Jeremia 51:34

34 Nebukadnezar, der König zu Babel, hat mich gefressen und umgebracht; er hat aus mir ein leeres Gefäß gemacht; er hat mich verschlungen wie ein Drache; er hat seinen Bauch gefüllt mit meinem Köstlichsten; er hat mich verstoßen.

Jeremia 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.

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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.

Jeremia 51:34 In-Context

32 und die Furten eingenommen und die Seen ausgebrannt sind und die Kriegsleute seien blöde geworden. {~}

33 Denn also spricht der HERR Zebaoth, der Gott Israels: "Die Tochter Babel ist wie eine Tenne, wenn man darauf drischt; es wird ihre Ernte gar bald kommen."

34 Nebukadnezar, der König zu Babel, hat mich gefressen und umgebracht; er hat aus mir ein leeres Gefäß gemacht; er hat mich verschlungen wie ein Drache; er hat seinen Bauch gefüllt mit meinem Köstlichsten; er hat mich verstoßen.

35 Nun aber komme über Babel der Frevel, an mir begangen und an meinem Fleische, spricht die Einwohnerin zu Zion, und mein Blut über die Einwohner in Chaldäa, spricht Jerusalem.

36 Darum spricht der HERR also: Siehe, ich will dir deine Sache ausführen und dich rächen; ich will ihr Meer austrocknen und ihre Brunnen versiegen lassen.