Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet announces Babylon’s complete ruin immediately after depicting the sea rising over its walls, addressing the surrounding nations who will witness its fall.
The words — שַמּה (sha.Mah) literally means “desolation” or “waste,” and צִיּה (tzi.Yah) means “dry” or “arid,” both describing the permanent physical state of the conquered territory.
The thread — This exact sequence of uninhabitable ruin is echoed in Isaiah 13:20 and Jeremiah 51:29, where God’s decree transforms once-dense cities into empty, traversed-less land.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to accept that political and religious centers built on self-exaltation will be reduced to permanent emptiness when divine judgment executes its stated course.
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
Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:20 She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
- Jeremiah 2:6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
- 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.
- Jeremiah 50:12 your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who bore you will be disgraced. Behold, she will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
- Jeremiah 50:39 So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
- Jeremiah 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
- Ezekiel 29:10 therefore I am against you and against your rivers. I will turn the land of Egypt into a ruin, a desolate wasteland from Migdol to Syene, and as far as the border of Cush.