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Jeremiah 51:42–43

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51:42The sea has swept over Babylon.

She has been covered by a multitude92 of its waves.93

51:43The 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.94

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Footnotes

  1. 92 For the meaning “multitude” here rather than “tumult” see 242 הָמוֹן 3.c, where reference is made that this refers to a great throng of people under the figure of an overwhelming mass of waves. The word is used of a multitude of soldiers, or a vast army in 1 Sam 14:16; 1 Kgs 20:13, 18 (cf. 242 הָמוֹן 3.a for further references).
  2. 93 Heb “The sea has risen up over Babylon. She has been covered by the multitude of its waves.” This is a poetic and figurative reference to the enemies of Babylon, the foe from the north (see 50:3, 9, 51:27–28), which has attacked Babylon in wave after wave. This same figure is used in Isa 17:12. In Isa 8:7–8 the king of Assyria (and his troops) are compared to the Euphrates which rises up and floods over the whole land of Israel and Judah. This same figure, but with application to Babylon, is assumed in Jer 47:2–3. In Jer 46:7–8 the same figure is employed in a taunt of Egypt which had boasted that it would cover the earth like the flooding of the Nile.
  3. 94 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 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.

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

The sea has come up on Babylon;

she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

Her cities have become a horror,

a land of drought and a desert,

a land in which no one dwells,

and through which no son of man passes.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

The sea will rise over Babylon;

its roaring waves will cover her.

Her towns will be desolate,

a dry and desert land,

a land where no one lives,

through which no one travels.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

The sea has risen over Babylon;

she is covered with its tumultuous waves.

Her cities have become a desolation,

an arid desert,

a land where no one lives,

where no human being even passes through.

NLTNew Living Translation

The sea has risen over Babylon;

she is covered by its crashing waves.

Her cities now lie in ruins;

she is a dry wasteland

where no one lives or even passes by.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

The sea has risen over Babylon,

she has been covered by the roar of its waves.

Her cities have become as an object of horror,

a dry land and a wilderness,

a land in which no person lives,

nor does a son of humankind pass through it.

KJV 1900King James Version

The sea is come up upon Babylon:

She is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.

Her cities are a desolation,

A dry land, and a wilderness,

A land wherein no man dwelleth,

Neither doth any son of man pass thereby.