Jeremiah 51:41–43a

Footnotes

1. 90 Heb “Sheshach.” For an explanation of the usage of this name for Babylon see the study note on and that on 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.
2. 91 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 . 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.
3. 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).
4. 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.