Jeremiah 51:41
in Jeremiah 51How Sheshach has been captured! The praise of all the earth has been seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
KJV
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
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This verse in Jeremiah 51
Commentary
6 notes on this verseHow is Sheshach taken! - Perhaps the city is here called by the name of its idol. The praise of the whole earth - One of the seven wonders of the world; superexcellent for the height, breadth, and compass of its walls, its hanging gardens, the temple of Belus, etc., etc.
This site's exposition
How is Sheshach taken
on Jeremiah 51:41-44
Sheshach is Babel spelled through the Atbash cipher, the Hebrew alphabet reversed letter for letter, the same device the book already used at 25:26, a way of naming the great city without naming her directly. The sea come up upon Babylon pictures the flood of nations covering her the way water covers a drowned land, her cities left where no man dwells or passes by. Bel is punished a second time, made to disgorge what he had swallowed, the wall of Babylon itself named as the last thing to fall, the fortification ancient writers called one of the world's wonders brought down as the chapter's own proof.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Yet some shall rejoice in Babylon's fall, not as it is the misery of their fellow-creatures, but as it is the manifestation of the righteous judgment of God and as it opens the way for the release of God's captives; upon these accounts the heaven and the earth, and all that is in both, shall sing for Babylon (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
How is Sheshach taken!....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Sheshach--Babylon (compare Note, see Jer 25:26); called so from the goddess Shach, to whom a five days' festival was kept, during which, as in the Roman Saturnalia, the most unbridled licentiousness was permitted; slaves ruled their masters, and in every house one called Zogan, arrayed in a royal garment, was chosen to rule all the rest.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Sheshach - Babylon: see the Jer 51:1 note. Surprised - i. e., seized, captured.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵ֚יךְ | ʾeikh | how! | H349 → | 82 times |
| נִלְכְּדָ֣ה | nilkedah | it will be captured | H3920 → | 121 times |
| שֵׁשַׁ֔ךְ | sheshakh | Sheshach | H8347 → | |
| וַתִּתָּפֵ֖שׂ | vatitafes | and it has been seized | H8610 → | 65 times |
| תְּהִלַּ֣ת | tehilat | [the] praise of | H8416 → | 56 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הָאָ֑רֶץ | haaretz | the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| אֵ֣יךְ | ʾeikh | how! | H349 → | 82 times |
| הָיְתָ֧ה | hayetah | it will become | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לְשַׁמָּ֛ה | leshamah | <into> a horror | H8047 → | 39 times |
| בָּבֶ֖ל | bavel | Babylon | H894 → | 262 times |
| בַּגּוֹיִֽם׃ | bagoyim | among the nations | H1471 → | 561 times |
אֵ֚יךְhow!
ʾeikhH349 →82 times
נִלְכְּדָ֣הit will be captured
nilkedahH3920 →121 times
שֵׁשַׁ֔ךְSheshach
sheshakhH8347 →
וַתִּתָּפֵ֖שׂand it has been seized
vatitafesH8610 →65 times
תְּהִלַּ֣ת[the] praise of
tehilatH8416 →56 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הָאָ֑רֶץthe earth
haaretzH776 →2504 times
אֵ֣יךְhow!
ʾeikhH349 →82 times
הָיְתָ֧הit will become
hayetahH1961 →3559 times
לְשַׁמָּ֛ה<into> a horror
leshamahH8047 →39 times
בָּבֶ֖לBabylon
bavelH894 →262 times
בַּגּוֹיִֽם׃among the nations
bagoyimH1471 →561 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Deuteronomy 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 25:9
behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents,…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 24:9
I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- 1 Kings 9:7–8
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an…
- Jeremiah 25:9
Through
Isaiah 13:19And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
it leads to
- Daniel 4:30
the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?”
- Jeremiah 49:18
As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
- Deuteronomy 29:23
All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the…
- Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
- Zephaniah 2:9
Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual…
- Daniel 4:30
About Jeremiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.