Jeremiah 51:34

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.

Jeremiah 51:34 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:34

Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me
Or "us" F23; everyone of us: these are the words of Zion and Jerusalem, as appears from ( Jeremiah 51:35 ) ; complaining of the injuries done them by the king of Babylon, who had eaten them up; spoiled their substance, as the Targum; took their cities, plundered them of their riches, and carried them away captive: he hath crushed me;
to the earth; or "bruised" or "broken", even all her bones; see ( Jeremiah 50:17 ) ; he hath made me an empty vessel;
emptied the land of its inhabitants and riches, and left nothing valuable in it: he hath swallowed me up like a dragon;
or "whale", or any large fish, which swallow the lesser ones whole. The allusion is to the large swallow of dragons, which is sometimes represented as almost beyond all belief; for not only Pliny F24 from Megasthenes reports, that, in India, serpents, that is, dragons, grow to such a bulk, that they will swallow whole deer, and even bulls; but Posidonius F25 relates, that in Coelesyria was one, whose gaping jaws would admit of a horse and his rider: and Onesicritus F26 speaks of two dragons in the country of Abisarus in India; the one was fourscore and the other a hundred and forty cubits long; he hath filled his belly with my delicates;
with the treasures of the king and his nobles; with the vessels of the temple, and the riches of the people, which he loaded himself with to his full satisfaction. So the Targum,

``he filled his treasury with the good of my land;''
he hath cast me out;
out of my land, and carried me captive; so the Targum.
FOOTNOTES:

F23 The "Cetib", or textual reading, is "us"; but the "Keri", or marginal reading, is "me", which our version follows, and so the same in the four following words, in the text.
F24 Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 14. col. 436.
F25 Apud Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 3. c. 14. col. 436.
F26 Apud Strabo. Geograph. l. 15. p. 480.

Jeremiah 51:34 In-Context

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
The King James Version is in the public domain.