Jeremiah 51:42

42 The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.

Jeremiah 51:42 in Other Translations

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

42 The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

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

42 Babylon drowned in chaos, battered by waves of enemy soldiers.

42 The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered with its turbulent 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.

41 “How Sheshak will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations!

42 The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her.

43 Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no one travels.

44 I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.

Cross References

• 1. S Psalms 18:4; Isaiah 8:7