Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:44
I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah to the exiled people of Israel, declaring judgment at the moment of prophesying Babylon’s imminent collapse.
The words — פָקַדְתִּ֨י (pa.kad.ti) literally means “I will visit [judgment]” and בִּלְע/וֹ֙ (bil'.o) means “swallowed thing.” These terms describe the divine action of forcing a false deity to regurgitate the nations he seized.
The thread — The swallowing imagery in Jeremiah 51:34 describes Nebuchadnezzar crushing God’s people, while Jeremiah 51:58 parallels the fall of Babylon’s walls with divine leveling. Isaiah 2:2 contrasts this imperial destruction with the future establishment of the Lord’s house.
Why it lands — The text states that empires and their idols cannot retain what they seize by force, and that their defenses will collapse. It requires the reader to separate from corrupt systems before divine judgment arrives.
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 I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:34 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out.
- 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.”
- Isaiah 2:2 In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
- 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.’
- 2 Chronicles 36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon some of the articles from the house of the LORD, and he put them in his temple in Babylon.
- Ezra 1:7 King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods.
- Isaiah 46:1 Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.
- Isaiah 60:5 Then you will look and be radiant, and your heart will tremble and swell with joy, because the riches of the sea will be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations will come to you.
- Jeremiah 50:15 Raise a war cry against her on every side! She has thrown up her hands in surrender; her towers have fallen; her walls are torn down. Since this is the vengeance of the LORD, take out your vengeance upon her; as she has done, do the same to her.
- Jeremiah 51:18 They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.