Jeremiah 51:32
in Jeremiah 51The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
KJV
And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
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This verse in Jeremiah 51
Commentary
7 notes on this verseAnd that the passages are stopped,.... Or "taken", or "seized" (o); where Cyrus placed soldiers to keep them; these were the passages leading from the river Euphrates to the city, the keys of it; the little gates, that Herodotus (p) speaks of, leading to the river, which were left open that night.
This site's exposition
The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting
on Jeremiah 51:30-33
Couriers run to tell the king “that his city has been captured from end to end.” Herodotus reports that the city was so large its center did not know its outskirts had fallen. Verse 33 closes with the threshing floor: “In just a little while her harvest time will come.”
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The passages - The passages over the river Euphrates, and all the other passages by which the Babylonians might make their escape, were guarded with soldiers. Reeds - On the border of the river Euphrates were vast quantities of great and tall reeds, which with the mud in which they stood, were as another wall to the city; but the Medes had burnt them so as the way was open.
That profane feast which they were celebrating at the very time when the city was taken, which was both an evidence of their strange security and a great advantage to the enemy, seems here to be referred to (
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The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
passages are stopped--The guarded fords of the Euphrates are occupied by the enemy (see on Jer 50:38). reeds . . . burned--literally, "the marsh." After draining off the river, Cyrus "burned" the stockade of dense tree-like "reeds" on its banks, forming the outworks of the city's fortifications.
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That the passages are stopped - Either the bridges or slips for boats, by which the inhabitants passed from one side to the other, and may mean the principal gates or passes in the city, which the victorious army would immediately seize, that they might prevent all communication between the inhabitants. The reeds they have burned with fire - What this means I cannot tell, unless it refer to something done after the taking of the city.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The passages are stopped - The ferries are seized, occupied. The historians state that when Cyrus captured the city his troops moved down the bed of the river and occupied all these ferries, finding at each of them the gates negligently left open. See the Dan 5:1 note. The reeds - literally, the marshes or pools, which formed an important part of the defenses of Babylon, were dried up as completely as a piece of wood would be consumed by fire.
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהַמַּעְבָּר֣וֹת | vehama'barot | and the fords | H4569 → | |
| נִתְפָּ֔שׂוּ | nitpasu | they have been seized | H8610 → | 65 times |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָאֲגַמִּ֖ים | haagamim | the reed-marshes | H98 → | |
| שָׂרְפ֣וּ | sarefu | they have burned | H8313 → | 117 times |
| בָאֵ֑שׁ | vaesh | with <the> fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| וְאַנְשֵׁ֥י | veanshei | and [the] men of | H582 → | 566 times |
| הַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה | hamilchamah | <the> war | H4421 → | 320 times |
| נִבְהָֽלוּ׃ ס | nivhalu | they are terrified | H926 → |
וְהַמַּעְבָּר֣וֹתand the fords
vehama'barotH4569 →
נִתְפָּ֔שׂוּthey have been seized
nitpasuH8610 →65 times
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
הָאֲגַמִּ֖יםthe reed-marshes
haagamimH98 →
שָׂרְפ֣וּthey have burned
sarefuH8313 →117 times
בָאֵ֑שׁwith <the> fire
vaeshH784 →378 times
וְאַנְשֵׁ֥יand [the] men of
veansheiH582 →566 times
הַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה<the> war
hamilchamahH4421 →320 times
נִבְהָֽלוּ׃ סthey are terrified
nivhaluH926 →
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
Jeremiah 51:30The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
it leads to
- Nahum 3:13
Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.
- Jeremiah 50:36–37
A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.
- Isaiah 19:16
In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
- Lamentations 2:9
Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find…
- Isaiah 13:7–8
Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
- Nahum 3:13
Through
Isaiah 44:27who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’
it leads to
- Jeremiah 50:38
A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.
- Jeremiah 51:36
Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her springs run dry.
- Isaiah 42:15
I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation. I will turn the rivers into dry land and drain the marshes.
- Jeremiah 50:38
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.