Jeremiah 51:42

42 The sea has flooded Bavel, overwhelmed her with its raging 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 drag them down like lambs to be slaughtered, like rams and male goats."

41 Sheshakh has been captured, the pride of the whole earth seized! Bavel has become an object of horror throughout the nations!

42 The sea has flooded Bavel, overwhelmed her with its raging waves.

43 Her cities have become desolate - parched, arid land, a land where no one lives; nobody even passes through.

44 "I will punish Bel in Bavel and make him disgorge what he swallowed. The nations will no longer flow to him. Bavel's wall will fall.