Jeremiah 51:37-47

37 "¹Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An ²object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.

38 "They will roar together like ³young lions, They will growl like lions' cubs.

39 "When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And ⁴make them drunk, that they may become jubilant And may ⁵sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up," declares the LORD.

40 "I will bring them down like lambs ⁶to the slaughter, Like rams together with male goats.

41 "How ⁷Sheshak has been captured, And ⁸the praise of the whole earth been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!

42 "The ⁹sea has come up over Babylon; She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.

43 "Her cities have become an ¹⁰object of horror, A parched land and a desert, A land in which ¹¹no * man lives And through which no son of man passes.

44 "¹²I will punish Bel in Babylon, And I will make what he has swallowed ¹³come out of his mouth; And the nations will no longer ¹⁴stream to him. Even the ¹⁵wall of Babylon has fallen down!

45 "¹⁶Come forth from her midst, My people, And each of you ¹⁷save yourselves From the fierce anger of the LORD.

46 "Now ¹⁸so that your heart does not grow faint, And you are not afraid at the ¹⁹report 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 ²⁰ruler against ruler -

47 Therefore behold, days are coming When I will punish the ²¹idols of Babylon; And her whole land will be ²²put to shame And all her slain will fall in her midst.

Jeremiah 51:37-47 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. Revelation 18:2
• 2. Jeremiah 25:9
• 3. Jeremiah 2:15
• 4. Jeremiah 25:27; Jeremiah 48:26; Jeremiah 51:57
• 5. Psalms 76:5
• 6. Jeremiah 48:15; Jeremiah 50:27
• 7. Jeremiah 25:26
• 8. Jeremiah 49:25
• 9. Isaiah 8:7, 8; Jeremiah 51:55; Daniel 9:26
• 10. Jeremiah 50:12
• 11. Isaiah 13:20; Jeremiah 2:6
• 12. Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 50:2
• 13. Ezra 1:7, 8
• 14. Isaiah 2:2
• 15. Jeremiah 50:15; Jeremiah 51:58
• 16. Isaiah 48:20; Jeremiah 50:8, 28; Jeremiah 51:6; Revelation 18:4
• 17. Genesis 19:12-16; Acts 2:40
• 18. Isaiah 43:5; Jeremiah 46:27, 28
• 19. 2 Kings 19:7; Isaiah 13:3-5
• 20. Isaiah 19:2
• 21. Isaiah 21:9; Isaiah 46:1, 2; Jeremiah 50:2; Jeremiah 51:52
• 22. Jer 50:12, 35-37

Footnotes

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