51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. 1
Cry out in mourning over it!
Get medicine for her wounds!
Perhaps she can be healed!
1 tn The verbs in this verse and the following are all in the Hebrew perfect tense, a tense that often refers to a past action or a past action with present results. However, as the translator’s notes have indicated, the prophets use this tense to view the actions as if they were as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The stance here is ideal, viewed as already accomplished.