Jeremiah 51:33

33 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”

Jeremiah 51:33 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:33

For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel
"The Lord of hosts", the Lord God omnipotent, and can do all things; "the God of Israel", and therefore will plead their cause, and take vengeance on Babylon: the daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor;
on which the nations of the earth had been threshed, or punished and destroyed; and now she was like a threshing floor, unto which should be gathered, and on which should be laid, her king, princes, and the people of the land, and be there beat and crushed to pieces. The Targum renders it the congregation of Babylon; and the Septuagint the houses of the king of Babylon; so the Arabic version: [it is] time to thresh her;
not the floor, but the sheaves on it: or, "it is the time to tread her" ^F21; as corn was trodden out by the oxen; or rather as threshing floors, being new laid with earth, were trodden, and so made hard and even, and by that means prepared for threshing against the harvest; when the corn would be ripe, cut down, and gathered in, and laid up, as follows: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come;
when she would be ripe for ruin, and God would, by his instruments, put in the sickle of his wrath, and cut her down, her king, her princes, her cities, and her people; see ( Revelation 14:15 Revelation 14:16 ) . The Targum is,

``and yet a very little while, and spoilers shall come to her.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (hkyrdh te) "tempus calcandi eam", Pagninus, Calvin; "tempus calcare eam", Montanus; "eo tempore quo illa calcari solet", Piscator.

Jeremiah 51:33 In-Context

31 One courier races to meet another, and messenger follows messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city has been captured from end to end.

32 The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.”

33 For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled. In just a little while her harvest time will come.”

34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.

35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion. “May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.