Jeremiah 51:25-26
Context51:25 The Lord says, 1 “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! 2
You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.
I will unleash my power against you; 3
I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. 4
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,” 5
says the Lord. 6
Jeremiah 51:43
Context51:43 The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins.
She has become a dry and barren desert.
No one lives in those towns any more.
No one even passes through them. 7
Jeremiah 51:62-64
Context51:62 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. 8 51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments 9 I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”
The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. 10
1 tn Heb “Oracle of the
2 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.
3 tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.
4 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
sn The figure here involves comparing Babylon to a destructive volcano which the
5 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).
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.
6 tn Heb “Oracle of the
7 tn Heb “Its towns have become a desolation, [it has become] a dry land and a desert, a land which no man passes through them [referring to “her towns”] and no son of man [= human being] passes through them.” Here the present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and a number of the modern commentaries in deleting the second occurrence of the word “land,” in which case the words that follow are not a relative clause but independent statements. A number of modern English versions appear to ignore the third feminine plural suffixes which refer back to the cities and refer the statements that follow to the land.
8 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.
9 tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”
10 sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.