  ³⁵ tn Grk “death.” θάνατος (qanatos) can in particular contexts refer to a manner of death, specifically a contagious disease (see BDAG 443 s.v. 3; L&N 23.158).

[18:8]  ³⁶ tn This is the same Greek word (πένθος, penqo") translated “grief” in vv. 7-8.

[18:8]  ³⁷ tn Here “burned down” was used to translate κατακαυθήσεται (katakauqhsetai) because a city is in view.