Jeremiah 50:23

23 How is the hammer of all (the) earth broken and all-defouled? how is Babylon turned into desert, among heathen men? (How the hammer of all the earth is broken and all-defiled! how Babylon is turned into a wilderness, among the heathen!)

Jeremiah 50:23 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:23

How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken!
&c.] The Targum is,

``how is the king cut down and broken that moved the whole earth!''

The king of Babylon, or the kingdom of Babylon, which was like a hammer for its hardness and strength; and being an instrument, in the hand of God, of beating to pieces and destroying the kingdoms and nations around it; but is now destroyed itself. These are the words either of the prophet, or rather of the people of other nations, wondering how this destruction came about, and rejoicing at it; how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
this explains who and what is meant by the hammer of the earth, and by its being cut asunder and broken; even the utter destruction of the city and kingdom of Babylon.

Jeremiah 50:23 In-Context

21 Ascend thou on the land of the lords, and visit thou on the dwellers thereof; scatter thou, and slay those things, that be after them, saith the Lord; and do thou by all things which I commanded to thee. (Go thou up against the land of Merathaim, and attack thou the inhabitants of Pekod; scatter thou, and kill thou them, saith the Lord; and do thou by all the things which I commanded thee.)

22 The voice of battle and (of) great sorrow (is) in the land.

23 How is the hammer of all (the) earth broken and all-defouled? how is Babylon turned into desert, among heathen men? (How the hammer of all the earth is broken and all-defiled! how Babylon is turned into a wilderness, among the heathen!)

24 Babylon, I have snared thee, and thou art taken, and thou knewest not; thou art found, and taken, for thou stirredest the Lord to wrath (for thou hast stirred the Lord to anger).

25 The Lord opened his treasure (house), and brought forth the vessels of his wrath; for why a work is to the Lord God of hosts in the land of Chaldees. (The Lord opened his treasure house, and brought forth the vessels of his anger; for the Lord God of hosts hath a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.)