Yeremia 50:31-32

50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” ¹ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ² 

“Indeed, ³  your day of reckoning ⁴  has come,

the time when I will punish you. ⁵ 

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ⁶ 

Yeremia 51:25-26

51:25 The Lord says, ⁷  “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! ⁸ 

You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.

I will unleash my power against you; ⁹ 

I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. ¹⁰ 

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,” ¹¹ 

says the Lord. ¹² 

Yeremia 51:37

51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹³ 

It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,

a place where no one lives. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 51:64

51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments ¹⁵  I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”

The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. ¹⁶ 

[50:31]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city which had “proudly defied” the Lord (v. 29). The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance see the study note on 2:19.

[50:31]  ³ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah.

[50:31]  ⁴ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ⁵ sn Compare v. 27.

[50:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[51:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:25]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.

[51:25]  ¹⁰ 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 Lord, however, will make it a “burned-out mountain,” i.e., an extinct volcano which is barren and desolate. This interpretation seems to this translator to fit the details of the text more consistently than alternative ones which separate the concept of “destroying/destructive” from “mountain” and explain the figure of the mountain to refer to the dominating political position of Babylon and the reference to a “mountain of burning” to be a “burned [or burned over] mountain.” The use of similes in place of metaphors makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figures and also more easily incorporates the dissonant figure of “rolling you down from the cliffs” which involves the figure of personification.

[51:25]  sn The figure here involves comparing Babylon to a destructive volcano which the Lord makes burned-out, i.e., he will destroy her power to destroy. The figure of personification is also involved because the Lord is said to roll her off the cliffs; that would not be applicable to a mountain.

[51:26]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:37]  ¹³ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Compare 9:11.

[51:37]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”

[51:64]  ¹⁵ tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

[51:64]  ¹⁶ sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.