Jeremiah 51:3

3 Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed.

Jeremiah 51:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:3

Against [him that] bendeth let the archer bend his bow
These are either the words of the Lord to the Medes and Persians, to the archers among them, to bend their bows and level their arrows against the Chaldeans, who had bent their bows and shot their arrows against others; or of the Medes and Persians stirring up one another to draw their bows, and fight manfully against the enemy: and against [him that] lifteth up himself in his brigandine;
or coat of mail; that swaggers about in it, proud of it, and putting his confidence in it, as if out of all danger. The sense is, that they should direct their arrows both against those that were more lightly or more heavily armed; since by them they might do execution among the one and the other: and spare ye not her young men;
because of their youth, beauty, and strength: destroy ye utterly all her host;
her whole army, whether officers or common soldiers; or let them be accoutred in what manner they will. The Targum is,

``consume all her substance.''

Jeremiah 51:3 In-Context

1 This is what the LORD says: “I will stir up a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Babylonia.

2 Foreigners will come and winnow her, blowing her away as chaff. They will come from every side to rise against her in her day of trouble.

3 Don’t let the archers put on their armor or draw their bows. Don’t spare even her best soldiers! Let her army be completely destroyed.

4 They will fall dead in the land of the Babylonians, slashed to death in her streets.

5 For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has not abandoned Israel and Judah. He is still their God, even though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering.