38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. 2 You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the 3 king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” 4
51:31 One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon.
One messenger after another will come bringing news. 5
They will bring news to the king of Babylon
that his whole city has been captured. 6
51:41 “See how Babylon 7 has been captured!
See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken!
See what an object of horror
Babylon has become among the nations! 8
51:56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. 9
Her warriors will be captured;
their bows will be broken. 10
For the Lord is a God who punishes; 11
he pays back in full. 12
1 tn Heb “Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon and his mouth will speak with your mouth.” For this same idiom in reverse order see 32:4 and consult the translator’s note there for the obligatory nuance given to the verbs.
sn For the fulfillment of this see Jer 52:7-11.
2 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
3 tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.
4 tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew
5 tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and…” The intent is to portray a relay of runners carrying the news that follows on in vv. 31d-33 to the king of Babylon. The present translation attempts to spell out the significance.
6 tn Heb “Runner will run to meet runner and messenger to meet messenger to report to the king of Babylon that his city has been taken in [its] entirety.” There is general agreement among the commentaries that the first two lines refer to messengers converging on the king of Babylon from every direction bringing news the sum total of which is reported in the lines that follow. For the meaning of the last phrase see BDB 892 s.v. קָצֶה 3 and compare the usage in Gen 19:4 and Isa 56:11. The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.
7 sn Heb “Sheshach.” For an explanation of the usage of this name for Babylon see the study note on Jer 25:26 and that on 51:1 for a similar phenomenon. Babylon is here called “the pride of the whole earth” because it was renowned for its size, its fortifications, and its beautiful buildings.
8 tn Heb “How Sheshach has been captured, the pride of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!” For the usage of “How” here see the translator’s note on 50:23.
sn This is part of a taunt song (see Isa 14:4) and assumes prophetically that the city has already been captured. The verbs in vv. 41-43a are all in the Hebrew tense that the prophets often use to look at the future as “a done deal” (the so-called prophetic perfect). In v. 44 which is still a part of this picture the verbs are in the future. The Hebrew tense has been retained here and in vv. 42-43 but it should be remembered that the standpoint is prophetic and future.
9 tn Heb “for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.”
10 tn The Piel form (which would be intransitive here, see GKC 142 §52.k) should probably be emended to Qal.
11 tn Or “God of retribution.”
12 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the