Jeremiah 51:34-40

B. The Complaint of Israel and the Reply of the Lord Jeremiah 51:34-40

TRANSLATION

(34) Nebuchadnezzar has devoured us, has crushed us, has set us down like an empty vessel. Like a monster he has devoured us, filled his belly with my dainties, expelled us. (35) May the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitress of Zion say. May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. (36) Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am about to plead your cause and execute your vengeance and I will dry up her seas and cause her fountains to fail. (37) And Babylon shall be heaps, a habitation of jackals, an astonishment and place over which one will whistle, without inhabitant. (38) They shall roar together like young lions, growl like lion's whelps. (39) When they become hot I will prepare a feast for them; I will make them drunken that they may rejoice and them sleep a perpetual sleep from which they shall not wake (oracle of the LORD). (40) I will bring them down like sheep to slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

COMMENTS

In Jeremiah 51:34-35 Jeremiah hears as it were the bitter complaints of the Jewish captives against the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar has devoured and crushed Israel; he has emptied his land and caused it to stand like an empty vessel. Like some great monster of the sea or river the king of Babylon had swallowed all in which Israel delights (his delicacies). Just what monster Jeremiah had in mind as he penned these words is uncertain. It was probably a crocodile or perhaps a large serpent. The King James translation dragon is unfortunate and misleading. Nebuchadnezzar had cast out Israel i.e., he had rejected and discarded Israel as though the people of God were something worthless or repulsive (Jeremiah 51:34). For this violence, outrage and indignity Israel would see the vengeance of the Lord upon Babylon (Jeremiah 51:35). It is as though Israel is a plaintiff standing before a judge and demanding that the guilty oppressor be punished. The reference to the flesh and blood in Jeremiah 51:35 refers back to the figure of Babylon devouring Israel in the previous verse.

In response to the appeal of oppressed Israel the Lord declares that He will take up their cause and bring vengeance upon their enemies. The sea and fountain of Babylon shall dry up (Jeremiah 51:36). Probably the reference here is to the Euphrates river and to the irrigation canals which crisscrossed the country bringing fertility to an otherwise arid land. Water in many ways was more precious than gold to the ancient Babylonians since the prosperity of the land depended upon transporting the waters of the Euphrates to the inland agricultural regions. With the destruction of this elaborate irrigation and water control system, Babylon rapidly became an uninhabited desert marked by shapeless and unsightly heaps (i.e., mounds of ruins) and occupied only by jackals.[418] Those who pass by the desolate site of Babylon will hiss or whistle in astonishment at what has befallen the once proud metropolis (Jeremiah 51:37).

[418] The King James is again misleading in rendering the Hebrew word dragons. A different Hebrew word from that used in Jeremiah 51:34 is used here and commentators are in general agreement that fie word used here means jackals.

In Jeremiah's day the Babylonians were like lion cubs growling in exultation over the spoil which they had won from conquered nations (Jeremiah 51:38). But while the Babylonians are in the midst of their greedily enjoyment the Lord will prepare for them a banquet of His own making. He will pour them out a full cup, not of wine but of wrath. Not realizing the fatal contents of that cup the Babylonians drink, become intoxicated, and fall into the drunkard's sleepa sleep from which they never will awake (Jeremiah 51:39). The devouring lion shall become as a lamb led to the slaughter (Jeremiah 51:40). The mention of lambs, rams and he-goats in Jeremiah 51:40 may be a way of saying that all classes of the population will go down to the slaughter.