Jeremiah 51:36-46

36 Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am going to ¹plead your case And ²exact full vengeance for you; And ³I will dry up her sea And make her fountain dry.

37 "⁴Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An ⁵object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

38 "They will roar together like ⁶young lions, They will growl like lions' cubs.

39 "When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And ⁷make them drunk, that they may become jubilant And may ⁸sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up," declares the LORD.

40 "I will bring them down like lambs ⁹to the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats.

41 "How ¹⁰Sheshak has been captured, And ¹¹the praise of the whole earth been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

42 "The ¹²sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.

43 "Her cities have become an ¹³object of horror, A parched land and a desert, A land in which ¹⁴no * man lives And through which no son of man passes.

44 "¹⁵I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will make what he has swallowed ¹⁶come out of his mouth; And the nations will no longer ¹⁷stream to him. Even the ¹⁸wall of Babylon has fallen down!

45 "¹⁹Come forth from her midst, My people, And each of you ²⁰save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.

46 "Now ²¹so that your heart does not grow faint, And you are not afraid at the ²²report that will be heard in the land - For the report will come one year, And after that another report in another year, And violence will be in the land With ²³ruler against ruler -

Jeremiah 51:36-46 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 51

The former part of this chapter is a continuation of the prophecy of the preceding chapter, concerning the destruction of Babylon, Jer 51:1-58; the latter part of it contains a prophecy of Jeremiah sent to the captives in Babylon by the hand of Seraiah, with the copy of the above prophecy against Babylon, and an order to fasten a stone to it, and cast it into the river Euphrates, as a sign, confirming the utter and irreparable ruin of Babylon, Jer 51:59-64.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 140:12
• 2. Jeremiah 51:6, 11; Romans 12:19
• 3. Jeremiah 50:38
• 4. Revelation 18:2
• 5. Jeremiah 25:9
• 6. Jeremiah 2:15
• 7. Jeremiah 25:27; Jeremiah 48:26; Jeremiah 51:57
• 8. Psalms 76:5
• 9. Jeremiah 48:15; Jeremiah 50:27
• 10. Jeremiah 25:26
• 11. Jeremiah 49:25
• 12. Isaiah 8:7, 8; Jeremiah 51:55; Daniel 9:26
• 13. Jeremiah 50:12
• 14. Isaiah 13:20; Jeremiah 2:6
• 15. Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 50:2
• 16. Ezra 1:7, 8
• 17. Isaiah 2:2
• 18. Jeremiah 50:15; Jeremiah 51:58
• 19. Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 50:8, 28; Jeremiah 51:6; Revelation 18:4
• 20. Genesis 19:12-16; Acts 2:40
• 21. Isaiah 43:5; Jeremiah 46:27, 28
• 22. 2 Kings 19:7; Isaiah 13:3-5
• 23. Isaiah 19:2

Footnotes

• [a] Or "broad river"
• [b] Or "young rams"
• [c] Cryptic name for Babylon
• [d] Or "broad river"
• [e] Lit "in the"
• [f] Lit "the"
• [g] Lit "the"