Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:25
“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD declares judgment against Babylon, personified as a mountain that has devastated the earth. This pronouncement occurs immediately after a promise to repay Babylon for its evil against Zion and directly precedes a prophecy that its ruins will remain permanently desolate.
The words — The Hebrew phrase הִנְ/נִ֨י אֵלֶ֜י/ךָ (hi./Ni 'e.Lei./kha) translates literally to "behold, I am against you." The term הַ/מַּשְׁחִית (ha./mash.Chit) means "the destroyer" or "one who devastates," functioning as a direct title for the mountain metaphor.
The thread — This imagery parallels Revelation 8:8, where a great mountain burning with fire is cast into the sea, and Zechariah 4:7, where a great mountain becomes a plain before Zerubbabel. It also aligns with the LORD’s declaration of being against the arrogant in Jeremiah 50:31.
Why it lands — The text states that divine judgment will physically dismantle human power and erase its foundations. It requires the reader to accept that geopolitical collapse follows stated divine accountability.
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
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
Cross-references
- Revelation 8:8 Then the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood,
- Zechariah 4:7 What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
- Jeremiah 50:31 “Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
- Isaiah 13:2 Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.
- Jeremiah 51:53 Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, the destroyers I send will come against her,” declares the LORD.
- 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 exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”
- Genesis 11:4 “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”
- 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, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 25:18 to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;
- Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD, making the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.