Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:29
The earth quakes and writhes because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand: to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah pronounces this oracle against Babylon immediately after summoning the Medes to war and before describing the city’s exhausted defenders and burning gates.
The words — The Hebrew verbs תִּרְעַשׁ (tir‘ash, it quaked) and תָּחֹל (tāḥōl, it writhes) depict violent physical convulsions, while קָמָה (qāmâ, it will be fulfilled) states the execution of Babylon’s plans.
The thread — The shaking earth motif appears in Jeremiah 8:16 when the land trembles at the approach of enemy forces, and Jeremiah 51:43 reiterates the resulting desolation.
Why it lands — The verse states that Babylon’s plans will be fulfilled as a desolation, then infers that no human scheme can withstand divine judgment, requiring the reader to acknowledge God’s absolute control over national outcomes.
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
And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 8:16 The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who dwell in it.
- 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.
- Jeremiah 51:43 Her cities have become a desolation, a dry and arid land, a land where no one lives, where no son of man passes through.
- Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.
- Jeremiah 50:13 Because of the wrath of the LORD, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds.
- Jeremiah 50:45 Therefore hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.
- Amos 8:8 Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.
- Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger.
- Isaiah 14:16 Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble,