Jeremiah 51:47
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Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Therefore, viz., because what has been stated above will happen, or because the events mentioned in Jer 51:46 are harbingers of the judgment on Babylon, - therefore days are coming when God shall execute judgment on the idols of Babylon, and dry up the land (Note: Keil has here misread the Hebrew text, which runs כּל־ארצהּ תּבּושׁ. The verb does not come from יבשׁ, to become dry, but from בּושׁ, to be ashamed; hence the correct rendering is, "all her land shall be ashamed," not "shall be dried up." - Tr.) (cf. Jer 51:43), and all her slain ones, i.e., all her inhabitants shall fall down, slain in the midst of her. לכן הנּה ימים בּאים, "Therefore, behold, days are coming," is a formula very frequently found in Jeremiah; cf. Jer 7:32; Jer 16:14; Jer 19:6; Jer 23:7, etc.
Open source ↗The prophet, in this chapter, goes on with the prediction of Babylon's fall, to which other prophets also bore witness. He is very copious and lively in describing the foresight God had given him of it, for the encouragement of the pious captives, whose deliverance depended upon it and was to be the result of it. Here is, I. The record of Babylon's doom, with the particulars of it, intermixed with the grounds of God's controversy with her, many aggravations of her fall, and great encouragements given thence to the Israel of God, that suffered such hard things by her (v. 1-58). II. The representation and ratification of this by the throwing of a copy of this prophecy into the river Euphrates (Jer 51:59-64).
Open source ↗51:47-48 The Lord’s punishment of Babylon would cause the heavens and earth to rejoice at this display of God’s justice.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.
But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?
Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.
They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.
So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.
As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.