Yeremia 50:3
Konteks50:3 For a nation from the north 1 will attack Babylon.
It will lay her land waste.
People and animals will flee out of it.
No one will inhabit it.’
Yeremia 50:13
Konteks50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. 2
It will be totally desolate.
All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn
because of all the disasters that have happened to it. 3
Yeremia 50:23
Konteks50:23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces.
But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! 4
See what an object of horror
Babylon has become among the nations!
Yeremia 50:39-40
Konteks50:39 Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there.
Ostriches 5 will dwell in it too. 6
But no people will ever live there again.
No one will dwell there for all time to come. 7
50:40 I will destroy Babylonia just like I did
Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.
No one will live there. 8
No human being will settle in it,”
says the Lord. 9
Yeremia 50:45
Konteks50:45 So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon,
what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. 10
Their little ones will be dragged off.
I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.
Yeremia 51:25-26
Konteks51:25 The Lord says, 11 “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! 12
You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.
I will unleash my power against you; 13
I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. 14
51:26 No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.
No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.
For you will lie desolate forever,” 15
says the Lord. 16
Yeremia 51:62-64
Konteks51:62 Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’ 51:63 When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. 17 51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments 18 I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”
The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. 19
[50:3] 1 sn A nation from the north refers to Medo-Persia which at the time of the conquest of Babylon in 539
[50:13] 2 tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the
[50:13] 3 sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.
[50:23] 4 tn Heb “How broken and shattered is the hammer of all the earth!” The “hammer” is a metaphor for Babylon who was God’s war club to shatter the nations and destroy kingdoms just like Assyria is represented in Isa 10:5 as a rod and a war club. Some readers, however, might not pick up on the metaphor or identify the referent, so the translation has incorporated an identification of the metaphor and the referent within it. “See how” and “See what” are an attempt to capture the nuance of the Hebrew particle אֵיךְ (’ekh) which here expresses an exclamation of satisfaction in a taunt song (cf. BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2 and compare usage in Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 50:23).
[50:39] 5 tn The identification of this bird has been called into question by G. R. Driver, “Birds in the Old Testament,” PEQ 87 (1955): 137-38. He refers to this bird as an owl. That identification, however, is not reflected in any of the lexicons including the most recent, which still gives “ostrich” (HALOT 402 s.v. יַעֲנָה) as does W. S. McCullough, “Ostrich,” IDB 3:611. REB, NIV, NCV, and God’s Word all identify this bird as “owl/desert owl.”
[50:39] 6 tn Heb “Therefore desert creatures will live with jackals and ostriches will live in it.”
[50:39] 7 tn Heb “It will never again be inhabited nor dwelt in unto generation and generation.” For the meaning of this last phrase compare the usage in Ps 100:5 and Isaiah 13:20. Since the first half of the verse has spoken of animals living there, it is necessary to add “people” and turn the passive verbs into active ones.
[50:40] 8 tn Heb “‘Like [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns,’ oracle of the
[50:40] sn Compare Jer 49:18 where the same prophecy is applied to Edom.
[50:40] 9 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[50:45] 10 tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.
[50:45] sn The verbs in vv. 22-25 are all descriptive of the present, but all of this is really to take place in the future. Hebrew poetry has a way of rendering future actions as though they were already accomplished. The poetry of this section makes it difficult, however, to render the verbs as future as the present translation has regularly done.
[51:25] 11 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[51:25] 12 tn The word “Babylon” is not in the text but is universally understood as the referent. It is supplied in the translation here to clarify the referent for the sake of the average reader.
[51:25] 13 tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.
[51:25] 14 tn Heb “I am against you, oh destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. I will reach out my hand against you and roll you down from the cliffs and make you a mountain of burning.” The interpretation adopted here follows the lines suggested by S. R. Driver, Jeremiah, 318, n. c and reflected also in BDB 977 s.v. שְׂרֵפָה. Babylon is addressed as a destructive mountain because it is being compared to a volcano. The
[51:25] sn The figure here involves comparing Babylon to a destructive volcano which the
[51:26] 15 tn This is a fairly literal translation of the original which reads “No one will take from you a stone for a cornerstone nor a stone for foundations.” There is no unanimity of opinion in the commentaries, many feeling that the figure of the burned mountain continues and others feeling that the figure here shifts to a burned city whose stones are so burned that they are useless to be used in building. The latter is the interpretation adopted here (see, e.g., F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 423; W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:426; NCV).
[51:26] sn The figure here shifts to that of a burned-up city whose stones cannot be used for building. Babylon will become a permanent heap of ruins.
[51:26] 16 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[51:63] 17 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.
[51:64] 18 tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”
[51:64] 19 sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.