Jeremiah 51:30

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they are sitting in the fortresses; their might hath failed, they are become as women: they have set her dwelling places on fire; her bars are broken.

Jeremiah 51:30 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:30

The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight
Or, "ceased from fighting" ^F8 for it seems, upon Cyrus's first coming, the king of Babylon and his army gave him battle; but being overthrown, they retired to the city ^F9, and dared never fight more: they have remained in [their] holds;
in the towers and fortresses of Babylon, never daring to sally out of the city, or appear in the field of battle any more; even though Cyrus sent the king of Babylon a personal challenge, to end the quarrel by a single combat ^F11: their might hath failed;
their courage sunk and was gone; they had no heart to face their enemy: they became as women;
as weak as they, as the Targum; timorous and fearful, having no courage left in them, and behaved more like women than men: they have burnt her dwelling places;
that is, the enemy burnt their houses, when they entered into the city, to inject terror into them: her bars are broken;
the bars of the gates of the city, or of the palaces of the king and nobles, and of the houses of the people, by the soldiers, to get the plunder; see ( Isaiah 45:1 Isaiah 45:2 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (Mxlhl wldx) "cessaverunt a praelio", V. L. "desinent pugnare", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "cessarunt pugnare", Schmidt. So Pagninus, Montanus.
F9 Xenophon, Cyropaedia, l. 5. c. 19. Herodot. l. 1. sive Clio. c. 190.
F11 Xenophon, ib. l. 5. c. 10.

Jeremiah 51:30 In-Context

28 Prepare nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their rulers, yea, all the land of their dominion.

29 And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they are sitting in the fortresses; their might hath failed, they are become as women: they have set her dwelling places on fire; her bars are broken.

31 Courier runneth to meet courier, and messenger to meet messenger, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is taken from end to end;

32 and the passages are seized, and the reedy places are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.