Jeremiah 51:42

42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves.

Jeremiah 51:42 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:42

The sea is come up upon Babylon
A vast army, comparable to the great sea for the multitude thereof, even the army of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus; so the Targum,

``a king with his armies, which are numerous like the waters of the sea, is come up against Babylon:''

she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof;
being surrounded, besieged, surprised, and seized upon by the multitude of soldiers in that army, which poured in upon it unawares. Some think here is a beautiful antithesis, between the inundation of Cyrus's army and the draining of the river Euphrates, by which means he poured in his forces into Babylon.

Jeremiah 51:42 In-Context

40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats to be sacrificed.

41 “How Babylon is fallen— great Babylon, praised throughout the earth! Now she has become an object of horror among the nations.

42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its crashing waves.

43 Her cities now lie in ruins; she is a dry wasteland where no one lives or even passes by.

44 And I will punish Bel, the god of Babylon, and make him vomit up all he has eaten. The nations will no longer come and worship him. The wall of Babylon has fallen!