Jeremiah 50:24

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware; thou art found, and also caught because thou hast provoked the LORD.

Jeremiah 50:24 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:24

I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O
Babylon
Retorting to the stratagem that Cyrus used, in draining the river Euphrates, and marching his army up through it into the midst of the city of Babylon, and took it by surprise, while the inhabitants at night were feasting and revelling: this is said to be a snare laid by the Lord, because it was according to the counsel of his will, and through his directing and overruling providence: and thou wast not aware;
of what the enemy had done, of his march into the city, and taking of it; for, as Herodotus and Aristotle report, one part of the city was seized and taken before the other knew anything of it: thou art found, and also caught;
as wild beasts in a net, or birds in a snare. The Targum is,

``thy sins are sought, and are found, and also thou art taken:''

because thou hast striven against the Lord;
as persons litigate a point with each other in courts of judicature, or as warriors strive against each other in battle; she sinned against the Lord, and offended him, not only by her idolatry and luxury, but by her oppression of his people, and profaning the vessels of his house; as Belshazzar did, the night Babylon was taken. The Targum is,

``for with the people of the Lord thou hast strove.''

Jeremiah 50:24 In-Context

22 A sound of battle is in the land and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! How is Babylon become a desolation among the Gentiles!

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware; thou art found, and also caught because thou hast provoked the LORD.

25 The LORD has opened his treasury and has brought forth the vessels of his indignation; for this is the work of the Lord GOD of the hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the ends of the earth, open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.