Bible Strands
Jeremiah 51:49
“Babylon must fall on account of the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Jeremiah pronounces this oracle against Babylon immediately after declaring that heaven and earth will rejoice over the city's destruction. The message targets the exiled survivors, framing the coming siege as a direct response to imperial violence.
The words — The Hebrew root נפל (n-p-l), meaning "to fall," anchors the declaration of Babylon's collapse. Paired with חללי (chal-lei), "the slain," and the particle גּם (gam), "also/even," the phrasing constructs a strict equivalence between Babylon's fate and the deaths it caused.
The thread — The text states that Babylon's destruction is a direct consequence of its killings, a pattern repeated in Jeremiah 50:29, Jeremiah 51:24, and Psalm 137:8, where divine judgment is explicitly calculated as repayment for inflicted violence.
Why it lands — The verse demands the recognition that political power built on slaughter contains the blueprint of its own ruin. It instructs the displaced to abandon the city immediately and fix their loyalty on Jerusalem rather than the conquering empire.
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
As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 50:29 Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 51:24 Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.
- Psalms 137:8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Judges 1:7 Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.
- Jeremiah 50:11 “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,
- Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
- Jeremiah 50:33 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them.
- Jeremiah 51:10 “The LORD has brought forth our vindication; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD our God has accomplished.”
- Jeremiah 51:35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion. “May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.
- Matthew 7:2 For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.