Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:27
“Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to issue a military summons against Babylon during a prophetic oracle of judgment. The text commands the raising of a banner and blowing of a trumpet to mobilize foreign kingdoms for war.
The words — נֵס (nes) translates literally as "a standard" or banner, and שׁוֹפָר (shofar) denotes a ram’s horn used for military signaling. קַדְּשׁוּ (kadshu) literally means "consecrate" or set apart for battle.
The thread — The summoned kingdoms appear elsewhere in Scripture: Ashkenaz is listed among Gomer’s descendants in Genesis 10:3 and 1 Chronicles 1:6, while Ararat is noted as the resting place of the ark in Genesis 8:4. These references ground the prophetic summons in known geographical and genealogical markers.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate obedience to a divine war cry, treating the mobilization of nations as a direct execution of judgment. A reader must recognize that prophetic announcements of judgment are presented as historical commands, not abstract metaphors.
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
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.
Cross-references
- Genesis 10:3 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
- Genesis 8:4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
- 1 Chronicles 1:6 The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
- Jeremiah 25:14 For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.’”
- Jeremiah 50:2 “Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
- Jeremiah 51:12 Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon; post the guard; station the watchmen; prepare the ambush. For the LORD has both devised and accomplished what He spoke against the people of Babylon.
- 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.
- Isaiah 18:3 All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it.
- Jeremiah 50:41 Behold, an army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are stirred up from the ends of the earth.
- Jeremiah 51:14 The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”