Jeremiah 50:26

26 Attack it from every side and break open the places where its grain is stored! Pile up the loot like piles of grain! Destroy the country! Leave nothing at all!

Jeremiah 50:26 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:26

Come against her from the utmost border
Or, "from the end" F1; from the end of the earth; from the Persian gulf, and the Caspian sea, on which the Persians and Medes bordered; from the most distant countries; for the Medes and Persians, who are here called unto, brought others along with them in their army from places still more remote; for this is not to be understood, with the Targum, of entering into Babylon on one "side"; or, with Jarchi, of beginning at one "end" of the city, that it might not be known, and be taken suddenly: open her storehouses;
where her gold, silver, jewels, and other precious things, lay: or, her barns or "granaries" F2, as the Targum and Kimchi; where the fruits and increase of the earth were laid up; and may figuratively design her cities and fortified places, full of inhabitants, as well as of riches and stores of all kinds: cast her up as heaps;
as heaps of rubbish to make a causeway of, and then tread upon them to make it smooth: or, "as heaps", or "sheaves"


FOOTNOTES:

F3 of corn; tread upon them as oxen do, and thereby thresh them out; so Jarchi interprets it,
``thresh her as grains of wheat;''
and to this sense the Targum refers,
``consume her substance as they consume heaps of wheat;''
see ( Revelation 18:12-14 ) ; and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left;
of the city of Babylon, its inhabitants, wealth, and riches; so complete should the destruction be, ( Revelation 18:8 Revelation 18:21-23 ) .
F1 (Uqm) "a fine", Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt; "a fine terrae", Piscator; "ab extremis finibus", Tigurine version, Grotius.
F2 (hyobam) "horrea ejus", Montanus, Cocceius; "granaria ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
F3 (Mymre wmk) "sicut acervos, sub. tritici", Vatablus; "frumenti", Piscator.

Jeremiah 50:26 In-Context

24 Babylonia, you fought against me, and you have been caught in the trap I set for you, even though you did not know it.
25 I have opened the place where my weapons are stored, and in my anger I have taken them out, because I, the Sovereign Lord Almighty, have work to do in Babylonia.
26 Attack it from every side and break open the places where its grain is stored! Pile up the loot like piles of grain! Destroy the country! Leave nothing at all!
27 Kill all their soldiers! Slaughter them! The people of Babylonia are doomed! The time has come for them to be punished!"
28 (Refugees escape from Babylonia and come to Jerusalem, and they tell how the Lord our God took revenge for what the Babylonians had done to his Temple.)
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.