Jeremiah 51:41

41 How is Sheshach taken, and the noble city of all (the) earth is taken? How is Babylon made into wonder among heathen men? (How Sheshach, that is, Babylon, is taken! the noble city of all the earth is taken! how Babylon is made into a horror among the heathen!)

Jeremiah 51:41 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:41

How is Sheshach taken!
&c.] Not the city Shushan, as Sir John Marsham thinks ^F5; but Babylon, as is plain from a following clause; and so the Targum,

``how is Babylon subdued!''

called Sheshach, by a position and commutation of letters the Jews call "athbash"; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abarbinel account for it; or else from their idol Shach, the same with Bel, which was worshipped here, and had a temple erected for it; and where an annual feast was kept in honour of it, called the Sacchean feast; and which was observing the very time the city was taken; and may be the true reason of its having this name given it now; (See Gill on Jeremiah 25:26); the taking of which was very wonderful; and therefore this question is put by way of admiration; it being so well fortified and provided to hold out a long siege: and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised?
for it was taken by stratagem and surprise, before the king and his guards, the army, and the inhabitants of it, were aware; that city, which was matter and occasion of praise to all the world, and went through it; for the compass of it, and height and strength of its walls; the river Euphrates that ran through it, and flowed about it; the temple, palaces, and gardens in it: how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
or, "a desolation"; and indeed its being a desolation was the reason of its being an astonishment among the nations; who were amazed to see so strong, rich, and splendid a city brought to ruin in a very short time.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Canon. Chron. p. 607.

Jeremiah 51:41 In-Context

39 In the heat of them I shall set the drinks of them; and I shall make them drunken, that they be brought asleep, and that they sleep (an) everlasting sleep, and rise not (up), saith the Lord.

40 I shall lead forth them, as lambs to slain sacrifice, and as wethers with kids. (I shall lead them forth, like lambs to slain sacrifice, and like rams with kids.)

41 How is Sheshach taken, and the noble city of all (the) earth is taken? How is Babylon made into wonder among heathen men? (How Sheshach, that is, Babylon, is taken! the noble city of all the earth is taken! how Babylon is made into a horror among the heathen!)

42 And the sea ascended on Babylon, it was covered with the multitude of his waves. (And the sea ascended upon Babylon, yea, it was covered with a multitude of its waves.)

43 The cities thereof be made into wondering, the land is made unhabitable and forsaken (the land is made uninhabited and deserted); the land wherein no man dwelleth, and the son of (a) man shall not pass by it.