Yirmeyah 51:42

42 The yam (sea) will arise over Bavel; she is covered with the tumult of the waves thereof.

Yirmeyah 51:42 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 51:42

The sea is come up upon Babylon
A vast army, comparable to the great sea for the multitude thereof, even the army of the Medes and Persians under Cyrus; so the Targum,

``a king with his armies, which are numerous like the waters of the sea, is come up against Babylon:''

she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof;
being surrounded, besieged, surprised, and seized upon by the multitude of soldiers in that army, which poured in upon it unawares. Some think here is a beautiful antithesis, between the inundation of Cyrus's army and the draining of the river Euphrates, by which means he poured in his forces into Babylon.

Yirmeyah 51:42 In-Context

40 I will bring them down like lambs litvo’ach (to the slaughter, see Isaiah 53:7), like rams with male goats.

41 How is Sheshach [Babylon] taken! And how is the tehillat kol ha’aretz seized! How is Bavel become a horror to behold among the Goyim!

42 The yam (sea) will arise over Bavel; she is covered with the tumult of the waves thereof.

43 Her towns are a horror to behold, a dry land, and an aravah, a land wherein no ish dwelleth, neither doth any ben adam pass thereby.

44 And I will punish Bel [Marduk] in Bavel, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath gulped down; and the Goyim shall not stream together any more unto him; indeed, the chomat Bavel shall fall.