Psalms 137:8

137:8 O daughter Babylon, soon to be devastated! ¹ 

How blessed will be the one who repays you

for what you dished out to us! ² 

Jeremiah 50:42

50:42 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle,

they are coming against you, fair Babylon! ³ 

Jeremiah 51:33

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

‘Fair Babylon ⁴  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.’ ⁵ 

Zechariah 2:7

2:7 “Escape, Zion, you who live among the Babylonians!” ⁶ 

[137:8]  ¹ tn Heb “O devastated daughter of Babylon.” The psalmist dramatically anticipates Babylon’s demise.

[137:8]  ² tn Heb “O the happiness of the one who repays you your wage which you paid to us.”

[50:42]  ³ tn Heb “daughter Babylon.” The word “daughter” is a personification of the city of Babylon and its inhabitants.

[51:33]  ⁴ sn Heb “Daughter Babylon.” See the study note at 50:42 for explanation.

[51:33]  ⁵ 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.

[2:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “live in [or “with” (cf. NASB), i.e., “among”] the daughter of Babylon” (so NIV; NAB “dwell in daughter Babylon”).