Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:41
How Sheshach has been captured! The praise of all the earth has been seized. What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah pronounces an oracle of judgment against Babylon during a prophetic campaign against the Chaldean empire. The declaration addresses the surrounding nations and announces the imminent collapse of the era's dominant power.
The words — The text uses שֵׁשַׁךְ (Sheshach), a cipher name for Babylon, alongside תְּהִלַּת (praise) to denote its former international reputation. The verbs נִלְכְּדָה (it will be captured) and תִּתָּפֵשׂ (it has been seized) describe the sudden taking of that status.
The thread — The collapse of a celebrated city into a horror mirrors Isaiah 13:19, which prophesies Babylon's overthrow like Sodom, and Jeremiah 49:25, which laments the forsaking of the city of praise. The oracle also extends the universal scope of judgment found in Jeremiah 25:26.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to accept that cultural prestige and military power are subject to divine reversal. It demands the abandonment of trust in human institutions and the acknowledgment of God's control over historical 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
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 25:26 all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.
- 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 49:25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the town that brings Me joy?
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 2 Chronicles 7:21 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
- Isaiah 14:4 you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!
- Jeremiah 50:23 How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
- Jeremiah 50:46 At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.
- Jeremiah 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
- Ezekiel 27:35 All the people of the coastlands are appalled over you. Their kings shudder with fear; their faces are contorted.