Jeremiah 51:42

42 ascendit super Babylonem mare multitudine fluctuum eius operta est

Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 51:42 In-Context

40 deducam eos quasi agnos ad victimam quasi arietes cum hedis

41 quomodo capta est Sesach et conprehensa est inclita universae terrae quomodo facta est in stuporem Babylon inter gentes

42 ascendit super Babylonem mare multitudine fluctuum eius operta est

43 factae sunt civitates eius in stuporem terra inhabitabilis et deserta terra in qua nullus habitet nec transeat per eam filius hominis

44 et visitabo super Bel in Babylone et eiciam quod absorbuerat de ore eius et non confluent ad eum ultra gentes siquidem et murus Babylonis corruit