Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:47
Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will suffer shame, and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the exiled community, warning them not to grow faint or fearful as rumors of violence and shifting leadership circulate through Babylon.
The words — The Hebrew פָּקַדְתִּי (paqadti) translates literally as "I will visit" or "I will punish," directly attached to פְסִילֵי (pesilei), "idols," marking a targeted divine reckoning against Babylon's manufactured gods.
The thread — This judgment declaration aligns with Jeremiah 50:2's command to announce Babylon's capture, Isaiah 46:1's observation that idols crouch under their own weight, and Jeremiah 51:52's parallel promise to punish her idols.
Why it lands — The passage states that Babylon's political and religious infrastructure will collapse into shame and internal bloodshed, requiring the reader to recognize that human power structures ultimately face direct divine accounting.
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
Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Cross-references
- 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.’
- 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.
- Jeremiah 51:52 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.
- Isaiah 21:9 Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
- Jeremiah 11:22 So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.
- Jeremiah 13:21 What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?
- Jeremiah 23:34 As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.
- Jeremiah 25:12 But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.
- 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 50:35 A sword is against the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and wise men.