Jeremiah 51:44 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 51:44
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.
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
Bel
בֵּ֜לbel
H1078
Bel · proper noun, a title
Babylon
בְּבָבֶ֗לbe.va.Vel
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · preposition + proper noun, a place name
forth
וְהֹצֵאתִ֤יve.ho.tze.Ti
H3318
to go (causatively · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
mouth
מִפִּ֔יוmi.Piv
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
up
בִּלְעוֹ֙bil.'O
H1105
a gulp · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
nations
גּוֹיִ֑םgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
together
יִנְהֲר֥וּyin.ha.Ru
H5102
to sparkle · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
wall
חוֹמַ֥תcho.Mat
H2346
a wall of protection · noun, common feminine singular construct
Babylon
בָּבֶ֖לba.Vel
H894
Babel (i.e. Babylon) · proper noun, a place name
fall
נָפָֽלָהna.Fa.lah
H5307
to fall · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 51:34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dra…
Jeremiah 51:58 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peop…
Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shal…
Jeremiah 50:2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Meroda…
2 Chronicles 36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
Ezra 1:7-8 Also Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put…
Isaiah 46:1-2 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden t…
Isaiah 60:5 Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unt…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 51:1-58
The particulars of this copious prophecy are dispersed and interwoven, and the same things left and returned to so often that it could not well be divided into parts, but we must endeavor to collect them under their proper heads. Let us then observe here,
I. An acknowledgment of the great pomp and power that Babylon had been in and the use that God in his providence had made of it (Jer 51:7): Babylon hath been a golden cup, a rich and glorious empire, a golden city (Isa 14:4), a head of gold (Dan 2:38), filled with all good things, as a cup with wine. Nay, she had been a golden cup in the Lord's hand; he had in a particular manner filled and favoured her with blessings; he had made the earth…
Bel . . . swallowed--in allusion to the many sacrifices to the idol which its priests pretended it swallowed at night; or rather, the precious gifts taken from other nations and offered to it (which it is said to have "swallowed"; compare "devoured," "swallowed," Jer 51:34; Jer 50:17), which it should have to disgorge (compare Jer 51:13; Jer 50:37). Of these gifts were the vessels of Jehovah's temple in Jerusalem (Ch2 36:7; Dan 1:2). The restoration of these, as foretold here, is recorded in Ezr 1:7-11.
flow--as a river; fitly depicting the influx of pilgrims of all "nations" to the idol.
John Gill on Jeremiah 51:44
And I will punish Bel in Babylon,.... The idol of the Babylonians, who had a temple in Babylon, where he was worshipped: the same is called Belus by Aelianus (g), Curtius (h), and Pausanias (i); perhaps the same Herodian (k) calls Belis, and says some take him to be Apollo; for more of him; see Gill on Isaiah 46:1; and See Gill on Jeremiah 50:2; who was punished when his temple was demolished, and plundered of its wealth; this golden image of Belus was broke to pieces, and the gold of it carried away. The Targum is,
"I will visit or punish them that worship Bel in Babylon:''
and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; the rich offerings made to him when victori…
Wherefore also Paul exhorted, saying, "And ye shall put away from among yourselves that wicked person"; and, "that he that hath done this deed may be put away from among you." A dreadful thing, dreadful indeed, is the society of wicked men; not so quickly doth the pestilence seize or the itch infect those that come in contact with such as are under the disease, as doth the wickedness of evil men. For "evil communications corrupt good manners." And again the Prophet saith, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate."
"Theodore to the beloved brothers in Mount Nitria: priests, deacons and monks, greetings in the Lord. I want you to know that "the pride of" the Arians "has gone up" to God and that "God has visited his people and seeing the afflictions" that they endure he has had mercy on them. He has promised to have mercy on his church and to deliver it from these afflictions. The time has come, therefore, when the church will be delivered from these persecutions. Indeed, God said of the Arians, "I will punish Babylon and will take from its mouth what its has swallowed." And of the church, "Who is there among you that saw this house in its former glory?" "For the last glory of this house is going to surpass the first." Therefore, brothers, "since we have these promises," comfort those who are suffering from the Arians in those parts, that no one's faith may be turned aside, for "the sins of the" Arians "have not yet ended."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bel — The Aramaic form of Baal, the national god of the Babylonians (Isa. 46:1; Jer. 50:2; 51:44). It signifies “lord.” (See BAAL.)
Governor — (1.) Heb. nagid, a prominent, conspicuous person, whatever his capacity: as, chief of the royal palace (2 Chr. 28:7; comp. 1 Kings 4:6), chief of the temple (1 Chr. 9:11; Jer. 20:1), the leader of…
Babylon · .Walled — .Walled
Bel · A Babylonian god — A Babylonian god
Idolatry · Idols, mentioned in Scripture: Bel — Idols, mentioned in Scripture: Bel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Jeremiah 51:44
Jeremiah 51:44
44. 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.
44. Et visitabo super Bel in Babylone, et extraham quod voravit ab ore ejus; et non confluent ad ipsum amplius gentes; etiam murus Babylonis cecidit.
God again declares that he would take vengeance on the idols of Babylon; not that God is properly incensed against idols, for they are nothing but things made by men; but that he might show how much he detests all superstitious and idolatrous worship. But he speaks of Bel as though it was an enemy to himself; yet God had no…
With the conquest of Babylon, Bel, the chief deity of the Babylonians (see on Jer 50:2), is punished; and not only is his prey torn from him, but his fame also, which attracted the nations, is destroyed. Under the prey which Bel has swallowed, and which is to be torn out of his mouth, we must include not merely the sacred vessels which had been deposited in the temple of Belus (Dan 1:3), and the voluntary offerings presented him (Hitzig), but all the property which Babylon had taken as spoil from the nations; and the nations themselves, with life and property, Babylon has swallowed (see 34 and Jer 50:17). All this is now to be torn out of his jaws. Bel falls with the fall of Babylon (cf. Isa…
The defeat of its chief deity, Bel, was the ultimate disaster for Babylon. This idol’s lavish adornments would be taken away, and its supposed power would be exposed as a monumental fraud.
Rashi on Jeremiah 51:44
on Bel On the deity of Babylon.
what he has swallowed That all the inhabitants of the land were humbled under him.
shall no longer stream Heb. יהרו, and shall not gather. Cf. “And all the nations shall stream (ונהרוּ) to it” (Isa. 2:2). Like the waters of the river, all of which go to the sea.
