Jeremiah 51:30-40

30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight , they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed ; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken .

31 One post shall run to meet another , and one messenger to meet another , to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

32 And that the passages are stopped , and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted .

33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come .

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out .

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say ; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say .

36 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry .

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant .

38 They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions' whelps.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken , that they may rejoice , and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake , saith the LORD.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter , like rams with he goats.

Jeremiah 51:30-40 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. The violence...: Heb. My violence
• [b]. yell: or, shake themselves