Jeremiah 51:43

43 Her towns stink with decay and rot, the land empty and bare and sterile. No one lives in these towns anymore. Travelers give them a wide berth.

Jeremiah 51:43 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:43

Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness,
&c.] Which some understand of Babylon itself, divided into two parts by the river Euphrates running in the midst of it, called by Berosus F6 the inward and outward cities; though rather these design the rest of the cities in Chaldea, of which Babylon was the metropolis, the mother city, and the other her daughters, which should share the same fate with herself; be demolished, and the ground on which they stood become a dry, barren, uncultivated, and desert land: a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth [any] son of man pass
thereby;
having neither inhabitant nor traveller; see ( Jeremiah 50:12 Jeremiah 50:39 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Apud Joseph. contr. Apion, l. 1. c. 19.

Jeremiah 51:43 In-Context

41 "Babylon is finished - the pride of the whole earth is flat on her face. What a comedown for Babylon, to end up inglorious in the sewer!
42 Babylon drowned in chaos, battered by waves of enemy soldiers.
43 Her towns stink with decay and rot, the land empty and bare and sterile. No one lives in these towns anymore. Travelers give them a wide berth.
44 I'll bring doom on the glutton god-Bel in Babylon. I'll make him vomit up all he gulped down. No more visitors stream into this place, admiring and gawking at the wonders of Babylon. The wonders of Babylon are no more.
45 Run for your lives, my dear people! Run, and don't look back! Get out of this place while you can, this place torched by God's raging anger.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.