Hypertext Bible

Polyglot Bible: Jeremiah: Jeremiah 51

Book of ActsGreek New TestamentPolyglot Bible

Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »

This is Jeremiah 51 from the King James Bible, formatted as an interlinear study text with Strong's Concordance reference numbers interspersed after each Hebrew word — a tool used by scholars and students to trace the original Hebrew vocabulary beneath the English translation. The chapter is a sustained prophetic oracle of divine judgment against Babylon, in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets' oracles against foreign nations. God declares he will raise up a coalition of northern nations — prominently the Medes — to invade, plunder, and permanently destroy Babylon as punishment for its destruction of Jerusalem and oppression of Israel. Interwoven with the war imagery are urgent calls for Israelite exiles to flee Babylon before its fall, framing their escape as participation in divine justice. A theologically distinctive move in the passage is the contrast drawn between Israel's God — described as the sovereign creator who "made the earth by his power" — and Babylon's idols, which are dismissed as "vanity" with "no breath in them." This polemic undergirds the entire oracle: Babylon's power was borrowed and temporary, while Israel's God operates as the "LORD of recompenses" repaying historical violence in kind. The memorable image of Babylon as a "golden cup" that made all nations drunk with its imperial power, now suddenly shattered, encapsulates this reversal.

Polyglot Bible: Jeremiah: Jeremiah 51

Related pages View as graph →