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Jeremiah 50:21

in Jeremiah 50

Go up against the land of Merathaim, and against the residents of Pekod. Kill them and devote them to destruction. Do all that I have commanded you,” declares the LORD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: slay and utterly destroy after them, saith Jehovah, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

KJV

Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

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This verse in Jeremiah 50

Commentary

5 notes on this verse
Go up against the land of Merathaim,.... Thought to be the country of the Mardi, which lay part of it in Assyria, and part of it in Armenia; expressed in the dual number, because one part of it lay on one side the Tigris, and the other on the other side. Cyrus, with his army of Medes and Persians, is here called upon; who, according to Herodotus, passed through Assyria to Babylon: and so it may be agreeably rendered, "go by the land of Merathaim"; or the country of the Mardi.

This site's exposition

against the land of Merathaim

on Jeremiah 50:21-27

Merathaim, double rebellion, and Pekod, visitation, are real Babylonian districts whose names the bench reads as also carrying their Hebrew sense, judgment landing on ground named for the offense it answers. The hammer of the whole earth, Babylon's own image for her power over the nations, is now the thing cut asunder and broken, the oracle turning the empire's boast into her epitaph. The armoury opened and the storehouses cast up as heaps end the unit with soldiers pictured as bullocks led down to slaughter, an army consumed the way it once consumed others.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

It was said of Cyrus ( Isa. xliv. 28 ), He shall perform all my pleasure, in his expedition against Babylon. They must waste and utterly destroy after them; when they have destroyed once they must go over them again, or destroy their posterity that should come after them.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The land of Merathaim - of double rebellion. Like Mitsraim, i. e., the two Egypts, Aram-Naharaim, i. e., Syria of the two rivers, or Mesopotamia, it is a dual. It may have been a real name; or - the dual ending being intensive - it may mean the land of very great rebelliousness. Pekod - Possibly a Babylonian town. Waste - Rather, slay, Jer 50:27.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Pekod-- (Eze 23:23); a chief province of Assyria, in which Nineveh, now overthrown, once lay. But, as in Merathaim, the allusion is to the meaning of Pekod, namely, "visitation"; the inhabitants whose time of deserved visitation in punishment is come; not, however, without reference to the now Babylonian province, Pekod.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • הָאָ֤רֶץthe land of

    haaretzH776 →2504 times

  • מְרָתַ֙יִם֙Merathaim

    meratayimH4850 →

  • עֲלֵ֣הgo up

    ʾalehH5927 →890 times

  • עָלֶ֔יהָon it

    ʾaleihaH5921 →5755 times

  • וְאֶל־and against

    veel-H413 →5510 times

  • יוֹשְׁבֵ֖י[the] inhabitants of

    yosheveiH3427 →1079 times

  • פְּק֑וֹדPekod

    pekodH6489 →

  • חֲרֹ֨בkill

    charoH2717 →40 times

  • וְהַחֲרֵ֤םand totally destroy

    vehacharemH2763 →52 times

  • אַֽחֲרֵיהֶם֙after them

    ʾachareihemH310 →715 times

  • נְאֻם־[the] utterance of

    neum-H5002 →376 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • וַעֲשֵׂ֕הand do

    vaasehH6213 →2628 times

  • כְּכֹ֖לaccording to all

    kekholH3605 →5413 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רthat

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • צִוִּיתִֽיךָ׃ סI have commanded you

    tzivitikhaH6680 →494 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Ezekiel 23:23the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses.5 worksIsaiah 13:20She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.3 worksJeremiah 51:3Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!3 worksIsaiah 10:6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.2 works1 Samuel 15:11–24“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.2 worksJeremiah 50:15Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her.2 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Numbers 31:14–18But Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who were returning from the battle.2 worksJeremiah 50:9For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north. They will line up against her; from the north she will be captured. Their arrows will be like skilled warriors who do not return empty-handed.2 works2 Chronicles 36:23“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.’”2 worksIsaiah 48:14Come together, all of you, and listen: Which of the idols has foretold these things? The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out His desire against Babylon, and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.2 works2 Kings 18:25So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”2 works2 Samuel 16:11Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the LORD has told him so.2 works1 Samuel 15:3Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”2 worksJeremiah 50:3For a nation from the north will come against her; it will make her land a desolation. No one will live in it; both man and beast will flee.”2 worksJeremiah 34:22Behold, I am going to give the command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”2 worksJeremiah 48:10Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.2 worksIsaiah 44:28who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”2 worksJeremiah 51:53Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, the destroyers I send will come against her,” declares the LORD.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 50:15

    Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD,…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 51:58

      This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled, and her high gates consumed by fire. So the labor of the people will be for nothing; the nations will…

    • Revelation 18:6

      Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.

    • Jeremiah 51:6

      Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.

    • Jeremiah 46:10

      For that day belongs to the Lord GOD of Hosts, a day of vengeance against His foes. The sword will devour until it is satisfied, until it is quenched with their blood. For the…

  • Through

    Isaiah 10:6

    I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 9:17

      Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite…

  • Through

    Ezekiel 23:23

    the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses.

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 24:2

      And the LORD sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim in order to destroy Judah, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servants the prophets.

    • 2 Kings 20:14–17

      Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” “They came from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

    • Genesis 2:14

      The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it runs along the east side of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Jeremiah: the study guide →Read Jeremiah 50 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Jeremiah 50 →