Bible Strands
Jeremiah 50:3
For 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.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers this oracle against Babylon immediately after publicly announcing the city's capture and the disgrace of its idols. The message targets the surrounding nations and the exiled communities of Israel and Judah during a period of impending military judgment.
The words — The phrase גּוֹי מִצָּפוֹן (goy mitzafon) literally reads "a nation from the north," while יָשִׁית אֶת־ (yasit et-) means "it will make [it]." These terms identify the invading force and grammatically mark the land as the object of desolation.
The thread — This northern invasion motif appears in Jeremiah 51:11, where the LORD stirs up the kings of the Medes, and in Jeremiah 50:9, which announces a coalition of great nations from the north. The total abandonment of the land parallels Zephaniah 1:3, where sweeping away man and beast denotes complete depopulation.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that historical conquest functions as the concrete mechanism of divine judgment. It demands acceptance that political invasion will physically empty a territory of both people and livestock to fulfill prophetic warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:11 Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Zephaniah 1:3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the idols with their wicked worshipers. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 50:9 For 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.
- Jeremiah 51:62 and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain—neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’
- Genesis 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
- Exodus 12:12 On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.
- Isaiah 13:5 They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country.
- Isaiah 13:17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
- Isaiah 14:22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.